T3i Continuous Shooting w/ Integrated Flash

Hello Everyone.. I recently was at an event and and I saw another person who had the T3i. After the event ended, I was on one end of the room as was he; but I noticed he was taking pretty continuous pictures (1 second in between) with the flash.

I cannot achieve the same - I have to wait a few (5) seconds before taking the next photos. Was he using a setting that I have overlooked?

I always shoot in M mode, and the lens in AF when in low-light. Thanks in advance!

Did you see any remote flashes on stands? He may have been using the T3i's pop-up flash as a controller for them.

Or maybe he was exposing for ambient light (high ISO and / or low shutter speed) and using the pop-up flash as a fill flash, which requires less output and allows the flash to recycle faster.

What were your settings? Sounds like your flash was close to full output.

joeblack2022 wrote in post #14084986
Did you see any remote flashes on stands? He may have been using the T3i's pop-up flash as a controller for them.

No - he was just standing there snapping away - all flashes came from the pop-up flash

joeblack2022 wrote in post #14084986
Or maybe he was exposing for ambient light (high ISO and / or low shutter speed) and using the pop-up flash as a fill flash, which requires less output and allows the flash to recycle faster.

That's interesting

joeblack2022 wrote in post #14084986
What were your settings? Sounds like your flash was close to full output.

That might have been the case. I know that I set a MAX ISO of 4000, I was at about 1/125 and my f-stop at about 4.0.. I did raise the flash variation to about +1.5 to +2

But Even before making those changes to support the shooting environment, I can't shoot so many continuous shots like I saw the other person.

What speed of card are you using? Which drive mode are you using? Are you shooting RAW or jpeg?

Snydremark wrote in post #14085357
What speed of card are you using? Which drive mode are you using? Are you shooting RAW or jpeg?

Hello - I'm using a class 10 card. Interesting you ask, I often see "Busy" when I try to shoot continuous with flash.

When I say continuous, I do mean waiting at least 1 second and trying again. I have to wait about 5 seconds.

Drive mode = continuous. This works just fine without flash. I can hold down and take plenty of pictures.

For this event in particular I disabled RAW because I wasn't sure I'd have enough space on the card.

Thanks for helping!

Question though .. Would an external flash like the 430/530 also be prone to these same delays?

You were using auto ISO? If you do that the camera will almost always pick 400 when using flash, and then you wanted +1.5 or +2 exposure compensation from it? Yeah, that probably required pretty much a complete discharge from the flash. The other person probably had their flash set to -1 or -1.5 to use it as a fill flash, which is much less harsh and generally more pleasing as it lets in more ambient light. With a TTL flash like the T3i uses it will automatically adjust your flash output to get a proper exposure, ramping it up is going to tend to lead to over flashing your subject and creating a very harsh look on it and making the background completely black.

Was the camera not letting you take the picture, or if you took it was your flash just not firing?

I'm stumped as to why the flash would cause a delay in shooting...but if it's the recycle time, you ought to be able to get better recycle with an external unit.

If the issue is just your flash not firing due to over discharge the 430 EX II can recycle very quickly, assuming I am using settings that don't require a full discharge I can pop off one or two a second, pretty much on demand, using Eneloop rechargeable batteries. If my settings are set very aggressively (low ISO, narrow aperture, or higher shutter speed) you can outrun the flash, I think it takes about 2 or 3 seconds to recharge from a full discharge.

Keyan wrote in post #14085402
You were using auto ISO? If you do that the camera will almost always pick 400 when using flash, and then you wanted +1.5 or +2 exposure compensation from it? Yeah, that probably required pretty much a complete discharge from the flash. The other person probably had their flash set to -1 or -1.5 to use it as a fill flash, which is much less harsh and generally more pleasing as it lets in more ambient light. With a TTL flash like the T3i uses it will automatically adjust your flash output to get a proper exposure, ramping it up is going to tend to lead to over flashing your subject and creating a very harsh look on it and making the background completely black.

Was the camera not letting you take the picture, or if you took it was your flash just not firing?

Correct! You described exactly what I was dealing with. I had to set the discharge so high to get a decent picture due to distance. Ok so this is starting to make more sense. all my shots came out at ISO400 and due to my shooting field survived the full discharged flash.

I was not able to take shots when the flash wasn't ready and due to the low-lighting, it's best it didn't.

If that's the case, try getting out of Auto ISO and just setting a higher ISO to reduce the workload on the flash. If it's not discharging with each shot that ought to let you keep shooting longer.

Snydremark wrote in post #14085508
If that's the case, try getting out of Auto ISO and just setting a higher ISO to reduce the workload on the flash. If it's not discharging with each shot that ought to let you keep shooting longer.

Understood. I thought about doing this too, but thought I'd lose out on those shots where the ISO could be better, but I guess if the scene isn't going to change much, it cant improve either

I was just having an issue with long range type shots. E.g. trying to capture just a room full of people resulted in the front half of the room just fine, but the back half nearly in the dark. I'm hoping that the 430EX overcomes these challenges so I don't make rookie mistakes like this and lose good shots.

Keyan & Snydremark thanks very much for your help!

Snydremark wrote in post #14085409
I'm stumped as to why the flash would cause a delay in shooting...but if it's the recycle time, you ought to be able to get better recycle with an external unit.

With an external flash you can still shoot when it is not charged up, with the pop-up you will get a "busy" indicator in the viewfinder.

joeblack2022 wrote in post #14085581
With an external flash you can still shoot when it is not charged up, with the pop-up you will get a "busy" indicator in the viewfinder.

Shows you how much I've shot with the on-board, huh? Thanks for that

Snydremark wrote in post #14085715
Shows you how much I've shot with the on-board, huh? Thanks for that

Well don't go around telling people I've used the pop-up!