# D300 shutter lag?



## cary (Apr 2, 2009)

I do all sorts of photography, but lately I've been shooting sports events, specifically soccer.

For some reason, the last two weeks (two weekend tournaments) my D300 has been having some shutter lag/delay when I hold down my shutter button in high speed shooting.  I've actually missed a few shots.

What is weird about it, is that this is new.  I've had my camera for about a year now and never had this problem.   I thought maybe the battery was low so I charged it full and the same problem occurred.  

Hmmm???


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## Slaphead (Apr 2, 2009)

I don't have a D300 but:-

From what I gather, if you're shooting in 14 bit RAW and you don't have the latest firmware than there is a significant slowdown in continuous shooting.

Try shooting in 12bit RAW or JPEG (if your not already) and see if the problem continues.

If you are shooting in JPEG then turn off Active D-Lighting and High ISO noise reduction (Although I can't imagine these two options having a significant effect with a D300)


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## Jeff Canes (Apr 2, 2009)

Changed cards lately? Card write speed? I seen similar when using slow cards shooting wake boarding with my 1Dm2n


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## dcclark (Apr 2, 2009)

Have you perhaps changed to a different focusing mode, such as AF-S, where the camera refuses to take a shot until it has confirmed focus? That's probably a bad choice for high-speed shooting, so that may be the cause.


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## JerryPH (Apr 2, 2009)

Jeff Canes said:


> Changed cards lately? Card write speed? I seen similar when using slow cards shooting wake boarding with my 1Dm2n



In theory, this would not have anything to do with it.  All modern dSLR cameras have a buffer that lets you take many pictures before anything even begins to get written to the card.

Focus mode, d-lighting, and always having the latest firmware (especially when it directly has fixes that apply to the lag associated to shooting speed) are the more logical suggestions.


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## Dao (Apr 2, 2009)

What about the shutter speed?  Would it be the shutter speed is slow.  Such as 1/10 instead of 1/1000.


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## JerryPH (Apr 2, 2009)

Dao said:


> What about the shutter speed?  Would it be the shutter speed is slow.  Such as 1/10 instead of 1/1000.



He is talking about shutter lag.  The time from the moment he presses the button to the time the camera shutter opens.  Not the duration that the camera keeps the shutter open.


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## Dao (Apr 2, 2009)

JerryPH said:


> He is talking about shutter lag.  The time from the moment he presses the button to the time the camera shutter opens.  Not the duration that the camera keeps the shutter open.



Thanks Jerry for the clarification.

I thought he meant he is not able to get the desired fps that the camera is capable of.


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## SpeedTrap (Apr 2, 2009)

Here is a question, do you have the grip on the camera.
I find wit my grip, sometime the connection fails and it drops to 5 frames per sec even when the battery is fully charged.


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## Jeff Canes (Apr 2, 2009)

JerryPH said:


> In theory, this would not have anything to do with it.  All modern dSLR cameras have a buffer that lets you take many pictures before anything even begins to get written to the card.---



 Sorry but you are wrong. If the buffer is full the camera will not fire until space opens up. This is why a slow card can and does cause a lag.   




Jeff Canes said:


> --- I've seen similar when using slow cards shooting wake boarding with my 1Dm2n


 The lag go away when I switch to a faster card


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## kundalini (Apr 2, 2009)

Damn, so far, most of my first guesses have been given already.

One more thing to try. Reset the camera to factory defaults. You may have inadvertently set something and forgot. Also, if you have set up the various shooting banks, make sure they do not have anything that may have an affect (mentioned in above posts) have been set to those banks.

Lastly about the memory card. The D300 supports UDMA, so you can benefit from the Sandisk Extreme IV cards (or equivalent). It is a faster write speed and clears the buffer quicker. Great for sports and burst shooting.


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## cary (Apr 2, 2009)

I'm a "she", but that's okay, it's my Dad's fault for naming me after "Cary Grant"!

Anyway, you know what?  I did get 3 new Memory Cards, but they seemed to be nicer/higher quality than the original one I got with the kit.

Also, I am shooting in JPEG mode.  I have shot in RAW recently, but switched back.  But, when I switched back, it still says that I only have just over 500 pictures available to shoot on a 4GB card whereas previously it said that I had over 1K pictures available on my card????  I'm doing something wrong.

Thank for all the help. You guys are awesome!

I also LOVE my D300!!!  This is just surprising to me so I have to figure this out before I miss the big shot!


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## kundalini (Apr 2, 2009)

On a 4GB card, I get 197 RAW images or 369 Fine JPEG images.

Unless there is a specific reason, I would suggest to NOT use less than Fine setting for JPEG. (Basic = 1.4K, Norm = 734 images)  I don't shoot TIFF images.


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## TamiyaGuy (Apr 2, 2009)

Hmm, is it a permanent problem (i.e. there is always a specific lag-time between you pressing the shutter), or is it more occasional?

One suggestion I might make is that, with my D40, the shutter only "likes" being pressed a certain way. I soon learnt the right way, though, so it doesn't bother me. As has already been suggested, a 2-button reset would probably be a good idea.


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## cary (Apr 2, 2009)

Well, this does seem to be a constant problem, not just sporadic.  I'm going to try resetting to all the original default settings.  I probably did something playing around with it.  Not sure what though.


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## elemental (Apr 2, 2009)

cary said:


> I'm a "she", but that's okay, it's my Dad's fault for naming me after "Cary Grant"!



While all of my limited ideas have already been proposed (my last digital SLR was a Pentax that, had you picked it up after shooting with your D300, would have made you think that it had some _serious_ shutter lag problems, and my D200 won't be arriving until tomorrow[!]), I just want to point out that I think being named after Cary Grant is awesome regardless of gender. It might be even more awesome for a female. 

Have you ever seen _Notorious_ (not the one about Biggie, the one starring your namesake)?


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## Garbz (Apr 2, 2009)

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is the shooting priority. In the settings you can select a shooting priority to FPS or to AF, this applies when shooting in AF-C modes. With the AF mode set (default I think) the camera will dedicate slightly more time to ensuring correct focus before making the exposure. 

A similar setting exists when shooting in AF-S focusing mode. I am not sure what it's called but it will prevent the exposure from happening until a focus lock occurs. This could add a few milliseconds or it could lock completely for a second while you miss your subject.

These settings have no effect when either the lens or camera body are set to manual focus. So if you are still having shutter lag with manual focus then ignore my silly ramblings.


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## JerryPH (Apr 2, 2009)

Jeff Canes said:


> Sorry but you are wrong. If the buffer is full the camera will not fire until space opens up. This is why a slow card can and does cause a lag.
> 
> The lag go away when I switch to a faster card



I agree that AFTER the buffer is filled, a faster card will give the ability to write to the card a small amount faster,  but even tests done between the fastest and slowest cards makes no difference until that buffer is filled.  

I think that the OP needs to clarify.  

Is he talking about a lag right from the first frame or after the buffer is filled which would be well over 10 pictures shooting RAW or as many as double that shooting in JPG?

There are several well known public issues that affect a D300's shutter lag response time irrespective of card installed and they were already mentioned.


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## kundalini (Apr 2, 2009)

The use of UDMA cards for the D300/D700/D3 cannot be compared for write speed and buffer clearance with non-UDMA cards Jerry.  It is a case of apples and oranges.  You should know this.


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## JerryPH (Apr 2, 2009)

cary said:


> I'm a "she", but that's okay, it's my Dad's fault for naming me after "Cary Grant"!



Sorry, in a way I was playing the odds.  I think that if we looked at the ratio, its about a 100:1 or more in favor of the number of guys to gals... anyway, sorry about that.

Anyway, when you were referring to your lag issues, which was it:

- a lag that occurred  to take the pic in the process between pressing the shutter and the camera taking the picture from the FIRST picture or...

- the increased lag that occurred after a series of very fast pics occurred and then the camera's buffer filled and it seems to struggle to take pics with a filled buffer?

Even if one used a SanDisk Ducati, one of *the* fastest cards on the market, the time to take the next picture when a buffer was filled is still very long.

Using one of the faster cameras around, a Nikon D3 and a SanDisk Ducati, look at the results yourself HERE near the bottom of the page.  Note the MP3s with the audio tracks and how things slow down drastically after 130 frames... the D3 has a huge buffer but after the buffer was full... the results are very disappointing.


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## cary (Apr 3, 2009)

My problem is:

- a lag that occurs when taking the pic in the process between pressing the shutter and the camera taking the picture from the FIRST picture

There is a slight delay.

The oddest part about it is that it is a new problem that started about two weeks ago.  I can't think of what I changed in the last two weeks.  It can't be the card, because I got those several months ago.  It has to be a setting.  I have yet to reset my camera to default settings.

BUT....I am shooting in manual mode and shutter priority.  I used to only shoot in "P" mode.

Maybe this is it????


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## cary (Apr 3, 2009)

I added an Avatar to clear up the he/she thing.  It's better that you guys call me a "he" for my name rather than my looks!  When I was little I was called a "he" for my ridiculous hair cut!


Elemental,

Congrats on your D200.  I'm sure you will love it. I can't get enough of my D300.  I can't bring myself to use my old P & S even though it does a really good job!  I rather lug around my huge camera bag with my 3 most useful lenses.

You know, I've seen a few Cary Grant movies, but I don't know what they are called.  That one doesn't sound familiar.


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## JerryPH (Apr 3, 2009)

cary said:


> My problem is:
> 
> - a lag that occurs when taking the pic in the process between pressing the shutter and the camera taking the picture from the FIRST picture
> 
> ...



Then no, your choice of storage cards have nothing to do with lags at this stage.  But it easily could have, if as Jeff Canes suggested, you filled the buffer and writing to the card became a factor.

Look to your manual, reset the camera to factory defaults, this is a fast and easy process.  After that do a test to see if your delay is minimized or eliminated.  Also make sure that you have the latest patches installed from Nikon, this is important because it does address lag issues, which you do seem to be suffering from.

To answer your final question... no, the mode you are in has NO effect on this lag either.  Your solution to the issue has a high chance of resolution in the suggestions offered here.


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## dEARlEADER (Apr 3, 2009)

this is kinda already been mentioned but if the focus servo is set to focus priority the camera won't release the shutter until focus has been locked.  using focus priority with a continuous servo can cause hesitation because the camera is constantly assessing it's focus decision.  do you use your shooting banks? if not, you have have switched into a shooting bank with a focus lock priority and/or flip the switch focus switch on the front of the camera to "C" from "S".

to eliminate a focus servo issue

1 Switch the focus servo selector to "M" (this is found on front of camera)

2 Switch your shutter release to "CH" (left dial selector)

3 Switch exposure mode to manual and lock in a faster shutter speed 1/100 or higher

4 Hold down the shutter release

If you camera sounds like a machine gun...  the hesitation is likely the focus priority (assuming the buffer isn't filled).   Try switching the focus priority to focus+release and switching the continuous servo to single.


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## mcuccia (Apr 3, 2009)

JerryPH said:


> Also make sure that you have the latest patches installed from Nikon, ...



Just out of curiosity, will you loose patches / firmware updates when you restore factory settings?


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## Dao (Apr 3, 2009)

mcuccia said:


> Just out of curiosity, will you loose patches / firmware updates when you restore factory settings?



Firmware is the software that runs inside the camera.  So I do not believe it will lose it when you reset the camera settings.


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## dEARlEADER (Apr 3, 2009)

mcuccia said:


> Just out of curiosity, will you loose patches / firmware updates when you restore factory settings?





no..... but you will lose your presets, custom menus, and shooting bank configs unless you back them up and reload them....


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## cary (Apr 3, 2009)

Awesome!  Thanks SO much.  I'm going to do all of the above and let you know the results.....battery is charging now and I have two soccer games tomorrow!  (They are little kids this time, so it's not that much of a priority---but still important)


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## manaheim (Apr 3, 2009)

I encountered this a few times with my D300... it was invariably one of the things mentioned already... the 14 bit... the focus manner chosen... the maple syrup I packed my camera in...

oh wait...


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## elemental (Apr 4, 2009)

cary said:


> Elemental,
> 
> Congrats on your D200.  I'm sure you will love it. I can't get enough of my D300.  I can't bring myself to use my old P & S even though it does a really good job!  I rather lug around my huge camera bag with my 3 most useful lenses.
> 
> You know, I've seen a few Cary Grant movies, but I don't know what they are called.  That one doesn't sound familiar.




Thank you. The camera arrived today and I've been playing with it since the battery charged. I'm really impressed with the build quality (I haven't held one in a few months, and I forgot how brick-like they are) and the speed and intuitiveness of operation. I see why you like your D-00, and I think I'm going to like mine quite a bit as well. I hope you've gotten your shutter lag issue worked out. Now that I see just how instant shutter response and mirror return can be, I think I see how that could be very irritating. We're spoiled.

As for Cary Grant, I've only seen him in Hitchcock films (I took a class), but he really is one of the greats. _Notorious _is Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman directed by Alfred Hitchcock, which some might say is as good as it gets. Highly recommended, especially if you're named after the leading man.


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## mcuccia (Apr 5, 2009)

dEARlEADER said:


> no..... but you will lose your presets, custom menus, and shooting bank configs unless you back them up and reload them....



Thanks dEARlEADER, I just checked and found out that I'm still on firmware [A] 1.01 * 1.00. Why are there two versions actually?

Melissa*


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