Camera gone pete tong?

[Gingerbread Man]

Turned camera on today to snap some pictures of my Sinn watch. Using the 20D with my Speedlite flash off on a bracket.

The camera on AV, the flash fires and the camera records this - .

Thinking it was the lens, I swapped the macro off for the 17-85. The same happened.

Disconnecting the Speedlite and using the on board flash, all was well and we had a full picture.


Any ideas? Something gone tits up in the camera?

[Established 1984]

That's weird! Sorry don't have the knowledge to suggest a solution. Hope it doesn't turn out to be expensive.

[arej]

It is because of your shutter speed - you were on 1/1000sec but the camera and flash won't sync above 1/200 so try again with that.
Watch this video to explain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xnn5nzPvoIM ~2.28mins in is about the flash sync speed.

[Major Bloodnok]

OK, let's get the obvious out of the way first:

1) Synch speed? Presumably activating the on-board flash automatically sets the shutter speed. Is this also true of the off-camera flash?

2) Something between the flash and the subject casting a shadow?

[SMB]

Gingerbread Man said:

Turned camera on today to snap some pictures of my Sinn watch. Using the 20D with my Speedlite flash off on a bracket.

The camera on AV, the flash fires and the camera records this - .

Thinking it was the lens, I swapped the macro off for the 17-85. The same happened.

Disconnecting the Speedlite and using the on board flash, all was well and we had a full picture.


Any ideas? Something gone tits up in the camera?

take the lens off and pt it in cleaning mode, if you look at the sensor is there still a mirror in the way?
if so the pin holding the second mirror has sheared. somewhere online is a repair guide, not for the faint hearted though

[DIW35]

Arej got it right, you've used too fast a shutter speed for the flash. Basically for flash photography, the shutter needs to be fully open when the flash fires. At speeds above the sync speed, which is typically 1/200 or 1/250 sec, the shutter is never fully open, so that when the flash fires, only part of the sensor is receiving any light.

Take the photo again in manual, with the aperture you were using but with a slower shutter speed (sync speed or slower) and all should be well.

Edited by DIW35 on Saturday 29th August 20:08

[Yellabelly]

Fully agree that Arej is correct, it's a synch speed problem, I've had the same with mine when not checking that the flash was set to manual rather than TTL and using a spped way in excess of the synch speed.

SMB, if I might say, that is a pretty radical assertion that it is or could be the mirror pin that has broken! Have you experienced such an occurence that produced this effect?

YB

[Gingerbread Man]

Oh goody, simple fix. I didn't have much time to change settings and run tests, so thanks guys.