Question from a reader: I was taking photos yesterday of my daughter at a gymnastics event. A red light in the bottom right corner on my Canon Rebel kept flashing. Once I saw the word “BUSY” in the viewfinder. What was I doing wrong?
The red flashing light on your camera shows that the camera is accessing the memory card.
It’s normal to see a red light when the camera takes a photo. (Nikon users see a green light.) The light should quickly go on-and-off if all is well.
During a rapid burst of photos, the red light will flash as long as the camera is moving the photos to the memory card. The camera has a memory buffer of 6-9 photos. It’s holding those in memory and waiting to move them photos to the card.
If you take 10 photos in a row, the camera moves some to the card and then some to the buffer. Those in the buffer wait in line until it’s time for them to move to the card.
You’ll see BUSY in the viewfinder if you take too many photos and the buffer fills. The camera won’t take any more photos until the buffer clears out and has room to store another photo.
You’re likely to see the flashing red light and BUSY in the viewfinder if you held the shutter button down and took a lot of photos. Those photos need to process out of the buffer and through to the card.
Solution — get a memory card that records faster. How fast? That depends on the camera. A 20MB camera that takes 7 fps (frames per second) is going to record 140MB worth of photos per second. A card that records 64MB per second can record roughly three frames a second. The other four frames are going to sit in memory. That means you have three frames recording to the card while four photos are waiting in buffer. That’s usually okay since the buffer will clear in a second or two.
The card on the left records 150MB/s. That’s seven photos per second using a camera with a 20MB file. This is almost more card than the Rebel needs. Someone who shoots sport or action regularly might need this, though.
The card on the right records 45MB/s. That’s two photos per second using the same camera. Too slow for someone photographing sports or action.
The card you need depends on what you photograph and what camera you use. I get my cards from Hunt’s Photo and Video. Ask for Alan Samiljan (781) 462-2383 or email him at asamiljan@huntsphoto.com His hours are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday, 8:30-5:00pm eastern
Kathy Adams Clark 