>In my opinion the processing time is negligible. Besides I
>thought the image that hits the buffer is already processed
>and that file size and write speeds become the bottleneck. If
>processing were an issue then wouldn’t storing JPEG’s affect
>the frame rates? Yet I believe the frame rate remains constant
>and the amount of images stored in the buffer before slow down
>increases.

Older cameras, like the D1x, definitely show tedious write speeds in compressed raw. I think it took about 2.5 minutes to empty the buffer when I tested it; horrible. Uncompressed raw took approximately 20 to 25 percent of that time; much faster and actualyl usable for many things.

Jpeg, on the other hand, is fairly speedy on that camera; you can actually shoot sports with it if you're careful.

An undeniable paradox: To think that there is any such thing as an absolute rule is at worst naïve, and at best, shortsighted. There is no such thing as an always-true, all context- or situation-salient, absolute rule that always holds true…including this one!