Capture Those Action Shots in iOS 7 With Camera’s Burst Mode [iOS Tips]

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These are not action shots.
These are not action shots.

Back in the iOS 7 beta, we noticed a feature that would focus your iPhone camera when you held down the volume button in landscape mode.

When I went to do the same thing yesterday while taking pictures of my Macbook Air’s trackpad (don’t ask), and instead of a nicely auto-focused picture, I got a bunch of pictures of my (not-moving) trackpad, inadvertently activating what Apple calls “burst mode.”

Here’s how to use it to get action shots on your own iPhone or iPad running iOS 7.

There are two simple ways to use burst mode. First, aim your iPhone or iPad at the subject in question, and hold down the onscreen shutter button, there near the bottom of the picture view screen. Hold it down as long as you like, and your device will take a quick succession of photos for as long as you hold down the button.

The second way is with the Volume up button. I find it easiest to use this hardware button when my iPhone 5 is in landscape orientation, making it feel more like a point-and-shoot camera. Hold the Volume up button as long as you need to capture all those great action shots.

The iPhone 5s should, apparently, help you choose which is the best photo from all the shots taken, but older iPhones and iPads that let you install iOS 7 on it should be able to at least take a burst of photos and save them to your Camera Roll.

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