Canon Rebel T3 busy

[holly1]

I have a two-year old Canon Rebel T3, with the two kit lenses that came with it.  Suddenly today, after I take one or two shots in succession it says busy for a second or two, and keeps delaying taking shots, saying busy.  The battery said full, but I put in a full one anyway.  The card is class 10, 32 gb San Disk Ultra.  I saw online someone advised trying a different lens, and it is the same problem with either lens.  It also said to wipe the lens contacts with a soft cloth, which I did.  This is all when set on Manual, sunny day, no unusual conditions.

Is there any other trouble shooting I can do?  I saw some mention of replacing the main board -- gee, don't want to go there!

Thanks!

[kvbarkley]

Is the card access light blinking while it is busy? You might want to try to re-format the card in camera or even try a new card.

[holly1]

I will look to see if the card light is blinking, and I will try another card, good suggestion.  The  card is formatted every time I download photos, and this problem is happening even when the card is empty.

[Peter · Accepted solution]

Do you also low level format? You need to do that sometimes.

[holly1]

I added the Low Level Format checkbox (thanks, didn't realize about that).  I format after removing the photos each time I shoot, but had not done low level format before.

It is somewhat better.  But on continuous shooting,  if I hold the shutter button down, it shoots about 3 shots and then gets slower and slower, with a busy message between each shot.  And I can hear a little motor whirring.  On Single Shooting, it will respond immediately about 4 times, and then gets slower and slower with a busy message as I continue trying to shoot.

I tried another card, which I did low level format first.  Class 10 San Disk ultra.  Somewhat better -- this card is newer.  But still slows down and notifies me of busy after 6 or 8 continuous or single shots.

I have not run into this with this camera before.  I started shooting raw a few months ago, which I am sure take longer to write to the card, but it has been ok until the other day.  When I set it to jpg, I don't see Busy on continuous shooting and I see it after a few single shots, but just fleetingly.

So do I conclude this is the card?  Something I just have to live with?  Thanks for any ideas!

[Peter]

Your camera has a buffert for about 5 raw files in good light with low ISO and low noise.

The maximum write speed of your camera is 21 MB/s.

 The motor sound you hear should be the AF. Do you use One Shot or AF Servo as AF method?

[holly1]

I use one shot.

[Waddizzle]

I would also check camera settings: high iso compensation, mutliple exposures, HDR Mode (?), etc., or just reset it.

[holly1]

Not sure what all those settings are, although I looked them up.  

Low formatting seemed to help somewhat.  Nothing else seemed to affect anything.  Maybe it is just a limitation of this camera.  I don't use high speed shooting too often which may be why I have never seen it before.  Thank you for your assistance.