D5100 very slow when Red Eye reduction is on !?

[hartz]

I'm still learning may way around this camera - I'm a slow learner.

Suddenly I took a picture of the grass.

What!? I pressed the shutter release a second ago!

I tried to take the photo again and paid attention, the camera had suddenly become horribly slow. Every photo I took missed. Felt like 10 seconds shutter lag (though in reality it was probably more like a second)

After a minute or so I discovered that the problem went away when the flash was not used. I confirmed it and for about a week struggled whenever I wanted to use the flash.

Just a minute ago I decided to just go through the menus one last time to see if some option was affecting it. Everything looked normal. I noticed though that red-eye reduction was active and changed it to normal flash mode. Voila, the problem is gone. Confirmed it by turning red-eye reduction on again and the problem came right back.

I googled t to see if this is a known problem and the only hits I get seems to be related to increased shutter lag when using Live view.

Is there a problem with my camera? Is this normal?

I don't care much about red eye reduction - I'm sure I must have turned it on by accident ... so I'm just asking to know.

Thank you
_hartz

P.S. Oh yes, and another thing. I don't know if it is my imagination, but it seems that I have to wait longer between taking photos when using the flash than what I had to. This is despite using a lower flash power "compensation" than what I used earlier!

 

[analog.universe]

Red eye reduction works by pre-flashing the subject, to get their pupils to close up before the real flash hits. So there's a delay built in on purpose. Red-eye reduction is only useful when you're shooting with an on-axis flash, like the pop up. If you really want to shoot with flash, you should use a flash you can point somewhere else. Having the flash right near the lens makes for flat lighting.

Also, automatic flash compensation is dependant on the light in the scene. If the ambient light is bright, the flash will have to be brighter, even if it's dialed down. So that might explain your longer recycle times.

 

[hartz]

Hello Analog.universe.

Firstly it is not so much a case of wanting to as needing to use a flash. I do understand red eye reduction commonly use multiple flashes, and did not see that happening on my camera - there is only the single one flash.

I am intrigued by your comment that the amount of light present affects the flash power. This I did not know.... How can one prevent this automatic adjusting of flash power?

 

[KmH]

Manual mode.