Problems with slow writing to CF card when formatted with my 400D

[hairyviking]

Hi,

I had been having trouble with slow write times when taking long exposures. For example when taking a 30second exposure It would take well over 30 seconds for the preview to come up and the red led to go off.

I thought it was perhaps due to card being 133x, so bought a kingston 266x. Straight out of the box I took a few test snaps (long exposure night shots) and it was pretty snappy. Formatted the card on camera and now it is awful. Eg I just took a 15s exposure and it took 20seconds before the preview came up and the red light went out. The time only gets longer the longer the exposure. I have waited minutes for very long exposures. So I guess the question is what is the difference between the out of packet formatting and the in camera (or on pc) formatting that is causing the problems.


Has anyone else had experience of this that can suggest a solution


cheers

hv

[hairyviking]

Hi, yeah I have tried formatting on the PC too. same s....l....o....w story.

[hairyviking]

hmm. any software you would recommend for different types of format. I am just doing right click > format and doing a full format rather than a quick. Only option available to me is fat32

[BertRoot]

Don't remember it being that slow on my old 400D to be honest. Have you tried a firmware update of the camera?

[dpSparhawk]

It sounds like you have the cameras built in Noise Reduction turned on. What will happen is that if you take a 30 second exposure, it will then take 30 seconds to reduce the noise.

Likewise, take a 30 Minute exposure and the noise reduction time is the same.

Press Menu
Select the far right settings option which is a Wrench, Hammer and the number 2
Select Custom settings
Navigate to option 02 - Long Exp. Noise Reduction and set it to off if it's on

[dpSparhawk]

LOLOL can anyone say RTFM?

[dpSparhawk]

Mine's 1.04 mate - that need updating?

Yes. Mine says 1.1.0

There's a 1.1.1

http://web.canon.jp/imaging/eosdigit...irmware-e.html

I've not applied it as I don't need it

[dpSparhawk]

No problem

[hairyviking]

Guilty as charged mate, fair play.
I just thought it was processing.....

Me and you both! hehe. Flying along like a good un' now. Doesn't explain why the card seemed to be faster straight out of the box (note that someone over here noticed the same http://www.photoanswers.co.uk/Commun...6&start-page=0 )

dpSparhawk I've copied yer solution into that thread. Hope you don't mind, but if you do just gimme a shout and I'll take it down.

many thanks!

(I only wish I had asked before spending £20 on a new card! )

[dpSparhawk]

No problem at all mate. Answers are there to be shared so it's fine by me

Glad it's all sorted for you . As for the card, it's always good to have a few

As for the card being faster out of the box, maybe the "default" formatting status of the card prohibits the use of the Noise reduction feature on the camera and then when maybe you've formatted it in the camera, it's enabled the ability. Not sure on that one but that would seem to be one viable explanation.

[hairyviking]

hehe, sitting at 14Gb of cards in my bag now. I'd best get snapping :-)