This Canon camera feature takes a photo before you've even pressed the shutter button! Now that's what I call magic

(Image credit: Peter Travers)

Even the best professional photographers can miss a shot sometimes. You can be in the right place, at the right time, and ready with your camera and lens to take that shot of your action subject – only to be a fraction too slow with the shutter button!

What you need is a clever camera setting that can help you get the shot quicker than your mind and shooting finger allows.

The often-overlooked and almost hidden Pre-Continuous Shooting mode is every action photographer’s dream. This feature is available on EOS cameras including the new Canon EOS R6 Mark III, along with the professional camera tag team of the EOS R1 and EOS R5 Mark II, and APS-C bodies EOS R7 and EOS R10.

When activated, the feature is already in progress in continuous shooting drive mode – even before you fully depress the shutter button to start taking shots.

Pro tip: To access this hidden feature, first you need to set the high-speed continuous shooting mode – then the Pre-Continuous Shooting setting is available. Now just press Enable to activate it, and set how many photos you want the camera to take as a maximum – 15 is the default, and that seemed more than enough for me.

Now, when you half-press the shutter button, Pre-Continuous Shooting does its magic! You can see it’s in action when looking through the viewfinder as you get a little ‘PRE’ timer icon in the top-left corner. Fully press the shutter button to take a burst of shots as usual.

I found I was sometimes a fraction of a second too late when shooting action subjects, such as our dog, Teddy, running around the park. Pre-Continuous Shooting makes up for any ‘human lag’ when we’re pressing the shutter button.

When you’re shooting at 20fps on the R5 Mark II and using Pre-Continuous Shooting, you’ll get lots and lots of shots! Which is what you want, as you will have more choice to pick the best shot with the subject’s eyes, arms and legs, or whatever in the most pleasing position.

But be warned: you’ll need a fast CFexpress card and have lots of hard drive or portable SSD space to store all the large hi-res RAW images, which are about 58MB each on the 45MP R5 Mark II.

This Pre-Continuous Shooting mode isn’t just great for photos of your pets or wildlife, it’s actually essential for action sports subjects when you’re at live events and aren’t allowed to take shots at certain crucial times to avoid putting people off.

This includes before a tennis player has served at Wimbledon, or at professional golf events where you shouldn’t ever take a burst of shots until the player has made impact with the ball to avoid distracting them mid-swing. With Pre-Continuous Shooting, you can get even better action shots than ever before.

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The former editor of PhotoPlus: The Canon Magazine, Peter has 18 years of experience as both a journalist and professional photographer. He is a hands-on photographer with a passion and expertise for sharing his practical shooting skills. Equally adept at turning his hand to portraits, landscapes, sports and wildlife, he has a fantastic knowledge of camera technique and principles.

He is the author of several published photography books including Portrait Photographer's Style Guide, and The Complete Guide to Organising and Styling Professional Photo Shoots with fellow portrait pro Brett Harkness.

Peter remains a devout Canon user and can often be found reeling off shots with his Canon EOS DSLR and EOS R mirrorless gear. He runs Peter Travers Photography, and contributes to Digital Camera magazine.

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