To the point that FPS doesn't need to be the only (or even primary) feature for a sports camera....

Until recently I was shooting high school sports with a gripped D700. No real complaints. Love the D700 overall and it was plenty fast in terms of frame rate.

I had a chance to upgrade to a D3s, so I did. But it wasn't for the frame rate at all - it was for the extra stop or two of ISO performance. Shooting under the lights at high school events can be fairly tough at times. With the D700 I could get away with ISO 6400 in a lot of cases, but with the D3s I can go to 12,800 or possibly even a bit further. That's huge for me as it allows me to keep my shutter speeds in the range I want in order to freeze the action.

So for me, higher ISO (and thus shutter speed) far outweighed frame rate in value.

Steve

Visit my images on SmugMug.