Horribly washed out! (XT)

I'd love some help. This doesn't happen on my other XT but it does on my new body (purchased a week ago from here) and I'm trying to figure out why pictures are so unbelievably washed out with the flash.

I'm using P mode so that I can choose flash or not and in this case, with flash was shot at ISO100 and without at ISO1600. I've taken a picture of the environment so that you can get an idea of how this was taken - I was far enough away that the flash shouldn't have had so much affect.

I'm using a Sigma 300mm macro lens but it is not set to macro mode for these.

Thanks for any help! All settings were reset to factory before taking these.

The set:

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Well, the camera's not magic. Looks lilke the room was very dim. The camera is overcompensating for the darkness. Opposite happens if you shoot snow; the camera thinks it is way too bright and underexposes. To fix it dial in some negative flash exposure compensation.

Also, you might find that you'll have more luck with flash when using M, or Av modes. It takes some practice but the images will turn out more.

Remember, this happens everywhere, including outside in daylight, inside with artificial and natural light etc - not just on this single artificial test. I just wanted to have a picture where I could replicate it EXACTLY with and without flash so I did this setup. And no, its not very dark, the iPhone just takes bad pictures.

Actually, I'm surprised the camera judged the scene as well as it did, and left the whites white (instead of underexposing them and making them gray, as in the 'snow' example of Gooble) (assuming the subject is white).
One possibility is that the subject simply was too close for the selected aperture / ISO setting, so the flash "couldn't shut down fast enough."

Flashes have a minimum as well as a maximum distance. It's probabely in the manual.

The subject also looks 'whashed out' probabely, because the light is coming from the camera: No shape is "emphasised" by the light, since all shadows are gone: Everything looks "flattened".

Those picture look just as I would expect them too look. I'm not sure what you are expecting?

Of course the flash is going to have an effect, why else use it? I really don't see the problem, direct flash is always horrid and washed out.

Try taking some photos in real conditions, I mean it does not really matter if the camera (user) takes bad pics indoors with a 300mm lens, unless you want to print photos of your xbox thingymajig.

Were you using direct flash with the built-in flash then? Your best bet is to use an external flash unit and bounce it off the ceiling to avoid that harsh washed out look. Also consider gooble's good advice to set the camera in Manual mode and let the flash do all the driving.