Flash on Canon 500D

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Jahir
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Hi Guys, I have a problem with my inbuilt flash on my canon 500d, was wondering if anyones had or heard of the problem...

In automatic mode, the flash works fine. But when I go in to manual, aperture priority or shutter priority mode, the flash only comes on for the focus assist but doesnt actually fire when the photo is taken. Anyone had this problem before and know how to fix it? HELP

By the way, Ive been on this forum a lot lately, really interesting read and Ive learnt alot :thumbs:
 
Canon flash works subtly differently in program mode compared with AV mode.

Imagine trying to take a shot if a person with a night cityscape behind them. Obviously you'll need the flash. In P mode, the camera assumes that all the light it needs will come from the flash, so it will select a shutter speed of maybe 1/60th or 1/125th and your background will be just black. In AV mode they camera tries to get the exposure right for the whole scene, so it will select a shutter speed of maybe 1/4 to expose for the background, and then fire the flash just as a little fill-in for the subject.

With me so far? Now, if the camera thinks it has enough light anyway without the flash, then in AV mode it won't bother firing the flash, or it will use just a tiny amount. But in P mode it has to fire the flash because it's assuming that's the only light source.

Is that what you're getting? If so, try taking the same shot in AV mode with and without the flash enabled. You should be able to see some difference because of the fill-in flash, but it may be subtle.
 
Hi mate. Thanks for your help, I understood everything you said but i feel really silly now...the flash was turned off in the settings..DOH!. Took me ages to find it. Not sure how it got turned off but it's all good now.
 
any ideas on best off-camera flash for this camera on a budget?
Thanks
 
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