Help - my T1i has a delay when I press the shutter release.

[vcmaes]

OK, so I went to the air show to get take some pics. When I turned on my camera with the 18-55 kit lens on and attempted to take my first shots, there was a noticeable lag once the shutter button was fully depressed. The the shot was in focus, and I checked, and reset, all settings but nothing really seemed to help. I would have to hold the button down for a good 3 to 5 seconds before the camera would finally fire. Once the first shot finally did fire I could then fire off a few shots in rapid succession. And this is where the one noticeable change was apparent. In the viewfinder, where typically I see a "9" in the bottom right corner indicating Max Burst is ready/able to fire off 9 consecutive shots, the number was down to "4", and the Focus confirmation light (the green dot) was sometimes slowly blinking as though it was not in focus even though at half press, focus of my subject was being achieved.

This occurred in Tv, Av, and P modes (I didn't check others cause I rarely if ever shoot in the other modes). The SD card I have in it was a class 10 card, so burst speed from the card shouldn't be bogging it down the camera. Also I swapped out my batter for a fully recharged one.

Any thoughts on what might be the cause?

Thanks for any advice,
-Vince

 

[Tony S]

Check the self timer, you may have it activated for a delayed shutter release... page 69 of the manual.

 

[vcmaes]

Check the self timer, you may have it activated for a delayed shutter release... page 69 of the manual.

No such luck. I'm set to single shot, no timer set. Thanks though, a lot of times it is a basic setting that is over looked.

 

[chuasam]

Autofocus single...trying to get a lock before taking the shot. Must be shooting in relatively low light.

 

[daniel1540z]

i know what you talking about. My sister's D5100 has same issue when shooting in M,A or S mode.... you press the shutter speed fully and it takes pic a second later.

 

[stingx]

I had that issue on my old XSi. The shutter release button had worn.

 

[TCampbell]

There are three focus modes (really two, since the third mode just auto-decide which of the other two modes the camera will use) and these shutter delay.

The modes are "One Shot", "AI Servo", and "AI Focus".

"One Shot" is the most common. It's the default. This mode is intended for non-moving subjects. The camera will focus and meter. Once the camera achieves a focus lock, the focus system shuts down and it waits for you to take the shot. It will not re-focus -- even if the subject moves out of focus -- unless you release and re-press the shutter (there are also custom functions that will let you force the camera to focus.) HOWEVER... in "One Shot" mode, the camera uses "Focus Priority". That means the camera WILL NOT SHOOT until it believes it has a focus lock.

"AI Servo" is for sports and action. In this mode the camera will meter and start tracking focus and it won't stop focusing until you take the shot. As the subject moves, it'll track focus. It should not be used for non-moving subjects. HOWEVER... in "AI Servo" mode, the camera uses "Release Priority". That means the camera WILL SHOOT the moment you press the shutter button... whether there was anything in focus or not.

The third mode, "AI Focus" is really just a mode that causes the camera to test focus on a subject, evaluate if it thinks the subject is moving, and if it is it'll use AI Servo mode, and if not it'll use One Shot mode. This mode has a delay while it evaluates. In general, if you know you are shooting non-moving subjects, pick "One Shot" and if you know you are shooting action, pick "AI Servo".

If you're shooting a moving subject, and you left the camera in One Shot mode and you don't have lens with a fast & snappy focus motor, then the camera is going to struggle to get shots and you'll experience noticeable lag. You should switch to AI Servo mode -- just be warned that in this mode the camera is going to snap the shot the moment you fully press the shutter button -- whether it's in focus or not. That means you need to make sure the shot really is focused before you fully-press the shutter. If you have a lens with a slow focus motor and the action is moving fast, you may have a lot of soft shots because the focus motor couldn't keep up.

 

[morganza]

There are three focus modes (really two, since the third mode just auto-decide which of the other two modes the camera will use) and these shutter delay.

The modes are "One Shot", "AI Servo", and "AI Focus".

"One Shot" is the most common. It's the default. This mode is intended for non-moving subjects. The camera will focus and meter. Once the camera achieves a focus lock, the focus system shuts down and it waits for you to take the shot. It will not re-focus -- even if the subject moves out of focus -- unless you release and re-press the shutter (there are also custom functions that will let you force the camera to focus.) HOWEVER... in "One Shot" mode, the camera uses "Focus Priority". That means the camera WILL NOT SHOOT until it believes it has a focus lock.

"AI Servo" is for sports and action. In this mode the camera will meter and start tracking focus and it won't stop focusing until you take the shot. As the subject moves, it'll track focus. It should not be used for non-moving subjects. HOWEVER... in "AI Servo" mode, the camera uses "Release Priority". That means the camera WILL SHOOT the moment you press the shutter button... whether there was anything in focus or not.

The third mode, "AI Focus" is really just a mode that causes the camera to test focus on a subject, evaluate if it thinks the subject is moving, and if it is it'll use AI Servo mode, and if not it'll use One Shot mode. This mode has a delay while it evaluates. In general, if you know you are shooting non-moving subjects, pick "One Shot" and if you know you are shooting action, pick "AI Servo".

If you're shooting a moving subject, and you left the camera in One Shot mode and you don't have lens with a fast & snappy focus motor, then the camera is going to struggle to get shots and you'll experience noticeable lag. You should switch to AI Servo mode -- just be warned that in this mode the camera is going to snap the shot the moment you fully press the shutter button -- whether it's in focus or not. That means you need to make sure the shot really is focused before you fully-press the shutter. If you have a lens with a slow focus motor and the action is moving fast, you may have a lot of soft shots because the focus motor couldn't keep up.

Very useful information, thank you!

 

[vcmaes]

@TCampbell - Thank you for the input, I will check my auto focus mode when I get home and play with the settings.

 

[KmH]

Is your camera set to auto-bracket?

 

[Mot]

This might be totally irrelevent to your problem, we don't really know yet, but do you regularly format your card? I can't say much more than that other than your camera may be experiencing trouble writing to a card that is actually full of data unreadable by your camera. I know people who have done shoots with empty cards where their camera would simply refuse to write images to an 'empty card', they didn't know what formatting was.

 

[vcmaes]

@TCampbell - I tried all 3 focus modes with the same leggy results, also I put my lens onto Manual Focus mode hoping to eliminate the camera attempting to focus before firing and still got a delay after fully depressing the shutter button. :-(

@KmH - I do not have the camera in bracket mode. I have checked between single and continuous mode, both have presented the lag regardless.

@Mot - Yes, I know about formatting the card. I perform a low level format after I fill card and have copied the images to my computer AND external HD. So I don't think it's a space issue, but will try putting different card into the camera and see if that fixes it.

The strange part of all this is the fact that I haven't dropped or roughed up the body or lenses or anything like that, which would at least possibly explain the problem.

BTW, I'm shooting in RAW. Tonight I switched over to JPG and noticed the Max Burst count drop, from an already diminished 4, down to 2. Now I would thing capturing smaller image files would at least keep the max burst count the same, but it went lower.

Thanks for all the suggestions and tips so far everybody!

-Vince

 

[spicyTuna]

Have you tried using the remote to fire? Something might be wrong with the shutter release button.

 

[HCSewell]

Check your "Mirror Lockup" setting in the custom functions. I've forgotten to change mine back to "disable" a couple of times and end up with what sounds like a similar situation to what you have.

 

[manaheim]

It really sounds like your camera has just lost its mind. None of the symptoms you describe seem to match up to what I would expect for a setting. Particularly where the first one is delayed and then consecutive ones are fast.