5D3 active light keeps blinking. Urgent input needed

I'm in Yellowstone now, going to Tetons on wed. Tonight I went out for some late sunset pix and the active light (or what it's called, the red mighty under the big control wheel on the back keeps on flickering after a photo is written to the card. Camera appears to work fine but this is irritating and has me concerned. I have an other week in Tetons close to snake river. I'd have an extra body sent overnight if this is of concern and/or can't figure this out.
Any ideas? Thanks!

Did you install a card into the camera that already had pics on it, possibly from another camera?

try to:

-format your card
-take the battery out of the body and put it back after a while...

i remember that this was an issue with 7d and some sundisk cards and somehow was also connected with FW update....

As Mark pointed out, this always happens if you remove the card from the camera and then put it back with images on the card. The camera can't know if you have removed or added images when the card wasn't in the camera, so it has to scan the whole card to rebuild the database indexing all the images. That takes a while if you have many images there. But it's transparent to photography, so you can use the camera while the scanning is in progress.

Is this a “Long exposure noise reduction” issue?

If you are taking long exposures and have in camera “Long exposure noise reduction” turned on, then after the say, 30 sec scene exposure has been completed, the camera will then take another 30 sec “dark frame” to record the thermal noise on the sensor and then subtract it from the original “light frame”.

This “dark frame” is taken with the shutter closed so no outside light (cover the viewfinder) hits the sensor and the camera records the thermal noise (hot/cold pixels) of the sensor.

In normal daytime exposures, this “thermal noise” is swamped by the huge amount of day light and the short exposures.

Cheers

Dennis

That's another possible cause. Depends on the definition of late sunset.

If all else fails, and I'm betting on the long exposure noise reduction setting, you have a wonderful camera store in Jackson Hole. They specialize in Canon and may be able to help. See http://ddcameracorral.​com/ for the address, etc.

While you are in the Jackson Hole area, ask around for directions to Schwabacher Landing. It is north of town, not far from Mormon Row, and is one of the most photogenic spots in the area for early sunrise pictures. You will be facing the Tetons and as the sun rises behind you, unfortunately at about 5:45 AM, the light starts at the top of the Tetons and then works its way down as the sun rises. With the usual vantage point water is in the foreground yielding a great reflection. After the full sunrise, then and only then go over to Mormon Row for the other classic picture of the area. You will also likely see a decent size group of Bison wandering the area.

See https://www.google.com …gAg&sqi=2&ved=0​CAcQ_AUoAg for sample images from Schwabacher Landing. If you don't have a tripod you might be able to rent one for a day at the store I mentioned above.

https://www.google.com …pNsCJuogH&ved=0​CAYQ_AUoAQ for Mormon Row.

than everyone! I don't recall taking the card out but did get the occasional error that blinked up and went away fast, some intermittent problem? Who knows. Camera kept working and I can't download photos and reformat ( no laptop). I'll se what I can figure out or I'll send it in.
Family and horses kept me from some exploring, hope to hit Schwabacher Landing tomorrow very early. If I can get up...

Jackson Hole has lots of fun activities on the 4th. Great free concerts, parade, etc. With some careful looking you can often spot Harrison Ford at the parade although with his plane crash a few months back he may be recuperating. He also frequents the Pearl Street Bagel shop.

Check for the following (this year)

4th of July • Music in the Hole Town Festivities
Schedule of Events

2 pm Thomas Sneed with special guest Ben Winship
3 pm One Ton Pig
4:15 pm Young Dubliners
6 pm Grand Teton Music Festival Live Concert Simulcast
7:30 pm Parker Millsap
8:15 pm Old Crow Medicine Show
10 pm Fireworks at Snow King mountain

Proof read please......I feel like I am reading a text.

If you can't download images and format card, try a fresh card and see if the problem goes away....even if you have to buy a card at the worst you'll have a spare...

N2bnfunn wrote in post #17616095
Proof read please......I feel like I am reading a text.

Ok... "Proofread, please. I feel like I am reading a text."

Tocuhé!

unfortunately we won't be there on the 4th, came back home last night.

All photos downloaded fine, I have to figure out what's going on. It's a very intermittent thing, once I got an error (couple months ago) that was either error 7 or just error and I had 7 images left on my card (it went away so fast I can't be sure), this time I once saw just error and the blinking started up again but camera worked fine, at other times I didn't notice an error message but also didn't look for one. Since the camera works just fine for the next photo I can't be sure if it showed an error or not.

I'm going to take the eyefi card out first and see if that's maybe it, for the second I saw the error messages I saw no indication which card was giving the camera a pickup. I'll reformat them all in camera and will only use one card for a while, see if I can at least narrow it down to which card slot is having issues.

Also sometimes no preview image appeared after taking a photo, I had to press the play button to see what I just took. An error might have shown or not, not sure, as the message goes away so quickly. If I can't narrow things down I'll send it in for a checkup. Can't do that until end of July though, as I have an other trip coming up and am not sure Canon would be able to get this done in time. But this is a car trip with no weight limits, so I can bring my backup body and other cameras. And it's more a family trip than a photo trip, so it's not as important as a rare trip to Yellowstone and Tetons. We had a fantastic time there, such beauty! Incredible wildflowers everywhere, saw tons of bears and all the other wildlife, only wolves and moose were elusive.

2nd week was at a dude ranch, Moosehead Ranch in Jackson Hole, an incredible place, great people, fantastic place, outstanding food, beyond all expectations. Highly recommended! Not cheap, but fully worth every penny.

Thanks for all the ideas and help! If I find out what's going on I'll update this thread of course.

Is it possible that the light stayed on from a burst then empting from buffer to card? You mentioned eyefi, were you using it to transfer the images? I would think the red light light might stay on from accessing file during wifi transfer.