Built in flash malfunction

[saffronica]

I have a T5i that I just bought over the summer.

Just now it started doing something that I really do not like and I need to know what my next steps should be.

In any mode that uses the onboard flash

Using Auto-Focus

Using any and all lenses (kit lens, 50mm, and wide angle)

Press shutter halfway down to auto focus

Flash snaps up when subject is too dark -- however "too dark" now means a fully lit room.

When shutter is pressed halfway down the camera makes a sound like a shorted electrical wire (a "bzzt") and the flash flickers on for a second.

The display flashes BUSY

The camera does snap the photo after a delay with the flash.

But that "bzzt" sound adn the flash flicker is freaking me out.

I've read through the forums and tested it with all of my lenses, and in both AF and MF modes.

Doesn't do it in MF with any lens.

Doesn't do it in AF with live view/screen turned on, only when I use the viewfinder.

But it DOES do it with ALL lenses in AF.

And that electrical "bzzt" sound + the flash flickering is.... extremelyt unsettling.

I'm thinking it's an onboard issue with the body, but before I lose my camera for who knows how long for diagnostics and repairs I wanted to come here and see if anyone else has had the problem and if anyone knows of a fix.

Thanks!

[jrhoffman75]

Are you sure it's not the flash acting as an autofocus assist when it's too dark for normal AF?

[TCampbell]

The noise you hear is the camera using the flash as a focus-assist light.  

Your "fully lit" room is too dark.  

What is your shooting mode?  (e.g. Auto, Program, Tv, Av, Manual, etc.)

What is your ISO set to ?

[MikeSowsun]

Page 300 of your T5i manual shows how to use "Custom Functions" to disable the "bzzt" sound + the flash flickering of the AF Assist. 

[annhackler]

I'm having a similar problem with my T6i, after a year of use.  Did anyone ever answer this question to your satisfaction?

[RobertTheFat]

---

@annhackler wrote:

I'm having a similar problem with my T6i, after a year of use.  Did anyone ever answer this question to your satisfaction?

---

Regardless of the OP's level of satisfaction, the answer supplied by Mike, Tim, and John is almost certainly correct.

[ScottyP]

Agreed. That buzzing and flashing is what the camera does when there is not enough light for it to autofocus. It can be really annoying. 

A Rebel cannot focus quickly, or at all, in dim light.  What is dim to a camera can look bright enough to see just fine with the human eye.  That is actually one major reason I went to full frame cameras. My Rebel T3i just couldn't take a shot inside at night unless every light in the house was burning bright. It would do all of that flashing and buzzing as it tried.  

[RobertTheFat]

---

@ScottyP wrote:

Agreed. That buzzing and flashing is what the camera does when there is not enough light for it to autofocus. It can be really annoying. ...

---

You may be able to avoid the hissing and fizzing by using an external flash. The good ones use infrared light, not visible light from the flash head, for AF assist.

[pcdarcan]

Wow!  In looking for answers to this perculair flash noise, I came across this post in the Canon Cummunity site.  I discovered the same thing with my newly purchased Canon 77D!  Let me set the scene.  In several different modes (Basic or Creative), a test flash shot in a medium lit room (mostly from the light coming from window light during mid-day) produces a most annoying behavior.  When the shutter is depressed half-way down [for auto focus], it emits several rapid flashes and while this is happening, the camera makes an electrical buzzing noise!  Since this is heard by the subject(s), it's both distracting and annoying, often times invoking a response, "Is there something wrong with your camera?"  I also noticed that the camera is not particularly sensitive towards the light that exist in a room.  In other words, if the room is not extremely well lit, it concludes that the room is much to dark and thus uses the pop-up flash, but the camera's response it so slow!  For heaven's sake, my Canon G10 doesn't behave this way. I can set my G10 to 2.8 with the in-camera flash on and it fires immediately with the auto-focus working fine, too  Long story short, I see that this is a problem with this line of cameras and apparently is inherited by the glorified Rebel model: 77D.  I'm sorry Canon, but both this flash noise and the lack of sensitivity to existing ambient light is most disturbing.  And, for those who say, add an external flash... well, I have one (430EX ii), but I'm still shocked by how insensitve the camera is to existing light. btw: The lens I was using is the Sigma 17-50mm 2.8, so don't blame the lens on this one.  Finally, most annoying is the time-lapse - that busy indicator - while the camera performs the auto-focus while doing it's rapid flash firing, which results in "missed" shots.  Having an on-board (pop-up) flash is excellent to have - when I don't need my external flash - but the behavior of it was so annoying, I sent the 77D camera back for a full refund.  It doesn't seem like Canon wants to address this either, because apparently it's been in this line of Rebels for quite some time.  I suppose they hope that the purchaser will just "live" with it.  But, I'm not that type of consumer.  If any camera manufacterer produces a camera that has such an annoyance, I won't keep it.

[RobertTheFat]

---

@pcdarcan wrote:

Wow!  In looking for answers to this perculair flash noise, I came across this post in the Canon Cummunity site.  I discovered the same thing with my newly purchased Canon 77D!  Let me set the scene.  In several different modes (Basic or Creative), a test flash shot in a medium lit room (mostly from the light coming from window light during mid-day) produces a most annoying behavior.  When the shutter is depressed half-way down [for auto focus], it emits several rapid flashes and while this is happening, the camera makes an electrical buzzing noise!  Since this is heard by the subject(s), it's both distracting and annoying, often times invoking a response, "Is there something wrong with your camera?"  I also noticed that the camera is not particularly sensitive towards the light that exist in a room.  In other words, if the room is not extremely well lit, it concludes that the room is much to dark and thus uses the pop-up flash, but the camera's response it so slow!  For heaven's sake, my Canon G10 doesn't behave this way. I can set my G10 to 2.8 with the in-camera flash on and it fires immediately with the auto-focus working fine, too  Long story short, I see that this is a problem with this line of cameras and apparently is inherited by the glorified Rebel model: 77D.  I'm sorry Canon, but both this flash noise and the lack of sensitivity to existing ambient light is most disturbing.  And, for those who say, add an external flash... well, I have one (430EX ii), but I'm still shocked by how insensitve the camera is to existing light. btw: The lens I was using is the Sigma 17-50mm 2.8, so don't blame the lens on this one.  Finally, most annoying is the time-lapse - that busy indicator - while the camera performs the auto-focus while doing it's rapid flash firing, which results in "missed" shots.  Having an on-board (pop-up) flash is excellent to have - when I don't need my external flash - but the behavior of it was so annoying, I sent the 77D camera back for a full refund.  It doesn't seem like Canon wants to address this either, because apparently it's been in this line of Rebels for quite some time.  I suppose they hope that the purchaser will just "live" with it.  But, I'm not that type of consumer.  If any camera manufacterer produces a camera that has such an annoyance, I won't kee

---

You're missing two important points. One is that the human eye has a much greater dynamic range than that of any camera. So what you see as adequate indoor lighting can be very dark from the camera's point of view. The fact that you don't need an assist from the camera's built-in flash is not a reason to suppose that the camera doesn't. (Don't be embarrassed. I didn't take 10th-grade biology either, and only blundered onto this understanding later in life.)

The other point is that your G-10 undoubtedly has a much smaller sensor than your rejected 77D. A smaller sensor, for all its faults (not worth addressing here), allows a lens with a shorter focal length. And a shorter focal length means a deeper depth of field, so the autofocus mechanism doesn't have to work as hard or be as accurate.

Yeah, we (users of more sophisticated cameras) have learned to "live with it".  But that doesn't mean that you have to. Today's simpleminded point-and-shoot cameras are nearly as good as my first professional-quality camera was when I bought it 59 years ago - and clearly good enough for the average hobbyist. I'm being very sincere when I assure you that there's no shame in reverting to a G-10 if it meets your requirements.