Canon 77D..night pics

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silverfoxcc

Original Poster:

7,683 posts

144 months

Thursday 10th June 2021
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I have got this coupled up with a Nissin Di700A flash Lens is a Canon EFS 18-135 IS

The problem i have is i would like to kake pics of the foxes/hedgehogs that visit but the system refuses to take any sort of picture in the dark
I am running out of settings to use, I have it in manual mode with various shutter/ Fstop combinations but get no response when the shutter is pressed. Surely it is not that intelligent to over ride what i need to do?
. Tried rhe flash in all three settings A, TTL and M , withe camera setting in Av TV.M and P for all of the flash setting, but no reaction. Get the set up into low light indoors and it flashes away like a sailor of shore leave. I might add that when attempting the fox shots the camera is also indoors although with the night time temp quite nice, i dont think it is a problem.
The food for them is lit by the downstairs toilet light which throws a dim light onto the area i am aiming at so i can see the foxes otherwise it is pitch black.and i gave to rely on guesswork
Anyone got any suggestions how i can convince the 77D and flash to operate in these low/dark conditions. It is driving me mad!!

I do not want to use the red eye reductuion as the initilal 'set up' flashes by the camera will have them running


TIA

GravelBen

15,655 posts

229 months

Thursday 10th June 2021
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Are you using autofocus or manual focus?

Just a thought - I'm not a Canon user but it probably has a setting for AF focus priority vs shutter priority - if its on AF with focus priority but its too dark to autofocus then it might not let you take a shot.

Simpo Two

85,149 posts

264 months

Thursday 10th June 2021
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Likewise my thought is about AF. Cameras can't focus in darkness unless they have IR assist, and that only works at short range. As GravelBen says, the camera may be set up not to fire unless it can find focus.

So manual focus and pre-focus.

mikeveal

4,559 posts

249 months

Friday 11th June 2021
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That was going to be my suggestion. If you can't see to focus at night, put the camera on a tripod & use manual focus during the day time. Leave it set up for the night time shots.