Canon Powershot S1 IS Flash Problems

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone here might be able to help me out.

I recently purchased a Canon Powershot S1 IS. It's a nice camera at 3.3MP with loads of features. But I'm noticing an issue with the pop up flash and I'm curious if it's something wrong with the camera or if it's just me.

In Auto mode, even if it's in a pretty dark apartment, the camera will try to use a slower shutter speed or lower aperature rather than use the flash. If I go into P mode and try to force it to use the flash by manually turning it on, the flash will pop up but when I depress the shutter partway to focus, I won't get the flash symbol and again, it will try to use a slower shutter speed instead.

Now the worst part is, on full manual, it will still do this. As if it's overriding the manual flash and using auto instead.

Once I had to "trick" it by covering the sensor with my finger before holding the shutter down half way to focus. This caused the flash to turn on. From then on, as long as I didn't turn the camera off, it was okay.

Is there a setting that I'm missing? Is my camera defective? Or is there something that I'm totally missing here???

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Tim

Sounds to me like a call.email to Canon is in order. You should not have to completely cover up the sensor to get the flash to activate.

I agree. I have the same camera, and the flash works as you would expect.

I am having the same exact flash problems with my Canon Powershot A75 (in auto or manual). We are sending it back to Canon for repair/replacement.