EOS Rebel XS saying busy and won't take pictures

[mliz2486]

My camera worked fine the other day.  Now, it won't take pictures at all.  When I go to take a picture, it will act like it is focusing by flashing and such but it will never go through.  It always says busy.  I have tried all modes, and none will work not even without flash. 

I have also taken the battery out, taken the card out and reformatted it, and cleared all camera settings.  Can anyone help?  I have a newborn that I would really like to be able to capture. 🙂

Thank you ahead of time!

[bobbrohm114]

I'm sorry to report my experience with this problem was not solveable by the user.  My T2 suddenly and without cause just would not record a photo, The busy light came on and the display screen was a no-photo when a new picture was taken.  The display screen would display all the previously taken photos.  The fix was a new main control board, $300.  I see all the other causes for the problem on the forum, but not in my case.

[Shrewdy]

Hello, I have the same issue where the  flash won't work on AF mode when using the 18-55 mm lens. However, when I switched to another lens (prime lens 50mm), it works fine. Does that mean the 18-55 mm lens malfunctioned?  is there a way to fix this? Thanks so much for your help.  

[NashvilleSuz]

Which flash are you using? Which camera?

[Shrewdy]

This is the camera's built in flash.  I'm using a Canon Rebel XSi

[NashvilleSuz]

One possibility comes to mind...if your 50mm lens has a different maximum wide-open f-stop (i.e. 1.7 vs 3.5) than your 18-55 then the flash isn't firing because the lens is capable of opening up more and camera doesn't sense you even need the flash to fire.

[Shrewdy]

Thanks for your feedback. It doesn't even take a picture now if on AF mode.  

[NashvilleSuz]

I just read some articles about the XSi and there is an on going problem with the AF mode (Auto focus). Perhaps it is this since you said that now it doesn't work with either lense. Googled "canon xsi af problem".

Can you put this camera in Manual Focus mode and see if it works that way?

[benzfamily3]

I also have the same problem as I was reading in the forum. My cannon rebel XS shows busy when I try to take a picture in Auto mode. I have set the settings back to factory settings & cleared all custom functions. 

I can take a pic when I switch the lens to MF, but not able to take a pic in AF mode. A friend changed some settings on the camera and not sure how to get it back to normal.

If you have any suggestions, they would be helpful.

Thank you.

[Waddizzle]

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@benzfamily3 wrote:

I also have the same problem as I was reading in the forum. My cannon rebel XS shows busy when I try to take a picture in Auto mode. I have set the settings back to factory settings & cleared all custom functions. 

I can take a pic when I switch the lens to MF, but not able to take a pic in AF mode. A friend changed some settings on the camera and not sure how to get it back to normal.

If you have any suggestions, they would be helpful.

Thank you.

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Have you gone through the menus to see what is configured?  Make sure exposure bracketing is not active.  Turn off any and all automatic compensation settings.  Busy means it is likely trying to write, or read, something on the memory card.

Your camera could be experiencing difficulty writing to the card.  Make sure that your memory card isn't full.  Make sure the current folder to store images hasn't been filled up, because a single folder can only hold so many images.  Make sure that the next image number is available and not being used, because they can only go up to so high.

[NIc]

Thank you for your detailed reply.  I have been reading lots of posts re this issue as I was also experiencing the same problem.  I just could not work out what I was doing wrong (was just about ready to throw the camera out..ggrr...), but after reading your post and understanding it better, I have been able to fix the problem and get it working again. (AF/MF) Thank you for taking the time and sharing this knowledge.  

FYI: EOS60D, I was shooting yesterday at my son's 13th party at the Kart track, afternoon sun, Canon EF 75-300mm lens when it said BUSY.  I tried everything I could think of at the time, clean contacts, changed lenses etc. It just wouldn't work (was not happy). Today when I have pulled it out to down load, it was still saying and doing the same thing. So I reformatted the sd card, cleaned contacts, changed lenses, tried to reset nothing was working.  So glad I came across your post.