1Ds mkiii Burst rate

[Khristo]

Quick one. Not having played with any one series bodies, I bought a used 1Ds3 just for the hell of it. The burst frames indicator in the viewfinder shows only "2" regardless of image size (RAW, JPEG of any size). Sure enough 2 shots fire before it slows down to a shot each 2 or 3 seconds. I can find any settings that seem to cause this, and I'm wondering if the buffer is fried.

I'm using a 8 GB Sandisk Extreme III CF card, which works fine on my 5D3.

Everything else seems perfect. Any ideas?

 

[Grant Atkinson]

Quick one. Not having played with any one series bodies, I bought a used 1Ds3 just for the hell of it. The burst frames indicator in the viewfinder shows only "2" regardless of image size (RAW, JPEG of any size). Sure enough 2 shots fire before it slows down to a shot each 2 or 3 seconds. I can find any settings that seem to cause this, and I'm wondering if the buffer is fried.

I'm using a 8 GB Sandisk Extreme III CF card, which works fine on my 5D3.

Everything else seems perfect. Any ideas?

Have you looked at the setting under the Custom Functions menu called : Limit Continuous Shot Count. It is C.FN III. 17 on the 1D Mark 3, I dont have access to a 1DS manual.
Also I would work with a CF card only on that camera as the SD drive is very slow.
If that Limit Continuous Shot count doesnt work I would try to reset all the camera settings. If I recall that camera shoots at 5 fps and should have at least a second or two of continuous shooting before it hits the buffer.
Cheers
Grant

 

[Khristo]

Thanks Grant. I had tried resetting all functions, and I have tried CF card only (and a couple of different cards). The display flashes "BUSY" after the two shots for a couple of seconds until it fires off another 2 shots, just like when the buffer fills on other cameras (but after way more than 2 shots).

Seem unlikely that the buffer memory could fail and everything else still work properly, so I'm stumped.

 

[Grant Atkinson]

Thanks Grant. I had tried resetting all functions, and I have tried CF card only (and a couple of different cards). The display flashes "BUSY" after the two shots for a couple of seconds until it fires off another 2 shots, just like when the buffer fills on other cameras (but after way more than 2 shots).

Seem unlikely that the buffer memory could fail and everything else still work properly, so I'm stumped.

Hi Khristo
Darn, I was hoping that the problem was caused by Limit Continuous Shot Count...if it is not that and you have done a reset of camera settings, I cannot think of anything obvious that may be causing it. Hope somebody will come up with a fix here...
Cheers
Grant

 

[Valvebounce]

Hi Khristo.
I think Grant has this right, I just set my 1DsIII on 2 shots and that is the behaviour of the camera. The menu numbers are correct too, looks like the 1DIII and 1DsIII used the same menu! Go to C.FN III. 17, select register, up the shots to something like 20ish, set then pick apply (if you don’t it reverts to the previous number) and set and you should be hitting the buffer limit. Mine shows 8 with the SD card and 10 without.
If you are anything like me you will really enjoy this body, I use it more and more but it has limitations that have me reaching for my 7DII, like small buffer, slow frame rate, quite a low max ISO and no Auto ISO setting (though you can fudge this by using C.FN I. 8 Safety shift and set Enable (ISO speed) but it might get in the way of other creative settings?).

Cheers, Graham.

Edit, some settings are not cleared by full reset, don’t know if this is one of them, I would check it manually if you haven’t already.

 

[Khristo]

Well that's weird! I reset the custom functions twice before to no effect. I then tried setting the max shots to 25. This registered, but I still only got 2 as before.

I then reset the custom functions a third time, and that reset the max shots to 99 and also set the function to "disabled".

Now I also am getting 10 shots with just the CF card in place. Don't know if I'm going crazy or if the camera's a bit dodgy. Guess I'll find out.

Many thanks to Grant and Valvebounce.

 

[Grant Atkinson]

Well that's weird! I reset the custom functions twice before to no effect. I then tried setting the max shots to 25. This registered, but I still only got 2 as before.

I then reset the custom functions a third time, and that reset the max shots to 99 and also set the function to "disabled".

Now I also am getting 10 shots with just the CF card in place. Don't know if I'm going crazy or if the camera's a bit dodgy. Guess I'll find out.

Many thanks to Grant and Valvebounce.

Super glad you got it working Khristo, and lets hope it is just a bit of "rust" in the menu and will work fine from now on
Also thanks to Graham for properly describing the step by step approach to take with changing those settings, it reminded me that some of the older Canon cameras took many more button presses to make sure a setting was actually fixed in place.
We never owned a 1DS Mark 3 but did own a pair of 1D Mark 3 bodies which where very similar in many respects, and I do really wish we could have afforded to have kept them. That camera along with the 1D Mark 4 just fitted my hand the best, and I always enjoyed using them. Also really enjoyed the layout of the 45 point AF grid and the viewfinder. Hope you enjoy using the camera Khristo
Cheers
Grant

 

[Valvebounce]

Hi Khristo.
Glad to hear you got it working, I have to say I regularly forget to “lock in” the setting changes, including this morning, it took me two goes to set the burst count to 2, the first time I forgot to “apply” the setting, after not noticing any change in behaviour I went back to set the burst count back to my preferred value only to find it still set! D’oh! ;D

Cheers, Graham.

 

[Khristo]

Thanks to both of you.

I'm fairly certain I did everything I said I did correctly, but I guess I have to concede the possibility of "operator error"

By the way Graham, you mention setting max frames to 2 a couple of times. I was wondering why you do that. I sometimes shoot a few burst frames when using low shutter speeds just to increase my chances of getting a sharp frame. Sounds like a good function to use for that purpose. Do you have a different reason?

Cheers,
Chris

 

[Valvebounce]

Hi Chris.
I only set a burst of 2 to test the behaviour of the camera to try to find a solution for your problem, other than that I either set a high number or disable!

Cheers, Graham.

Thanks to both of you.

I'm fairly certain I did everything I said I did correctly, but I guess I have to concede the possibility of "operator error"

By the way Graham, you mention setting max frames to 2 a couple of times. I was wondering why you do that. I sometimes shoot a few burst frames when using low shutter speeds just to increase my chances of getting a sharp frame. Sounds like a good function to use for that purpose. Do you have a different reason?

Cheers,
Chris

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Thanks to both of you.

I'm fairly certain I did everything I said I did correctly, but I guess I have to concede the possibility of "operator error"

By the way Graham, you mention setting max frames to 2 a couple of times. I was wondering why you do that. I sometimes shoot a few burst frames when using low shutter speeds just to increase my chances of getting a sharp frame. Sounds like a good function to use for that purpose. Do you have a different reason?

Cheers,
Chris

I would try setting the limit to a few different values, applying the setting each time. That will tell you if the camera is having a problem.

Since its a older camera, if you have not done it, replace the Date / Time battery, it might be involved in the memory functions, but I don't think it is.

https://support.usa.canon.com/kb/index?page=content&id=ART100865&actp=search&viewlocale=en_US&searchid=1532786502936

 

[Khristo]

The plot thickens. I was out in the garden with it yesterday, it had 10 burst shots showing in the viewfinder, but on pressing the shutter release only 4 fired before slowing down to the card transfer rate. I then watched in the viewfinder as the burst rate indicator slowly ticked back up from 1 to 10. Then I did the same thing again with the same result. Then after that, I started getting 10 full burst shots again and it has been fine since.

I note from the manual that High ISO noise reduction and ISO safety shift can also reduce the max burst, but both of these were off.

I think like its new owner it's just starting to get a bit old and grumpy ;D ! I've since replaced the Date/Time battery, so we'll see if it settles down now.

 

[Valvebounce]

Hi Chris.
Other things can slow it down too, one could be the AF settings for AI Servo, first shot priority Focus, second shot priority Focus could be slower on a poor contrast subject than first shot priority Speed, second shot priority Speed.
I really hope you get this sorted, as I said before, they are a great camera in my opinion. (I guess you believe that anyway as you bought one!)

Cheers, Graham.

The plot thickens. I was out in the garden with it yesterday, it had 10 burst shots showing in the viewfinder, but on pressing the shutter release only 4 fired before slowing down to the card transfer rate. I then watched in the viewfinder as the burst rate indicator slowly ticked back up from 1 to 10. Then I did the same thing again with the same result. Then after that, I started getting 10 full burst shots again and it has been fine since.

I note from the manual that High ISO noise reduction and ISO safety shift can also reduce the max burst, but both of these were off.

I think like its new owner it's just starting to get a bit old and grumpy ;D ! I've since replaced the Date/Time battery, so we'll see if it settles down now.