D90 Logic issue?

[charleseagan]

<p>I was considering buying a Nikon D90, so I rented one to use for a wedding. It performed great up to a point where it was somewhat unresponsive. I had to turn the camera off, then on and the problem went away for a bit, then the same thing. I loved using the camera, but the whole point was to get a camera that could take photos quickly to capture all the action that was taking place. I have a Mamiya AFD which has a similar problem, I kind of expect it with this camera since it is not really a fast action type of camera. I was wondering if this a typical problem with this camera. I am going to try a D700 next to compare.</p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>Was the buffer light active (indicating that it was still writing to the SD card)? Did you have fresh batteries, well charged? Were you using an on-camera flash that wasn't cycled yet? Lots of possibilities, here.</p>

[robbie_robertson]

<p>I agree with Matt, there's probably a regular function at play. The only time my D90 becomes "unresponsive" is when the buffer is filled, and I can't take shots until buffer space is available, in some focus settings when the camera has not achieved focus, or the flash related slow-ups Matt mentioned above. Unless one comes to terms with these regular camera behaviors, whether you spend a lot more money on a D700 or not becomes moot because you'll still have related 'issues.'</p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>It's one of the reasons that people doing a lot of higher-speed work lean towards the D300 (better AF system and physical build, of course, too). For weddings, the upcoming D300s is even better... two card slots, so that you have on-the-fly data backup.</p>

[frank_skomial]

<p>You need to read you camera manual and see how many fast pictures you can take that the buffer can hold. Beyond that, it is upto the memory card speed, and is usually much slower or non-repsonsive.</p>

<p>If you do " up to a point where it was somewhat unresponsive. I had to turn the camera off" - turning off camera without waiting for the camera to complete the buffer dump to memory card, you will loose pictures taken at the end of your picture sequence, and could also corrupt pictures that were already on the memory card. Do not operate this way as it may catch up with you.</p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>Actually, Frank, even when you turn off a Nikon body, it will continue to write the data to the card until it's done. Only pulling the battery or the card will interrupt that process. The LED on the rear of the body will tell you when it's done - even if the camera has been turned off.</p>

[peter_k4]

<p>I'm not sure how the D90 works, but on my D200 anyways if I were to suddenly turn the camera off while the buffer is emptying, it just won't turn off until it's ready. I would hope the D90 has something like this aswell...</p>

[wpahnelas]

<p>if this is a rented camera, you can't have any way of knowing what sort of torture it's been subjected to... my cameras have been known to throw an Err message up every once in a great while -- which is when i do stuff like clean the contacts between the camera and lens. just a couple of days ago one of 'em seemed unresponsive while shooting -- shutter just would not fire very quickly. as it turned out, for the sake of a wireless remote i use, i'd turned off continuous shooting in favor of single mode -- just plain forgot to switch it back.<br>

so, yes and no. it can happen for various reasons, often user supplied; and no, that's not typical behavior for these cameras.</p>

[charleseagan]

<p>Thanks for your help, I think it is the buffer. I did try it without the flash and it did stop responding after a bit, which sounds like the buffer holding things up. That makes sense because I have to think about the buffer limit in my Mamiya, which due to the raw file size, fills up quickly. I thought shooting jpegs on the Nikon would have alot more buffer room, so I am bit suprised I was able to fill it up so quickly.</p>

[charleseagan]

<p>Just a note: I used the 18-105mm zoom lens, it was the perfect lens for a wedding!<br />I highly recommend it.</p>

[John Crowe]

<p>This week-end my nephew bought the D90 with 18-105 and I specifically warned him, before he bought it, that the only drawback to the body that I could find was it's poor buffer. It can only hold six RAW images. So even hi res jpegs will be few. It is an awesome camera with excellent rear LCD, cool video, and within minutes he was doing a slide show directly on the TV. </p>

[Ray House]

<p>Noise reduction will also slow down the camera, if shooting fast I turn it off and use software to correct for noise.</p>

[david_klaffenbach]

<p>How big were the bursts of shots you were taking? What kind of card did you use?</p>

<p>Here's a link to a test of the buffers and timing: <a href="http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/NikonD90/page14.asp">http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/NikonD90/page14.asp</a></p>

[gogu]

<p>Excuse my stupid question but a faster SD card wouldn't help with the buffer problem?<br>

I use a 4GB and an 8GB Extreme III Sandisk 200x (30 MB/sec) cards and never had problems.<br>

Of course I shoot only fine/large JPGs, no RAW (for the moment)...</p>

<p>rgrds</p>

[ramon_v__california_]

<p>not a stupid question at all, gogu. in fact it's a huge factor in this issue.</p>

<p>charles, it might not matter even if you try the D700 if you will use ordinary memory cards. i have done two weddings with the D90 as primary with no glitches at all. i have always used pro high speed lexar and sandisk cards especially when i started shooting weddings and events, even just part-time.</p>

<p>why don't you try the nikon 17-55mm f/2.8 or if it's too heavy for you, the tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 for your next wedding? you might be surprised with the improvement from the 18-105mm.</p>

[photo5]

<p>I can remember a problem with my D80 and using a rather low cost SD card, I would shoot maybe three NEF files in a couple seconds, the buffer would fill, and the camera would lock up while it cleared the buffer out. I've not purchased a low end DSLR since then, and happily the D200, D300 and D700 have never locked up on me despite using middle of the road Sandisk Ultra II CF cards with them. I've never had faster cards than those, and I've been able to shoot rapid fire with them without a hitch. The cheap SD cards I had were leftover from a point and shoot I used, and have been given away with that camera to a family member. I use Sandisk Ultra II cards with all my digital cameras now without issues.</p>