Rebel t5i 18-55mm pop up flash issue

[ianlawrence]

Im a beginner and my problem is that my new t5i is not working anymore in manual or auto int mode . I test it in the dark room, in auto mode, the flash is firing but the image is dark. Any suggestions?

[ezpop]

Go to Built-in flash settings :

Check if the first line - Built-in flash is set to NormalFiring instead of the other 2 choices.

[DempseyGT]

Checking the flash settings is the first thing I did. It's set on normal firing in all cases. The problem is that it doesn't flash correctly with any settings.

[ABorger]

I am having a dark image problem as well, but have noticed that in automatic modes the shutter speed and aperture are not changing with each photo. They are all being taken at, for example, 60/3.5. No matter the lighting, distance, or subject. I have started using the manual mode in order to change my shutter speeds and use my flash, or just using the no-flash mode. Any ideas?

[RobertTheFat]

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@ABorger wrote:
I am having a dark image problem as well, but have noticed that in automatic modes the shutter speed and aperture are not changing with each photo. They are all being taken at, for example, 60/3.5. No matter the lighting, distance, or subject. I have started using the manual mode in order to change my shutter speeds and use my flash, or just using the no-flash mode. Any ideas?

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The guiding principle behind E-TTL is that the camera exposes for the background and the flash provides enough fill to make sure the highlights are properly exposed. So getting the background exposure right is critically important, but it's necessary to understand that the flash plays little or no role in that. Indeed, the role it does play can be counterintuitive. For example: On a very bright day with backlighting, you may want to use fill flash to keep your subjects' faces from being underexposed. But the camera will not use a shutter speed that's too fast for the flash (i.e., faster than about 1/200 second), resulting in pictures that can be massively overexposed.

And if your camera, without the falsh, cannot take in enough light to expose the background, the picture will be dark. The usual solution indoors is to use bounce flash. The result is often a picture that is more brightly lit than if you had used direct flash.

AFAIK, Canon has never explained this effectively (although a very few independent authors have).

[dj-lucas]

Hi i got the same issue and but i seem that it get worse over time!

at first it was just a few pictures that are to dark, now i preatty much can't use my camera at all!

(that is with flash on in any mode)

95% out of all pictures with flash wont turn out! 😞

I even tried updating the Firmware (from 1.1.1.1 to 1.1.1.4)

but didn't help.

hopfully some one will come up with a firmware update to fix this issue.

[dj-lucas]

So i have been in contact with Canon Support with this issue and we have already tried a few things but nothing fixed it yet.

But yesterday they asked me to send them 3 pictures with a tripod and with flash on so all pictures are the same (2 out of 3 are dark).

I was comparing all 3 pictures (size of image, setting from the camera that were used).

Turns out everything is the same (timing settings, ISO, etc.)

The only difference was the physical size of the .jpg file.

Here is where it get interesting.

My Wife saw this red dot on the picture.

At first I thought it was some dirt on the monitor, but nothing (I got 2 monitors and you can see it on both).

Then I checked if the lens was dirty, but no it was Clean.

So i had a look at old Pictures and sure enough it’s on all the old pictures too but not the ones from the 1st year when i bought this camera.

Now i would like to know if you guys (that have the same flash problem) also have a dead pixel or whatever you would call that.

I attached a Picture and circled the area with the dead pixel.

(Right click on the picture and select view image and zoom in the circled area)

[wattsUp]

No red dot here (though we'll double check on other monitors) but we're having the same problem with our t5i. In taking four photos of the same scene (in auto mode) the flash goes but 3 out of the 4 pictures are dark. Its like the timing of the final flash (the second one after the initial evalution) is sporadically off in its timing.

[wattsUp · Accepted solution]

Appears we may have found a fix.

Thankfully we still had the camera under a two year protection plan so we sent it in for repair. It has been retruned to us with the repair summary noting that the Strobe Unit has been replaced. This appears to have fixed the issue. The flash is now synchronized with the shutter.

[dj-lucas]

Did they give you like a partnumber or something?

Did they tell you what that would have cost if you had to pay?

I googled "Strobe Unit" and couldn't find anything.