Using Canons And The Auto Flash?

[Naomi]

I was at a design event the other night and offered to take a few photos. It was poorly lit, inside environment. I wanted to use auto with the flash, knowing that I would get a lot of noise if I relied on high ISO's.

But I haven't really used the flash or auto mode before since I bought the camera back in February. When I tried to take a picture in auto the flash would pop up but instead of taking a photo the flash just keep strobing and wouldn't take a picture. Agh. I know it's a case of me not knowing the camera functions rather than a camera malfunction.

It was incredibly annoying and in the end I ended up having noisy yucky photos.

I'll have a flick through my manual but any advice is appreciated. It's probably something really obvious and simple.

[wagsalot]

I don't know if it's correct but the reason someone gave me was that the camera needs a certain amount of light to be able to auto focus and when you use your in-built flash the camera is trying to use light from the flash to lock the focus because there isn't enough existing light. It apparently starts strobing because it can't focus so the flash just keeps letting off quick bursts of light if you keep the shutter release in a half

press as you keep trying to focus. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable can confirm whether that's more or less right.

This is what I thought.

I hated using flash, but couldn't afford a external one, so I went out and bought a difuser for $10. Sits over the flash and doesn't give the photo such a bright, white, look. I use that along with changing the strength of the flash and now don't hate it so much!

(A piece of white card, sending the flash upwards etc worked just as well as the difuser too, but did look a little odd )

Edited July 25, 2011 by wagsalot

[Naomi]

After a bit more testing I think you are right about the camera trying to use light from the flash to lock on the focus.

It's a real pain though. I could always try manual focusing.

How do you change the strength of the flash?

[Ravyk]

Yeah, the strobing is caused by the auto-focus trying to focus and not having enough natural light to do so. The strobing allows enough light to focus.