Canon Pro1, Minolta A2, and Sony F828

I've read a lot of reviews of the 8 megapixel cameras. One thing I really want is the ability to take about 4-5 shots while someone goes W2W. What I've read is that the Canon does well compared to the others in this class. I was hoping someone has taken it out and can give me some personal feedback with how well the camera performs when trying to take wakeboard shots.

Unless you're shooting Randy Harris off a DU I think you'll find the most you'll get is 2-3 frames while the rider is actually in the air in between wakes. That's all I could get with the 10d and it's faster than the Pro1. This was done with the 10d (3 fps) last year and I got 3 solid frames because it's a fairly long duration

http://www.wakepics.com/view_single.php?medid=7214

Of the cameras you mentioned, the Sony is the best for that purpose. The Minolta will do 2.5 fps but only for 3 frames. The Canon maxes out at 1.8 fps. The Sony will do 2.6 fps for 7 frames. The question is: Do you REALLY need 8 megapixels? If you want a high continuous drive rate in an inexpensive camera, i.e. not the 1D or D2H, your only choiced might be the Minolta 7i/7Hi (5 Mpix, 7fps at 2 Mpix), the Fuji S5000 (3 Mpix, 4.5 fps at 3 Mpix), or some other less-well-known camera. For example, I think Toshiba might make a 5 fps camera.

Rich is right about the time in the air. Almost all of the sequences I've seen have the rider in the air for about 1 second so just look at the continuous drive rates for the cameras that you are looking at and that number will tell you how many frames you will have in your sequence. Even with 2 seconds of air, which I think would be very rare, if not impossible, you'd only get 3-4 frames with the Pro 1.

I'm not sure this is true on every prosumer camera but with the sony 717 and shooting in rapid fire the viewfinder will black out after the first shot. If this is true for other cameras of the kind it would make your success rate very low unless you were shooting really wide. Just something else to consider when choosing a camera.

The viewfinders/LCDs on the older Minoltas don't blank the screen. I'm not sure about the A2 but I'd bet it also doesn't do it.

I think the F828 gives you the option; if you let it blank the screen, it will improve the rate slightly.

I don't know about the Pro 1.