Canon R6 - I have to press the shutter button twice to take photos - First photo is completely black

[Gettingthere]

Hello everyone,

I suspect I may have accidentally changed a setting on my Canon R6, and despite my valiant efforts, I have not been able to find a solution.🙊

Lately, each time I take a a photo I have to press the shutter button at least twice in order to take a well exposed photo. If I do not press the shutter button twice the first photo comes out completely black.

It usually happens when I am using a flash on camera or a strobe. I have checked my shutter speed and it is always at 1/200.

Additionally, without changing any of the settings the second photo comes out properly exposed.

I have also observed that when the problem occurs my viewfinder's screen goes black momentarily as well.

Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this please? Your assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

[deebatman316 · Accepted solution]

Have you reset the camera and the custom functions back to factory default. Also what flash/ strobe system are you using. Are you using a Canon speedlite when you say on camera flash. Also what strobe lighting are you using with this camera.

[shadowsports]

Greetings,

For starters I agree with Demetrius, reset the camera and test.  

With AF enabled, when you gently half-press the shutter button are you getting focus lock, or a blank screen?

[Gettingthere]

Thank you for taking the time to answer. Much appreciated.

[Bluebuilder]

I'm happy for you that resetting the camera fixed the issue.  But in case you're wondering what caused it in the first place you probably had Long Exposure Noise Reduction turned on.  When this feature is enabled, it takes two photos.  1) A normal photo 2) A "dark frame' with the shutter closed.

This is a technique used frequently in astrophotography where the dark frame helps to isolate noise not associated with the optics (thermal, sensor, etc.) and subtract the noise from the regular exposure.  It can get much more complicated, but that's the essence.  Try it out, it's an interesting feature that's not well understood by most users.