10D meter problems???

[plpwheeler]

Hello, I'm new to this Forum so bear with me. I purchased a 10D about a year ago and have always had erratic meter readings. It's not super drastic but it's enough to screw me up. I am a small time professional and It's making me spend too much time at the PC correcting them. I use the 550EX flash on a Custom bracket QRS-35-H, (sweet thing too!) The problem is not as bad when just using ambiant light much worse when flash is used. I get quite a variation in flash power between shots, even of the same subject seconds apart! I understand that the meter can be fooled with a bride in a white dress, or men in their black tuxes. I can compensate for that, but the examples I'll hopefully be loading on here will show you that with the same subjects, two pictures taken14 seconds apart are both quite different exposures. I used M mode, the meter was at evaluative, the settings were a 40th sec at f8.0. I also set the flash over by +1/3 stop to compensate for the white dresses.
I want to know if my camera is just like all the other 10d's or if my camera (or flash) is not working correctly. Any help would be great.
Thanks, Patrick...

[robertwgross]

Do you mean M mode on the camera?

Which of the two shots was taken first, the dark one or the bright one?

Which of those two shots is more correctly exposed, in your opinion?

I used to get some inconsistency in flash exposures, especially if I fired right after the red (Ready) light went on at the flash. It seemed as though if I waited an additional 5-10 seconds, it would be "more ready" and the exposures would be more consistent. But that is just the way it seemed at the time.

---Bob Gross---

[plpwheeler]

Yes, I mean manual mode on the camera. I believe the the second was more properly exposed and the histogram looks way better as well. I don't pay attention to the light on the flah, I look at the histogram more. The pics were taken in the order you see them, hense the numbering.

[robertwgross]

I don't pay attention to the light on the flah, I look at the histogram more. The pics were taken in the order you see them, hense the numbering.

There is no numbering visible, so we don't know this for sure.

Sometimes a flash unit will fire when it is insufficiently recycled from the last shot, and as a result, it fires with less-than-normal power. If you only look through the viewfinder to see the flash icon, then sometimes you won't see whether the red (ready) light is fully on.

---Bob Gross---

[MarkH]

Have you tried setting the flash to manual? I have done this for tricky lighting situations where the cameras metering is too easily fooled - M on camera and set the flash manually, check histogram and adjust as necessary. This can be a good solution when the camera sees the white dresses and can work too hard to avoid blowing the highlights.

[PacAce]

Where were your focusing points for the two pictures? Were they the same for both pictures or did you use a different focusing point for each?