Canon Rebel T3 EOS Flash and Auto Mode Problems: Help Me!

[disgusta234]

I recently got a job as a photographer for the nightlife in my city. I went out and tried to shoot the other night. My camera isn't broken, but I had it in auto (green rectangle) and when I'd hit the shutter button, it would just flash, looking like it was having a seizure, and not take the picture. It eventually took the photos, but it flashed in their faces like 3 times before it actually took the photo. People cursed me out and it was awful. Why won't my camera just take the picture the first time??? Why does it say it's "busy" and how do I know when to take the photo to avoid pissing people off?

Also, when I went to the "no flash" seting, it took the picture with no problem, but I absolutely NEED the flash to work. Please help me!

[RobertTheFat]

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@disgusta234 wrote:

I recently got a job as a photographer for the nightlife in my city. I went out and tried to shoot the other night. My camera isn't broken, but I had it in auto (green rectangle) and when I'd hit the shutter button, it would just flash, looking like it was having a seizure, and not take the picture. It eventually took the photos, but it flashed in their faces like 3 times before it actually took the photo. People cursed me out and it was awful. Why won't my camera just take the picture the first time??? Why does it say it's "busy" and how do I know when to take the photo to avoid pissing people off?

Also, when I went to the "no flash" seting, it took the picture with no problem, but I absolutely NEED the flash to work. Please help me!

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For God's sake, get out of "green rectangle" mode!! If you are now a professional or semi-professional photographer but have not progressed beyond that point, you have some serious catching up to do.

The "seizure" you describe is probably the flash trying (unsuccessfully?) to help the lens auto-focus under dark conditions. That functionality should be described in your user manual.

I can't say this for sure, since I've never used a T3, but my sense is that you're probably underequipped for the assignment you've taken on.

[TCampbell]

Bob has nailed it.... when auto-focus is enabled and the camera is using "One Shot" mode (the default focus mode), the camera will NOT take a photo until it can confirm that it was able to lock focus.  To help the camera focus, it will attempt to use the pop-up flash and strobe it very quickly to create something which is more-or-less about 1 seconds worth of continuous light.

You'll want an external speedlite flash for two reasons...

1)  Several external flash models include a "focus-assist" beam.

2)  The external speedlite models are significantly more powerful than the built-in pop-up flash and can handle subjects at much greater distances.

Normally I'd suggest a Canon Speedlite 430EX II... but Canon recently announced it replacement will be available in mid-septermber.  The 430EX III-RT ... and it's the same price (the new model has a radio receiver and can triggered via radio instead of optical (optical triggers require line-of-sight... radio does not.)  I'd much rather have the radio-eqiupped version.

The focus-assist beam in the flash illuminates a red-pattern momentarily while the camera is focusing.  This beam allows the camera to focus even in total darkness.  It doesn't have to pulse the flash to work as a modeling light to achieve focus (it's actually much better than the 1-second long burst of light.)

[ScottyP]

Hi,

That embarassing seizure-inflicting strobing is definitely the camera trying to produce enough light for its sensor to grab focus.  That is one of the 2 reasons I went to a 6d.  

A 6d can focus in dimmer light than even the 5d3 can (-3EV vs. -2EV).  The T3 and most of its cousins cannot autofocus at dimmer than 0EV.

The other reason I switched is better high ISO image quality, which is also germane to your night shooting.  According to DXO (yes, I know everyone hates them)  FF sensors will allow you to use ISO up to about ISO 2400 and still produce "good" image quality while the crop sensor in a Rebel stops doing that at about ISO 400 if I remember reading that correctly. 

One can quibble with DXO and one can also say they are less picky about noise and lack of detail and that therefore ISO's double these numbers are fine for printing smaller than 8x10, etc., but the basic idea is that the FF sensor is better in dim light.