DRebel decides not to flash. Why?

[opus]

Hi, this has happened to me at least twice, once during the reception of a wedding I was doing! Fortunately I had a backup. The flash just decided not to pop up, and there's nothing I can do to get it to activate. Tonight I needed to take a group shot of people, indoors in rather dim light, and I just wanted to use the point-and-shoot features of my DRebel. But none of the auto settings would get the flash to pop up, neither would pushing the manual flash button. I had a full battery installed.


Is this a known bug? Or am I not doing something right?

[Michael Fanelli]

Hi, this has happened to me at least twice, once during the reception of a wedding I was doing! Fortunately I had a backup. The flash just decided not to pop up, and there's nothing I can do to get it to activate. Tonight I needed to take a group shot of people, indoors in rather dim light, and I just wanted to use the point-and-shoot features of my DRebel. But none of the auto settings would get the flash to pop up, neither would pushing the manual flash button. I had a full battery installed.


Is this a known bug? Or am I not doing something right?

Are you using automatic mode? If so, the camera decides when to flash. If this is the case, switch to a user-controlled mode such as Av, Tv, or manual. In these modes, you make the choice for flash.

[Trevor Ash]

I bet Michael is right about that.

I can share a tip with you that I use when I want to shoot "full auto". If you set the camera in "P" mode then YOU decide when the flash should be used simply by popping up the flash or not. If it's "up", it'll be used and if it's down it won't.

"P" mode also lets you dial in some exposure compensation (at least on my 10D it does). One wheel compensates by changing aperture and the other wheel compensates by changing shutter.

I find "P" mode to be pretty darn useful for the kind of situation you described. I'm not too sure what other differences there are from the "green" mode.

Regarding your problem, you said it was in "dim light" so I suppose something else could have gone wrong but user error seems likely. Let's hope it's user error because I sure hate sending cameras in for repair!

Let us know what you find out please.

[opus]

Mike and Trevor,

I switched to several modes on both sides of the dial.

Almost without fail, it tries to flash in portrait mode, even outside. But last night, nothing. I switched to the ever reliable "green square" mode (which I rarely use) because flash always goes off in that mode. Nothing.

So then I switched over to manual mode, and pushed the button that makes the flash pop up. Nothing. I pushed and pushed while turning the dial to each mode, and the flash absolutely refused to respond.

It did the same thing almost exactly one year ago. Between these times I have not had a problem with it at all.

I hope it's user error, but it's nothing so basic as not trying the right settings. I simply asked the camera to go into full auto point-and-shoot mode (so I could hand the camera to someone else to take the group shot), but it failed me.

[opus]

mini-update:

After I just posted that, I pulled the camera out, set it to manual mode, and pushed the flash button. The flash popped up. Then I pushed the flash back down and pushed the flash button again. Nothing. And it had *just* worked, one second ago.

This makes me think I should perhaps check the main camera battery, the "button battery" that powers the memory and stuff. Ya think?

[Trevor Ash]

Sounds like a real problem kelly (not user related). I don't know if the battery wil help but it's worth a shot if you can get a hold of one at the camera store. Putting the camera in manual and pressing the flash button should pop the flash up if it's not already.

Which mode do you have the camera in? The O.N. mode or the O.F.F mode? I've heard of problems in the O.F.F. mode before.
...
...
...

That was a joke

[mjs1973]

mini-update:

After I just posted that, I pulled the camera out, set it to manual mode, and pushed the flash button. The flash popped up. Then I pushed the flash back down and pushed the flash button again. Nothing. And it had *just* worked, one second ago.

This makes me think I should perhaps check the main camera battery, the "button battery" that powers the memory and stuff. Ya think?

Kelly,

Did you ever get this problem resolved or are you still having problems with it? As a fellow DRebel owner, I'm curious to find out what's going on with your flash...

Michael

[opus]

Michael, no, I haven't wanted to use my camera the past few days and I've been too busy to remember to buy a new battery.

Sorry... I'll post if I figure it out.