Shutter speed incredibly slow, no matter the setting. Please help!

Heather12801 · Jun 15, 2011

I have a Canon T1i. I absolutely LOVE this camera, but the last two times I have tried to use it, it keeps giving me a "Busy" message on the screen when I try to take a picture, no matter how I hold down the button, and when it does take a picture it's like the shutter sticks or something. The busy message I have had a problem with since day one, which is really annoying, but it's much worse now. When it does take a picture, you will hear the first click, and then it takes it a full second or maybe two before you hear the second click that it's finished. Of course my pictures are blurry and look terrible, but no matter what setting I use, manual or auto, or how I change the shutter speed, it's all the same. What could be going on? Photography is only a hobby of mine, so I still have a lot to learn about DSLRs. Thanks for any info. you might can give me. I just hope nothing is wrong. I've only had my camera for about 6 months, so it's still fairly new.

-Heather

dxqcanada · Jun 15, 2011

Is this always when the flash is used ?

Possibly the card is corrupted. Is it always with the same card ?

KmH · Jun 15, 2011

It sounds like High ISO noise reduction is set to ON.

I looked at the online Canon T1i user's manual, but they don't list "Busy" in their index, or as an error code.

Heather12801 · Jun 15, 2011

I checked some of the things you guys suggested, and what I figured out is that it seems to be caused by the flash. I tried turning the setting to manual and keep the flash down, and it wasn't an issue anymore. It stopped giving me that annoying "busy" on my screen every time I tried to take a picture, and the shutter speed was back to normal. When I turned it to manual before, I wasn't really paying attention that my flash was still up from when it was in auto. Okay, now my next question lol. Why in the world is it doing this?? What does my flash have to do with anything? Sorry if this is a really dumb question, but I am new to this. :blushing: Is there a way to fix it? Or is it simply operator error? I did notice when I turned it back to auto and the flash popped back up, it will blink really quickly, and that's when I get the busy message on my display screen. It just says "BUSY" and there is a lightning bolt beside it, so why is my flash busy and why is it blinking so many times but not allowing it to take a picture? I feel so lost on this. Sorry guys. I really do appreciate the help, though.

Derrel · Jun 15, 2011

Have you tried setting the camera to the "Green Box" setting?

Heather12801 · Jun 15, 2011

Yeah. When I said I put it in auto before, that's what I meant is I had it on the setting where it's the empty green box on the dial, which I understood to be full auto, right? I also tried various settings like portrait or sport. As long as the flash is up, the issue is the same no matter the setting. Sorry if I am talking in circles here.

Big Mike · Jun 16, 2011

Have you tried charging the battery?

When the flash is being used, it uses a pre-flash for it's metering. And using the flash is pretty demanding on the battery power. So when the battery is pretty low, it will give you a 'busy' message as it's charging up the flash. And because it uses a pre-flash, it has to wait while it charges up the flash again for the actual photo...which may be why you get that delay.

This may or may not be the problem, but it's easy enough to check. Just charge up the battery and try it out.