Flash popping out?

[PhreeZone 20]

I had this issue occur this weekend and I can't figure out if I've got something wrong, if I'm missing something or if I just screwed up my camera. There I am learning to shoot pictures with my 10D that I have in shutter priority mode stepped up to 350 and then in freefall all of a sudden I see a flash on the people. Sure enough I get to the ground and for a series of a few pictures the speed is slowed down to 200 on me and the flash went off. I later tried to shoot in full manual mode at 500 @ f11 and the same damn thing happened.

What do I have set wrong? I can swear that I have every flash option turned off on the camera that I can find.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[vdschoor 0]

Ola amigo..

Put some tape over the flash to hold it on the camera.. 120 Mph can do weird things to your camera.. if I remember well the flash on the 10D is not super tight on the camera, like it is on the digital rebel or the 20D..

Gaffer's tape is your best friend...

[quade 4]

Well, maybe not your -best- friend, but a darn good one.

3M makes 2 different kinds of gaff tape all day long. Even at the outraeous prices most people pay for it in camera shops, it's still cheap as hell (when compared to a repair bill).

Gaff it down.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[dragon2 2]

When Henny jumped the kodak pro it would sometimes do the same thing: because the flash would move a little bit some pics were taken with a too-low shutter speed. It didn't pop up entirely but the air getting underneath and moving it was enough to trigger the camera into thinking the flash was being used, so it went to a slow shutter speed.
Solution: gaffer tape, as mentioned before

ciel bleu,
Saskia

[PhreeZone 20]

Alright, I'll give that a try this weekend then. anyone know of a cheap source since I think its time to get my own roll instead of scamming it off everyone?

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[ccowden 0]

ebay

[quade 4]

http://www.studiodepot.com/store/index.cgi?cmd=view_category&id=1016

Good source for tape of all types.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[dragon2 2]

If you don't already know: be careful and get the good stuff, the stuff that photographers use. Over here, it's all "ducktape" and you have to know what you're looking for, so I'm not sure if "gaffer's tape" is always the right stuff. You want tape that won't leave a gummy residue mess on your expensive camera

ciel bleu,
Saskia

[oldgit 0]

A word of caution if you tape down the flash and then find yourself in a situation when the flash tries to pop up it will screw up and strip the mechanism

[PhreeZone 20]

Any ideas on how to disable the flash completly? I've already learned that if it tries to pop up and you hold it down then it can generate an error 04 or error 05 I think.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[Zee 0]

"C.Fn-05-3 disables the built in flash from firing"

For further explanation - Read manual

You can download the manual here: READ ME

Action©Sports

[PhreeZone 20]

I even sat around Saturday flipping through the manual trying to figure out where to do it by referencing everything in the index

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[Zee 0]

I was just givin' you some shit - I don't even use Canon cameras

Edit: I forgot to ask - Did it work?

Action©Sports

[PhreeZone 20]

It worked Now to hit it up with gaffers tape to keep it down

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[kelel01 1]

I know you've already got this fixed, but I have a question.

Couldn't you just put tape over the flash, not to hold it down, but just to keep the light contained? Like, the flash won't affect the picture if it's covered, right? Perhaps I don't understand your flash configuration, though.

[AndyMan 7]

Quote

Couldn't you just put tape over the flash, not to hold it down, but just to keep the light contained? Like, the flash won't affect the picture if it's covered, right?

No.

All cameras have what's known as a "Max Synx Speed". This is the maximum shutter speed you can use while using a flash. This is very different than the maximum shutter speed withOUT a flash.

For example, the Canon digital rebel can shoot at very fast shutter speeds, up to 1/3200 of a second. However, the minute you pop up the flash, the maximum shutter speed drops down to 1/200.

1/200 is very close to the line of being unnaceptable for high speed actions, it's close to where things (like jumpsuits) start to get motion blur.

On a bright sunny day I set my camera to shoot at 1/500. If I pop up the flash accidentally, that speed drops to 1/200.

If a photographer goes "old school" and manually sets up his camera prior to every jump, then the lowered shutterspeed will cause all his shots to be over-exposed.

If a photographer had set his camera to TV mode where he specifies the shutter speed and allows the camera will pick an appropriate aperature, by bumping down the shutter speed will cause the camera to pick a different aperature. Remember that in addition to helping manage exposures, aperature settings also affect the focus, an affect refered to "depth of field". By having a different Depth of Field than the photographer planned on, he might find his photos out of focus.

Lastly, if the photographer is an electronic "yuppie", and he's got his camera on auto-everything, including "P" mode and auto-focus, then he'd get away with it. Things would likely be in focus and properly exposed, with the only downside to additional motion blur.

This photography thing can be complicated!

_Am

__

You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

[kelel01 1]

Ohhhh, I see. Learn something new every day! Thanks!

[CTSkydiver 0]

So I tried shooting some pics today on a 350D in TV at 250... By the time we jumped it was about 60-75 minutes or so from sunset and the sun was blocked by a cloud ... I got pretty blurry (unusable) pics. It was still "pretty bright" but not like "really bright" out, and I was a bit surprised at the amount of blur. But I did have the iso at 100; I guess that should been cranked higher, but I had to try it

Anyone know of a way to get good pics at 200 or so, so that the pop-up flash can be used successfully ... such as for a fill flash on something relatively stationary and close at sunset time? In my case, the kit lens at 18mm.

[ltdiver 3]

I shoot my 300D at 200 ISO, unlike my film camera which I set at 100.

As for the onboard flash. It really doesn't do much good, even as a fill flash, unless you're really close to your subject. Not powerful enough, plus it's too close to the lens. An external flash is the only way to go when skydiving.

As for the shutter speed. IMO, 250 is -way- too slow to make a sports picture come out right. The picture will be blurry just from that. The slowest I would go would be 350 shutter speed.

ltdiver

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

[Zee 0]

In addition to what Lori just said, an external flash not only carries further, it also ups your synch speed dramatically. I don't know about Canon but, on my set up the synch speed is increased from 1/200 sec with the built in flash to 1/8000 sec with the external flash.

Peace,
Z

Action©Sports

[CTSkydiver 0]

Thanks for the reply...

I thought I'd seen some pics here taken with the onboard flash of a digiRebel ... can't remember where I've read pretty much every thread in the past couple weeks. One was a night tandem I believe, and it looked pretty good (on the web anyway ... but mine looked pretty good on the back of the camera too, till you zoomed in). You saying the 350D can't fill flash a close tandem or equivalent? Bummer. And I can fire that flash every two seconds...