ollie Loc: Ogdensburg, NY

My grandchildren where here so lots of pictures were taken. My D800 seems to take forever to shoot when the shutter release is pressed. They were indoor shots with built in flash. I switched to manual focus and manual settings so it wasn't searching for correct settings and I still kept missing shots because 2 1/2 and 4 1/2 don't hold a pose waiting for the camera to fire. A friend was here with his D800 and said he has the same problem. I was using the Nikon 24 - 70 lens. What's up ? Is there a way around this ? There are many days I wish I was still using my
manual, film cameras and yesterday was one of them.

queencitysanta Loc: Charlotte, North Carolina

Check ypur iso and shutter speed

nicksr1125 Loc: Mesa, AZ

Check your timer settings to make sure you don't have a 2 second delay set.

Frapha Loc: Tulsa, Oklahoma

Menu > Autofocus > a1 – Do you have it set for RELEASE or FOCUS?
Menu > Autofocus > a2 – Do you have it set for RELEASE or FOCUS?
Your menu also has another option to set a shutter delay of 1-3 seconds – have you checked that?

SonyA580 Loc: FL in the winter & MN in the summer

What flash setting were you using? Was there a pre-flash? Was the focus "hunting"? Just some more possibilities.

twillsol Loc: St. Louis, MO

I have the D800 and have it set for Focus priority. I use back button focus and shoot in RAW. Mine focuses very fast and have never experienced that problem no matter what lens I have on it, including the Nikon 24 - 70 f2.8. Sorry I could not help, maybe you should call Nikon.

peterg Loc: Santa Rosa, CA

Check the "Exposure Delay Mode". On my Nikon D4, it's menu > Shooting/Display > d4. This has the option to raise the mirror, then wait 1-4 seconds before taking the picture. Select "Off". This feature is different than the self-timer.

Mark7829 Loc: Calfornia

Check your focus settings, spot? Seems like the D800 could not lock focus. Check your settings. Also what ISO, shutter speed and aperture were you using?

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

Make sure that you do not have a mirror up delay turned on. This can be set to 0, 1, 2, or 3 seconds in the custom menus.

CatMarley Loc: North Carolina

On focus priority, the shutter won't fire until the camera is satisfied with the focus. You want the camera to fire when you push the shutter release. Set on release or whatever the option is called, but not focus priority.

CatMarley Loc: North Carolina

On focus priority, the shutter won't fire until the camera is satisfied with the focus. You want the camera to fire when you push the shutter release. Set on release or whatever the option is called, but not focus priority.

tomcat

Ollie, there is no problem with the camera. I have this same camera for my studio portraiture sessions. The problem is that the camera is not detecting a difference in small areas of contrast or brightness on the subject's face, which it needs to "see" to lock on focus. In other words, all of your focus target appears to be as one smooth area. The camera sees the baby's skin as one smear of similar texture. Page 100 of your manual explains this concept of contrast when the camera is hunting to lock in. I used to be so exasperated with this, especially small babies with smooth skin. I can't tell you how many shots I missed because I couldn't get the darn thing to focus. The camera is not seeing enough contrast or varying areas of brightness on a smooth baby's skin, so what you have to do is to focus on a bright area + dark area simultaneously to get focus to lock in. For example, focus on the eye instead of the forehead or cheek. Or focus on the clothing, so long as it is not solid white or solid black (this will cause the same problem). This is also a potential problem when the subject contains many fine details, such as a field of flowers that lack variation in brightness.