T4i Burst Mode Weirdness

Just recently my new t4i was taking tons of shots (jpg) in burst mode without a hitch. All of a sudden today it would take three shots, then pause, then take two more, then pause, etc., and it was doing this very consistently. I thought maybe it was because I had turned on highlight tone priority, so I turned that off. But that didn't make a difference. I tried taking the battery out to reset it, but that didn't seem to make a difference either. I tried using different modes, but still the burst mode was working very erratically. Any ideas on what could be causing this?

I agree with this. There is also a small possibility the card is problematic, but most likely the camera is set to raw or raw plus jpg.

Thanks guys for your responses. I also thought this as I shoot RAW in different situations, however, I checked this right away and the camera is still only set to JPG. So that rules that out.

A little more information. I tried a different memory card--didn't fix it. I tried a different lens--didn't fix it. I tried clearing ALL camera settings (back to factory default)--still didn't fix it. How annoying! I've already had to return one of these. I really don't want to return another. Burst mode is simply only doing three shots now. BAM-BAM-BAM -- fast! Then slow. BAM------------BAM------------BAM, etc. Same thing every time. What gives? I was LOTS of fast shots in a row earlier. Getting my kid running at me, etc. Now I get three . . . then it pretty much goes useless.

Have you got noise reduction switched on? This will do it as well as highlight tone priority or whatever it's called.

Jon

p. 124 of the instruction manual. Resetting to factory defaults enables High ISO NR. Turn it off to restore maximum burst capability.

Highlight Tone Priority on/off has no effect on burst rate.

Edit:
p. 323 gives other causes of lower burst rate:

• setting ISO to 12800 or H

• Chromatic Aberration correction: Enabled

• WB Bracketing enabled

jon lake wrote:

Have you got noise reduction switched on? This will do it as well as highlight tone priority or whatever it's called.

Jon

englishman wrote:

Just recently my new t4i was taking tons of shots (jpg) in burst mode without a hitch. All of a sudden today it would take three shots, then pause, then take two more, then pause, etc., and it was doing this very consistently. I thought maybe it was because I had turned on highlight tone priority, so I turned that off. But that didn't make a difference. I tried taking the battery out to reset it, but that didn't seem to make a difference either. I tried using different modes, but still the burst mode was working very erratically. Any ideas on what could be causing this?

Maybe two separate things causing it?

I.e. on the hand maybe one of the settings (even after reset) as suggested by other posters.

But in the first instance of the slow-down, perhaps you card was getting full? Does anybody know how SD cards react to memory fragmentation, does it occur?

p. 124 of the instruction manual. Resetting to factory defaults enables High ISO NR. Turn it off to restore maximum burst capability.

Highlight Tone Priority on/off has no effect on burst rate.

Edit:
p. 323 gives other causes of lower burst rate:

setting ISO to 12800 or H

Chromatic Aberration correction: Enabled

WB Bracketing enabled

Lemming and Jon, you guys got it. High ISO noise reduction. At gymnastics the other day I was shooting at ISO 1600 and I turned the NR to high to test out the results. I forgot to turn it off because I don't usually shoot at high ISOs.

After I reset the camera to defaults last night the NR was set to standard but I was still having the problem. Why? Because I was in my low-light office and was shooting at ISO 12800 to get a decent shutter speed!

Phew! Thank you!

Good to know for future reference!