why is the recycle time so bad on the internal flash 400D

Capacitor is the "bit" which holds the flashes charge before it is discharged as a flash.

Don't forget the AF strobe guys..sometimes in low light conditions when AF is searching for a focus I can't take a photo when it finally focused on the object, because the af strobe drained the capacitor...then I have to wait or a while..and try again... :S

hmmm.

i think i know what your saying
but i dont think thats it, as it says "busy" in the LCD until its ready to take next shot with flash.

luukie wrote in post #3939892
Don't forget the AF strobe guys..sometimes in low light conditions when AF is searching for a focus I can't take a photo when it finally focused on the object, because the af strobe drained the capacitor...then I have to wait or a while..and try again... :S

dellboy,

i hear what you are saying,

under "normal" usage, my flash seems "ok" then, as i can get atleast 10-15 shots in a row (good recycle time of 2-5 seonds) from the moment i turn it on fresh - its after that - that it slows down and takes longer....

but are u saying that cause i take pics consecutively (more than 15 shots in a row) (then keep taking shots every 10 seconds for a duration of a 5-15 photo shoot)

- are u saying that this is abnormal therfor its expected

ha

Dellboy wrote in post #3939881
Sounds to me like you've been giving that poor flash a serious working

Generally I'd say if you're working your flash that hard then I'd use an external flash.

If you put that much stress on a cheep flash ( relatively ) then it's likely to burn out - maybe you've done this already. There also maybe a auto cutout where if your flash gets to hot it stops working and allows it to cool down. This maybe where your 15 secs recharge/cool down time comes from.

I would say anything over 3 ( maybe 4 ) secs recharge time would be abnormal, under normal usage. If your camera can't do that for maybe 6 shots or so then I'd say there is a fault of some kind. Could be the flash's capacitor or maybe a faulty/old battery that can't hold much charge and hence it drains very quickly.

AussieCat wrote in post #3939920
ok dellboy,

i hear what you are saying,

under "normal" usage, my flash seems ok,

but are u saying that cause i take pics consecutively (more than 15 shots in a row) (then keep taking shots every 10 seconds for about 5 mins)

- are u saying that this is abnormal therfor its expected

ha

That's one way of putting it

Another way of putting it is:
I've never worked the on camera flash that hard so i would really know what to expect.

Are you taking into account the time the camera takes to process your run of pics? I don't think anything else happens if the camera's buffer is full.

Dellboy wrote in post #3939886
Capacitor is the "bit" which holds the flashes charge before it is discharged as a flash.

I really doubt it is a capacitor problem. These things don't have all that much that can go wrong. It's not like the old days with the paper and oil capacitors.

But one thing you might want to check out is the battery. Lithium-ion batteries failure signature is the inability to deliver current. The voltage stays very constant but it doesn't have the ability to supply the voltage at a specified current. If it's an older battery, or a third party battery, it might be a symptom that the battery is nearing its life expectancy.

Riverlander wrote in post #3940335
Are you taking into account the time the camera takes to process your run of pics? I don't think anything else happens if the camera's buffer is full.

The 400 has a pretty decent buffer. It can rattle off quite a few shots before slowing down.

aussiecat.. i found the same problem with my 400D.. but the internal flash shouldn't have to be used that much.. luukie mentioned what i was thinking.. the strobe to find focus usually drains lots out of the flash also..

if u got a 580EX now, then the internal flash issues shouldn't bother u..

i haven't got an external flash yet, but i rarely use the internal flash now.. i borrow a mates 430 if i know i need flash..

t

hahah

good point,. i do have the 580 ex which im yet to evenb open.

i guyess i just wanted to make sure my camera s not somewhat faulty and its ok to have a slow recycle time after taking so many shots.

good point about the pre/strobe flash trying to find a focus...

if i turn my camera on fresh right now, ill get a bout 15-20 fresh shots without a slow buffer ./ recycle time.

after that, itrs had it, it takes about up to 10 seconds per buffer/recycle time.

but like a few guys pointed out, i do take to manyt hsots with the internal flash in a 5-15 min time frame.

UNDRCOVR wrote in post #3945678
aussiecat.. i found the same problem with my 400D.. but the internal flash shouldn't have to be used that much.. luukie mentioned what i was thinking.. the strobe to find focus usually drains lots out of the flash also..

if u got a 580EX now, then the internal flash issues shouldn't bother u..

i haven't got an external flash yet, but i rarely use the internal flash now.. i borrow a mates 430 if i know i need flash..

t

AussieCat wrote in post #3939911
hmmm.

i think i know what your saying
but i dont think thats it, as it says "busy" in the LCD until its ready to take next shot with flash.

That's not waiting for the flash. The flash ready light (LH side of the VF) will come on when the flash has recycled; "Busy" means the buffer doesn't have room for any more shots. If you look over to the RH side of the VF, you'll see a number between 0 and 9. This is how many shots the buffer has room for (it shows 9 if there's room for 9 or more shots).

no thats new

and confused me.

when that "busy" sign comes up on the lcd, it can come up ant any time

even if my card io only 40 percent full?

so how do u mean as such its full?

the buffer?

Jon wrote in post #3956864
That's not waiting for the flash. The flash ready light (LH side of the VF) will come on when the flash has recycled; "Busy" means the buffer doesn't have room for any more shots. If you look over to the RH side of the VF, you'll see a number between 0 and 9. This is how many shots the buffer has room for (it shows 9 if there's room for 9 or more shots).

ok

so what actualy affects teh buffer time?

i formateted my card and it still had a long buffer time as such even whenn the card is empty...

AussieCat wrote in post #3969375
no thats new

and confused me.

when that "busy" sign comes up on the lcd, it can come up ant any time

even if my card io only 40 percent full?

so how do u mean as such its full?

the buffer?

The manual states that flash recylce times will increase after taking a number (20 mentioned in the manual) of flashes to protect the electronics of the flash charging mechanism.

http://static.tigerdir​ect.com/pdf/Canon-XTi400D-Manual.pdf See page 54.
Looking at your quote you are experiencing what is documented in the manual. So it's normal, not a fault.

Secondly I read an "unofficial" change in the latest firmware release that the flash recycle time had been improved (i.e that the busy sign should come up after 20 shots and not after about 5 as it did previously), but have not tested this myself, so maybe the latest firmware might help if you don't already have it.

The "buffer" is a block of memory in the camera that serves as a temporary holding area for photos before they're written to the card. It's set up so that it can be written to very quickly, but can empty data on to the card at a slower pace. It's basically "disk caching" for your camera.

Recycle time is going to vary by two factors... the charge on the battery, and the power of the previous flash. If you are pretty much in the dark and requiring max power from the flash, it will take a lot longer to recycle than if you were outdoors in the sun and just using it for fill flash. So trying to compare recycle times with other folks here without a context on the conditions you are shooting in is an impossible task. I would say that 15 seconds sounds way to long to me, but in order to do a real test with another body, you need to make sure you are in the same situation with the same settings.