Photo delay with Nikon D80 digital SLR camera?

by paraflyer

Tonight I went to take pictures of my school’s band for yearbook.
We use Nikon D80s.
For unknown reasons, all three of our cameras tend to have issues with delaying photos after a while and we can’t map out why in the settings or anything.
Most shoots it will work fine and then suddenly it refuses to take a shot and when it finally agrees to let anyone take a photo, it makes things darker or blurry.
The only way to make it shoot without delay is to override the shutter hold bu pressing the AE-L/AF-L button after holding down the shutter release.
And then it causes unsatisfactory photos.
Situation can be of all sorts and sometimes unchanging when it starts to give difficulty.
Any thought what’s going on with these things?
No one is changing anything on the cameras from before problems to afterwards and even our teacher is having issues with them

Answer by me too
Perhaps its the memory card. There are different memory/flash cards – some slower and some nearer (Type I is slower than Type III for example). Perhaps when you are not experiencing problems is when the memory card is less full…once it becomes fuller – the read speed slows down.

Answer by George Y
This is taken from Ken Rockwell’s guide to the D80. You may have changed the autofocus to AF-S. When that happens, the camera won’t take a picture until the focus is exact, and will lock the camera if the subject has went. I’ve done that accidently on my D70 and D200, so I know how frustrating it can be.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d80/af-settings.htm

Nikon D80 AF Mode Selector.

The three AF modes, AF-A, AF-S and AF-C, are selected with the AF Mode Selector. Press it and spin the rear dial to select among them.

AF-A, the default I use, magically selects between the next two modes. More expensive (and older) Nikons don’t have this clever mode, ha ha. This clever AF-A mode looks at the subject. If it’s holding still, the D80 locks the focus. If the subject is moving, the D80 tracks it as it moves nearer and farther.

AF-S stands for AF-Single. The D80 focuses once, then locks AF for you to recompose and shoot.

AF-C stands for AF-Continuous. The D80 keeps focusing as the subject changes distance. Use this for sports and vehicles in motion, like cars, birds and aircraft. For clarification, this is only tracking in the z (distance) directly. This isn’t related to x-y motion, which refers to selecting innumerable AF sensors across the finder as covered below.

Answer by a
If you are sure that you are not changing anything, then maybe the camera is changing in some way. cameras can start to perform erratically if the battery volts become low even if the low battery indicator is not indicating low)
1.If you are using rechargeable batteries try charging them fully.
2.Try a fresh rechargeable battery as a test since a terrible rechargeable battery can appear to be fully charged but still be a small low on volts or current after it leaves the charger because one or more cells in the pack can be terrible. The D80 and its batteries came out in 2006. This answer is written in 2009.
3. As batteries get low on power, the built-in flash may take longer to charge up, so in low light (“tonight” you said) the camera is not ready to take the next picture until the flash is ready. Try turning the flash off and see if the shooting delay goes away also. If the delay is gone with the flash off, then charge the batteries (again or more).

Know better? Place your own answer in the comments!

D80


Image by odysseygate
マイファースト一眼レフ。

I am looking for a quick SD memory card for my Nikon D80 digital camera. Which one would be best 4gb or 8gb? What brand would be the best and fastest?

Answer by Niallo!
The storage size doesnt exchange the speed too much….If you want speed that terribly, invest in a high speed SD card…they are like £5-£10 more but you can definatly see the difference.

Answer by bingo4893
Hi there!
Check out this SD memory card from PNY: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8556582&type=product&id=1188561456520
PNY makes brilliant memory cards and USB flash drives. SD Memory cards come in varying speeds depending on how much you are willing to pay. This particular card is Class 6 speed rated(which is very excellent). Hope this helps you!
Excellent Luck!

Answer by fhotoace
Two 4 GB cards will give you more flexibility.

Unless you shoot in the machine-gun mode, you will not need a card whose speed is more that 40x

Answer by anthony h
SanDisk makes the fastest SD cards.

If you want the best and fastest, get the SanDisk Extreme III SDHC memory cards.

It’ll cost you though– a 4 GB Extreme III SDHC card will cost about $ 50. Try http://www.newegg.com where the card with a quick USB reader is only $ 43.

8 GB cards cost too much; the 4 GB are better values at this time.

Answer by Hung N
Yes, Anthony H is right, give 10 to him, please.
At circuitcity, its sold cheaper than bestbuy now.

Add your own answer in the comments!

www.dombower.com Blog http Nikon d300 review (comparing it to the nikon d80) enjoying its live view, high fps, size and build quality www.dombower.com