New T3 not saving photos to card

[longboredterrie]

Ok I am just about ready to return my T3 I have read the Manual many times formatted the card and taken and put it in a different camera its working but not in the T3 This is what going on I take photos I see them on camera  and I turn camera off  when I turn It

back on the photos are gone camera tells me no Images now it makes no difference what type of image Raw or Jpg and when I put SD card  or plug T3 in to my PC It has no files on it  I have all canon software installed and installed and reinstalled I am so very sad and have had many Canon cameras that worked beautiful it took me 2 years to afford this

camera .

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[lawarner234]

I am having the same problem. I formatted my card using the camera. Tried to write protected it, and then unwrite protected it. I am holding the button down longer and it still wasn't saving pictures. But I found I still was not holding it LONG enough. Very frustrating but the post was great. And the pictures are fabulous.

[ebiggs1]

What button?

[lawarner234]

The shutter button, just hold it down until the camera is done.

[ebiggs1]

And you think this is normal?  It is not.

 The shutter should fire in an instant of a second.  Unless you have a setting wrong.

Example, you have the mode dial on "B".  Go to your menus and 'clear all setting'.    Make sure the mode dial is on the green square.  Make sure your SD card is not write protected.  Try again.

[lawarner234]

It is on automatic (green square), and I don't see a menu item for clear all settings. It does click instantly but needs to 'reclick' again before the image is completely taken and saved to the card. The camera tells me when the card is write protected.

[amfoto1]

Try putting the camera into P mode (which still gives you fully automatic exposures, but doesn't force you to use other camera settings).

I suspect the reason you're seeing an unacceptibly long delay before the shutter fires is that there is some sort of focus lock on... Maybe it's something that can be enabled or disabled in the menu, or that you are forced to use when in the "green box" mode. A focus lock will prevent the shutter from releasing until focus has been achieved and confirmed by the camera. How long it takes to achieve focus can vary from very little to a lot, depending upon many factors (focus mode, type of focus drive the lens is using, various user settings and techniques, light levels, subject contrast and probably more).

Turning off focus lock... or using an exposure setting that doesn't force you to use it... you should see the shutter trip almost instantly. Most DSLRs are much faster (have shorter "shutter lag") firing than many point-n-shoot cameras, although there is some difference among DSLR models, too.

Of course, the down side to not using focus lock is that you may see some shots that aren't perfectly in focus.

And there are good uses for a focus lock, such as "trap focus" with macro photography.

To get the best out of your camera, I suggest you go watch the three half hour videos about how Canon auto focus works, starting with this one. Learning how to use the AF system will help insure a high percentage of in-focus shots without using focus lock. Those videos are a few years old and pre-date the T3, but your camera has a fairly simple 9-point AF system, most similar to what the 5D Mark II in those videos uses (your camera does not have 6 hidden "Focus Assist" points, that the 5DII does). On your camera, the center point is a more sensitive "dual-axis/cross-type". All the others are "single axis". By pre-selecting only the center point, you will see the fastest possible peformance under the widest variety of conditions (weigh this against using multi-points/auto selected and that using the center point only tends to center the subject in all your shots).

Hope this helps!

***********

Alan Myers
San Jose, Calif., USA
"Walk softly and carry a big lens."
GEAR: 5DII, 7D(x2), 50D(x3), some other cameras, various lenses & accessories
FLICKR & EXPOSUREMANAGER 

[ebiggs1]

"I don't see a menu item for clear all settings,,,"

It is in the last yellow wrench in your menus.  Second from the bottom in the list.  You maybe should spend some time with your manual.

[lawarner234]

Yes I am still learning my camera. I have looked at some you-tubes and everything helps. But until I was able to save my photos I could not even tell how to tell how my beginning attempts were going.

[cicopo]

"It does click instantly but needs to 'reclick' again before the image is completely taken and saved to the card."

That sounds like the camera is set to Mirror Lock Up. to me.

[ebiggs1]

Repeat!

You must reset the camera.

It is in the last yellow wrench in your menus.  Second from the bottom in the list.