Help! Canon Rebel External Flash

Hi, my problem is I got an external flash that works with my Canon Rebel, but I can't get it to shoot consistently. One shot will be awesome, and then I'll take another, and it'll be too dark.

I don't want the camera to do any of it's own "thinking". I want to set it to it takes the same shot with the same flash brightness every. single. time.

Even in manual mode, I'm still getting the inconsistent issue (perhaps there are still settings I need to tweak that I don't know about. I'm a novice here).

Please help!!

this might be stating the obvious, but are you allowing the flash enough time to recharge after each exposure?

Are you shooting manual mode from the camera? Or only setting manual flash?

Are you angling it? Is the angle changing in between the shots?

Excellent read on using EOS Flash units: http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/

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Originally Posted by maedus

I don't want the camera to do any of it's own "thinking". I want to set it to it takes the same shot with the same flash brightness every. single. time.

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Unfortunately, it's just not that simple. Even if you set it for manual control at the same output, you'd have variation depending on how close you are to your subject. The truth is, there is no fool-proof flash. In my experience, Nikon flash metering is better than Canon. But no matter what you use, there's always some fine-tuning necessary for good flash exposure. I usually shoot a test shot, adjut my flash exposure compensation, and then make my real shot. In candid environments you can't really do that so you just need to accept that there's going to be some variation.

My problem doesn't seem to be listed among those that I've read yet. I own an XT and an XTi. I also own a non dedicated Vivitar zoom thyristor 265 flash (single hot shoe contact) that's 30 plus years old but has worked flawlessly with my old 35s. I've tried using it in every mode with both XT cameras but it only goes off in the auto mode. My cameras do not seem to know a flash is attached as the shutter speed seems to be adjusted to the ambient room light and I get a ghost image along with the flash image. Can someone give me a clue as to how or what camera mode besides auto will make my flash go off? I'll worry about picture quality when I figure out how to use this ancient flash with Canon's XT series cameras.

Set the camera to manual mode.