kenJN

My wife's D3200 runs really slow, but not all the time. When turning it on or after taking a picture the memory card access lamp lights up and the LCD shows an hourglass instead of the image or the menu. Sometimes it pops right on; other times it cooks and cooks, enough now to be really annoying. She shoots only single shots (not bursts), JPEG fine, not RAW, never video/movies. She's really frustrated (missed some shots at Christmas with the grandkids) and wants to go back to a point-n-shoot. My instinct tells me that it's slow reading the image to the card or it's a slow buffer or something internal like that. I've done everything I can think of: new empty SD card, fully-charged battery, no unusual settings. The camera is five years old, bought new and now has about 7000 shutter clicks. As far as I know it's never been abused or subject to severe conditions. Am I missing something we should do differently, or is this an internal problem? Is this typical of the D3200? Help!

letmedance Loc: Walnut, Ca.

The problem may well be the speed of the SD card, some of the less expensive and some older cards are very slow to write to.

RWR Loc: La Mesa, CA

Do you have long exposure or high ISO noise reduction turned on?

olemikey Loc: 6 mile creek, Spacecoast Florida

Couple quick suggests: Do a quick reset. or a full reset (short of the full factory reset - which requires draining the internal battery). Or - Take a look at the full menu, what does she have turned on? The 3200 is a very capable camera, it has a lot of menu controls, but also there are enough settings that one could really confuse it. I'd do a 2 button reset, and put in a 16 or 32gb class 10, 80 to 95 MB per second speed (read/write) memory card, those worked well in my 3200. Don't mess with crappy little cards, even on JPEG it is loading up a lot of data.

Set it on Auto, let ISO float, Auto ISO, Auto White Balance and all that (Manual Purist's... stay on the side, he needs simple for his better half). It should crank off shots at a high rate, and they should look damn good. Do you have the manual, it has all the info you need, If you don't like the manual, I'll lend you (or sell for shipping), either is fine by me.... the David Busch's Nikon D3200 Field Manual.

Next, after you have done some of these things, come back and tell us where you stand... there are a bunch of folks here who are ready willing and able to help you folks out!! If you don't like my input, there are plenty to take my place. My 3200 had about 7000 click on when I sold it (Sold because it was to small physically for my hands, the camera was fine, fast and made great pics, 24 MP, full manual RAW) It is a great little camera, I just like a bigger body, like D7xxx series.

Good luck,
mike

sloscheider Loc: Minnesota

What firmware version is installed? The latest firmware addresses an issue where the card busy light stays on for an extended time and then an error is reported. You’re not getting an error but it’s still worth checking. I generally install any available firmware updates on my cameras.

http://downloadcenter.nikonimglib.com/en/download/fw/148.html

CO

Did you format the old and the new SD cards? Nikon states that new memory cards must be formatted before first use.

tdozier3 Loc: Northern Illinois

I have a D3200 with around the same clicks and have never experienced this. What kind of SD card are you using ?

Marie FG

I have a D3200,how do you find out how many clicks you have used?

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

My first thought. That really slows things down.

frankraney Loc: Clovis, Ca.

I started with and still use a D3300. Never had an issue..... Make sure you are using a recommended SD card or better.

mizzee Loc: Boston,Ma

I think it’s your sd card being too slow. More $=faster card! Call the folks at B&H and they can guide you to the right card.

tdozier3 Loc: Northern Illinois

here is a link to the site I used. It has to be an unedited jpeg to check
https://www.camerashuttercount.com

kenJN

Thanks for the tips, everyone. I've addressed the simple ones first. Yes, the Noise Reduction was "ON", so I switched it off. And, yes, I format each card upon initial installation. I've been using SanDisk 16gb C4 or 32gb C10 SDHC cards (reveal: I have never paid attention to brand/speed of cards used....no problems so far with any in 10 years of shooting on D90, D5500 or D3200). Are they reliable? If not, which brand(s) should I look for?

Chris T Loc: from England across the pond to New England

SanDisk, Lexar, Sony, Delkin - all pretty reliable. Kingston, PNY - not so much. Transcend - also, okay - and - you can get the largest capacity for the least money, with Transcend. I also have the D3200 and D5500. Used to have a D90, too. Any of the aforementioned cards should work fine on any of them. But, look around for the ones specified as 95MB/sec. With those, Ken, you usually get a pretty fast throughput ….

RWR Loc: La Mesa, CA

I would only use a card that Nikon has tested and recommends. See your user’s manual.