D3200 Egg timer

[terryb60]

I have a new d3200 (6 weeks) and quite regularly after taking a shot the egg timer appears and does not clear for up to 30 seconds

Fully charged batteries / SanDisk memory cards / RAW

on some occasions the only solution is to remove battery - picture being processed to card does not seem to be affected

Help please

Terry

[Manfred M]

Terry - does this happen when you take a single shot or is it after you've fired off a burst. I'm just guessing here but...

After a burst with my camera, the write (RAW + jpeg) from a full buffer to memory card can take a lot longer than the 30 seconds you mention and I tend to shoot with reasonably higher end (fast) cards. The D3200 is not a super fast processing camera and if you fill the internal buffer, it can take a LONG time to write to your SD card.

It has nothing to do with charged battery. The write rate on your card will also be a factor; SanDisk is a brand; they make many different card sizes and read / write speeds. A slow card simply takes a longer time for the data to be written.

[terryb60]

Hi Thanks

This is after single shot. Also sometimes when 5he camera is switched on and also on playback

[Manfred M]

Have you tried a different memory card?

The camera will communicate with the card when you turn the camera on. There is always a chance that the card is defective (or counterfeit).

[terryb60]

Thanks again

Happens across several cards which have all been purchased as either original equipment or from reputable high Street retailer.

Will format them again before next use

[Peeshan]

Any of those card happen to be a "high speed" (10x)? If not you should try one, see if there is a difference. Maybe also check the Nikon firmware updates, it's possible it's a software problem that as been seen to.

[ajohnw]

The important thing about sd cards is the logo on them. The wiki explains what these mean. The camera manual should also make some mention of what type - that sets what the camera has built into it. The card should match this but there may be more than one speed option available. I usually buy the higher speed option but in real terms the camera hardware will set the speed.

One thing that can have a big impact on your egg timer is how the camera is set. Even things like noise removal will add to the time as will others. I shoot raw plus best quality jpg which has to be a bit slower than shooting just raw as the camera has to process it.

Some how I suspect you are using the wrong type of card. Hopefully the Nikon manual will show an sd logo in it somewhere as that can make choice of card much easier. They may just mention the same things as the wiki does relating to the various things that can appear in the logo.

John
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[terryb60]

Thanks to you all for the comments.

I will review the cards and look at an appropriate "Hi speed" card to see if it works

[ajohnw]

I was in a rush earlier. You should see something like sd hc 1 for instance mentioned in the camera manual. That is an official sd type and it should be shown on the logo on the card.

I went through this on my E-M1 recently as I just put a card that I happened to have in it. Olympus make no mention of it in the manual other than having the logo shown on the page on cards. Turned out that the card I put in was an sd hc 1 so all ok.

Next job as the card is filling up was to find some more. I usually buy of ebay and that proved more difficult than in the past but I eventually found cards marked correctly with a speed rating of 30 or 45 mb/sec so bought a couple of the faster ones which as usual were scandisk extremes.

Cards can be bought from all over the place. I once bought one from Tesco's, there value range. Had the correct marking and all was ok. Also one from a road side market in Turkey. Same but a bit pricey. I'd guess the only customers they get are tourists so good of them to stock a decent card.

John
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[Polar01]

terryb welcome to CIC, now this is where filling out where you live can be of a great help, now John stated that he got a card from Tesco now John is in the UK, if you are also that helps, however if you are in the U.S. that does not help you. So filling that in can help us greatly to help you, also your real name which if you look at post #2 states Real Name: Manfred, much easier if the post happens to get long to see who we are commenting with.
Now to the possible card problem, you camera is just over 2 years old so that should not be a problem with it taking cards. I use Sandisk cards with from 80mb/sec to 95mb/sec write speeds, that is probably more than you want to pay at this time, so I would suggest a speed of 45mb/sec at the min. Now different brands will put write speeds as 80mb/sec and others as 800X (now I do not know it those number are of the same speed) so it gets a little confusing. If you are in North America I would suggest Best Buy or Future Shop as they both run some good specials and you can get a good sense as most of the better cards are similar in price.

Cheers: Allan

[ajohnw]

Tesco are a UK supermarket. The price of a similar scandisk off them was ridiculous so as I wanted one in a hurry I bought the Tesco Value one. Value in their terms usually means the cheapest option on a given type of food.

I would seriously mention understanding the sd logo's rather than buy 100x etc, The logo's are official. As far as I know the various types are all compatible and the hardware in the camera and card sort out at what speed they will actually run. Fitting a super fast card is unlikely to really make any differences. eg Buy hc-2 but there isn't any point really unless the camera supports it.

John
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[Polar01]

Like everything the card is just a tool, you use the tools that you need. Your D3200 manual states that the camera is UHS-1 compliant so any card that has SD with either HC or XC and is at least class 6 or greater will work fine. As for speed again different tools for different jobs, if just tripping around taking a image here, taking one there, or studio work or anything where speed of writing the file to the card is not need than a 30mb/sec card maybe for you. However if you are shooting sports, where you have to pound out those shots at a high rate of speed than that tool (card) better be able to write those files fast enough or else you shoot a burst than wait and miss the action. It is not just the write speed to the card but also the speed that the card will transfer those files to your computer. Ever have 200+ files on a card, then take 10 minutes to download to computer faster card means less time waiting.

Cheers: Allan

[ajohnw]

It's interesting that the wiki sd page has been updated since I last looked but I would still suggest that if the camera is UHS-1 then look for cards with the hc or xc 1 on the official logo. They do show the logo but no longer the number variants.

I'm just going to have to look and see if any UHS-1 cards actually claim 104mbytes/sec too at some point. The wiki is now more explicit about what video type 100x ratings etc actually mean. About time too.

I stick to HC anyway as I use full cards as a last ditch back up. i'd hate to have to go over 16gb really. Maybe not on a d800,

John
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[terryb60]

It's interesting that the wiki sd page has been updated since I last looked but I would still suggest that if the camera is UHS-1 then look for cards with the hc or xc 1 on the official logo. They do show the logo but no longer the number variants.

I'm just going to have to look and see if any UHS-1 cards actually claim 104mbytes/sec too at some point. The wiki is now more explicit about what video type 100x ratings etc actually mean. About time too.

I stick to HC anyway as I use full cards as a last ditch back up. i'd hate to have to go over 16gb really. Maybe not on a d800,

John
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I am in UK

also down load all files at end of day but issue can arise when any number of files on card

Both cards claim Class 10 and have the fancy new symbols on them and 30 /sec transfer speeds

Thanks anyway

[Manfred M]

Looks like you are eliminating issues that could be at fault.

Its getting to the point where the camera may need to be checked out. If you eliminate the amount of data (burst mode) and memory card (same issue with a number of different cards), the problem could be a hardware (or firmware) issue with the camera itself. This means having to ship it back to Nikon for testing / repair.

[rpcrowe]

I don't know if your D3200 is UDMA compatible (or even if UDMA is an option with the cards you use) but, on my Canon 7D, there is a quantum difference in write and read speeds between faster CF CARDS which are UDMA capable and slower cards which are not UDMA capable. I normally use Lexar Professional UDMA 400x and 800x 16 gb CF cards in my 7D while I use just about any card I have laying around in my 40D (unless I intend to shoot large numbers of images and need the extra transfer speed).

On my Canon 40D, there is no noticeable difference in write speeds (since the files are a lot smaller) even though the 40D is not UDMA compatible.

However, even on images shot with the 40D on UDMA cards, there is a drastic difference in transfer speeds to my computer when using a UDMA compatible card reader.

When downloading a few hundred shots from a large CF card, that extra speed is quite important...