20D Dark Flash Exposures

[Howie Rosen]

I have a 20 d for two weeks now and I have noticed that the flash exposures on full automatic are dark. It is the same when using the 580 flash as well.
I contacted Canon, and I was told to get a grey card and shoot it with flash on auto and that the historgram should have a solid white spike center screen. I did this only to find out that it was against the left edge of the screen. So I sent the camera back to where it was purchased for a replacement. FYI

[PacAce]

Did you check to see if you had negative FEC turned on on the camera or the flash. You can tell by checking the EXIF info of the shots you took.

[Howie Rosen]

Leo, I did not.However I can say it only happened with flash photography.

[PacAce]

Leo, I did not.However I can say it only happened with flash photography.
you might want to check the EXIF just to make sure. FEC is only applicable for flash photography so you wouldn't be able to tell my looking at any of your non-flash pictures.

[drisley]

Ooh, if that was in fact the case, what a waste.
Just goes to show yall, when you buy a new gadget, read the manual from cover to cover, and then use the gadget. That is how I always do it. Most people I know that work as tech support people say that if everybody read their manuals for their products, they would have 90% fewer calls. It seems that almost nobody I know reads manuals for anything.
Not saying that is necessarily what happened here, but it does sound as if Howie didnt know what Flash Exposure Compensation was.

[robertwgross]

Most people I know that work as tech support people say that if everybody read their manuals for their products, they would have 90% fewer calls. It seems that almost nobody I know reads manuals for anything.

Yes, the user manual is an underutilized thing. Notice that if you want to deal with Adobe Technical Support, then either you buy a paid service contract from them, or else you call them on a toll phone number, or else you try to do it by email. Whichever way you go, it costs the user either money or time. What's more is that too many users misplace their user manuals and don't bother to find any PDF file on the web site. That is what has opened up such a huge market for after-market training books and non-vendor user guides.

I still remember when irate customers used to call my employer with some complaint about a standard product. When nobody else was available to take the call, I would take it. It would take me about one minute of listening to figure out the standard problem caused by the user's inability to read the manual. I said something like: "Oh, that is a standard question. The answer is at the bottom of page 151, last paragraph." Then the irate customer would be boiling. I'm sorry that he didn't sit through the training course.

For the original poster's problem, it's also possible that there was some kind of major flash failure. I guess Canon will just have to sort that out.

---Bob Gross---