Why does my Canon Rebel T3 say “busy” when I’m shooting?

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Question from Paula: “I have a canon rebel t3. And sometimes when Im out shooting… my camera will say “busy”. Its very annoying! lol I’ve read about it a little and it says to format your memory card right in your camera, and have a fully charged battery. I’ve done that but it still happens. Its not like Im going crazy snapping pictures when it happens either, could happen at any time on any setting. I have a friend who says this happens to her as well. Any suggestions? Thanks!”

Amanda: I had that same problem with my old Rebel as well. I ended up going Nikon and I never have that problem anymore

Katie: What type of card are you using? The write speed on your card may not be fast enough, especially if you are shooting on continuous mode. Try a Class 10 card.

Natasha:  mine is like that too.   not switching brands though. canon all the way

Jaye:  It’s the card, not the camera. It’s telling you that your card is still trying to catch up to what you are doing. I’ve never used a camera that uses SD cards so I can’t make any recommendations other than switch to a camera that uses CF cards.  But that’s probably not the best advice. So I’d instead do some research to find a faster card for your camera.

Angela:  I had the same problem & like Katie said it was my memory card. Never had that problem again.

David: You need a faster card.

 

 

Kat:  I have the same problem with my Rebel and it makes me crazy – especially when it happens in front of a client!! I have been thinking of switching to NIKON!! I’ll do a bit more research first lol. It is (sorta) nice to know I’m not the only one having this problem.

Pirata:  Happened with two of my cannon’s. According to the store where i bought mine, its a common issue. Switched to Nikon and never looked back…

Roger:  Buy a faster card. It costs more, but your “record” time will increase. Either that, shoot in “single” mode so that you only shoot one frame at a time, and not in bursts.

Roger: It happens with Nikon as well. You have to find out what your “frame per second” rate is for your particular camera

Roger: The “higher end” bodies alleviate this issue.

Christy:  Get a faster pro card. It’s like the difference between a Smart Car and a Ferrari.

Shauna:  You just need to buy faster memory cards

Brianna: This happened to me on my t2i when I was shooting in raw. It was very frustrating!! Jpeg never gave the “busy”signal. But now I’ll only shoot raw with my 5dii.

Jenna: Anyone have any recommendations on types or brands of faster memory cards to use?

Melanie:  It’s NOT your camera. It’s your card.

Kathy:  I use scan disk or Kingston both are pretty cheap at b and h

Jodie:  It’s NOT your camera!! Just like everyone said. You need faster memory cards. We use SanDisk Extreme cards. They have a 60mg’s/second write speed. We shoot Canon 7D’s that can do 8FPS. I can rack up 2 seconds worth of high speed shots in FULL RAW and it never hangs up on me at all!!!!

Sondra:  I have a Sony, the only time this ever happens to me is after a long exposure of more than 5 seconds. I would have to agree with the masses it is the card. I only shoot in RAW as well, I have an 8GB SD. Til you get the new card I would advise the single shoot mode as , suggested, though I would be lost without my continuous especially with small children and animals.

Tara:  It happens to me as well. I have a canon T1i. I know a lot of people here are saying use a faster memory card but I already use a class 10 myself. The only thing I can think of is some of my cards are an off brand bought at staples (still class 10) that they be slowing it down. Good luck and if you figure anything out besides trying a faster card let me know!

Dewey: Also make sure card isn’t too old. The write speed of an SF card gets slower as the card ages and has been reformatted many times. I also find that if I shoot in continuous mode for too long with long exposures I get this message because the camera buffer is waiting on the card.

Monica:  Agree with the above posters, it’s definitely the card. I shoot with a t3 and have never had that problem.

Ellary: My old canon did that even my point and shoot canon did it too. I could never figure out how to fix it and that was one of the main factors in switching to Nikon!!!! No more missed shots

Scott: Had the same problem with the same camera. Switch to a class 10 ultra sd card and it will stop. Mine did and I never stop now. Don’t change camera brands like others have. They didn’t do the research and it cost them more money to change cameras than to spend a little more on a card. Canon all the way

Tom:  Like someone else said, it’s the card not the camera. Sandisk cards are notorious for doing that. I don’t use them anymore. Never have that problem with Transcend or Lexar. Get a class 10 card.

Anji:  It’s ur card, use a class 10 card

Paula: Wow!! Thanks for all the advice! I have tried a class 10 card too, and it does still do it, but maybe it’s the brand of card I had.
I think I will try again with a better brand. Thanks everyone so much for the help!

Peter:  It is the write speed of your card, as has been said above…
To help alleviate the problem try changing the type of image, from RAW to jpeg or to a smaller RAW image file….
This also lets you save more images to the card..
Have you updated your Firmware? as the 7D has just had an update to a write speed of 25 fps… I don’t get the busy message anymore

Paula: I do shoot in jpeg, but I didn’t update my firmware. I’ll check that out. Thanks Peter!

Dana:  I recently started having this very same problem.. When I first got the camera I never had this problem arise then it started happening after about 6 or 7 months old. At the beginning I had just a slower card but have already changed to a fast ultra card. Still get the “busy” sometimes. I had read a line somewhere that mentioned it having something to do with the flash. Any comments on this?

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