what is up with two flashes

[Onceler]

both the new camera for pictures and my new video camera take snapshots the same way they flash then wait half a second then flash again and take the actual picture.
What is going on and how do I make them just take the picture with a single quick flash instead of delaying and getting a crappy picture because the subject moved between the first and second flash

 

[IronWing]

Turn off "red eye reduction". The first flash is designed to make the subject's pupils contract thus reducing the red eye effect.

 

[Onceler]

I thought of that,red eye is not enabled on either

 

[IronWing]

Okay, next thought is that it is the autofocus assist light that illuminates the scene so the autofocus has something to focus on. In this case you might have to choose between two flashes an fuzzy images.

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

What cameras?

 

[Deadtrees]

Sounds like 2nd curtain sync.

 

[AndrewR]

I'm going with the flash focus assist. Unless the camera has a separate lamp or IR light for focus assist in low light (or the nifty Sony laser they used to have), the camera has to fire the flash in order to focus properly.

 

[ivan2]

Originally posted by: Deadtrees
Sounds like 2nd curtain sync.

wait what?

 

[soydios]

Originally posted by: ivan2

Originally posted by: Deadtrees
Sounds like 2nd curtain sync.

wait what?

aka rear curtain sync. google it.

 

[IronWing]

Originally posted by: soydios

Originally posted by: ivan2

Originally posted by: Deadtrees
Sounds like 2nd curtain sync.

wait what?

aka rear curtain sync. google it.

Rear curtain sync would simply trigger a single flash just before the shutter closes. The OP is talking about two flashs, spaced apart in time.

 

[Deadtrees]

Originally posted by: ironwing

Originally posted by: soydios

Originally posted by: ivan2

Originally posted by: Deadtrees
Sounds like 2nd curtain sync.

wait what?

aka rear curtain sync. google it.

Rear curtain sync would simply trigger a single flash just before the shutter closes. The OP is talking about two flashs, spaced apart in time.

You're saying that because you don't know.

The single flash light you see is, in fact, not a single blast of light. Preflash fires first so that the camera can determine flash exposure. After that, 'real' flash fires accordingly.
The process is so fast that you don't see it being separate. However, due to the way 2nd sync works, you can actually see the process.

 

[IronWing]

Originally posted by: Deadtrees

Originally posted by: ironwing

Originally posted by: soydios

Originally posted by: ivan2

Originally posted by: Deadtrees
Sounds like 2nd curtain sync.

wait what?

aka rear curtain sync. google it.

Rear curtain sync would simply trigger a single flash just before the shutter closes. The OP is talking about two flashs, spaced apart in time.

You're saying that because you don't know.

The single flash light you see is, in fact, not a single blast of light. Preflash fires first so that the camera can determine flash exposure. After that, 'real' flash fires accordingly.
The process is so fast that you don't see it being separate. However, due to the way 2nd sync works, you can actually see the process.

I'm aware of that. However the description of the problem doesn't match the rear curtain sync. A delay sufficient for the subjects to move around (half a second or so according to the OP) would imply a shutter speed of a half second or so before the rear curtain flash fired. One usually doesn't take 1/2 second exposures when trying to photograph folks who aren't willing to be perfectly still.

 

[Shimmishim]

Originally posted by: ironwing

Originally posted by: Deadtrees

Originally posted by: ironwing

Originally posted by: soydios

Originally posted by: ivan2

Originally posted by: Deadtrees
Sounds like 2nd curtain sync.

wait what?

aka rear curtain sync. google it.

Rear curtain sync would simply trigger a single flash just before the shutter closes. The OP is talking about two flashs, spaced apart in time.

You're saying that because you don't know.

The single flash light you see is, in fact, not a single blast of light. Preflash fires first so that the camera can determine flash exposure. After that, 'real' flash fires accordingly.
The process is so fast that you don't see it being separate. However, due to the way 2nd sync works, you can actually see the process.

I'm aware of that. However the description of the problem doesn't match the rear curtain sync. A delay sufficient for the subjects to move around (half a second or so according to the OP) would imply a shutter speed of a half second or so before the rear curtain flash fired. One usually doesn't take 1/2 second exposures when trying to photograph folks who aren't willing to be perfectly still.

Unless he's shooting in low light and in Av mode. In that case it's easy to get 1/2 second exposure especially at a lower ISO setting.

i think 2nd curtain is a possible explanation.

 

[soydios]

well, either it's rear-curtain, or it's a metering preflash. if it's a metering preflash, that either means that the camera is waiting to recharge the flash capacitor before taking the exposure, or it has a really slow autoexposure processor.

 

[Onceler]

I just got off the phone with polaroid tech support they told me that it was the way the camera is manufactured and there is nothing I can do about it.
If all cameras are moving to this ,then I imagine that there is going to be a lot of pissed off customers because they take pictures that wait a full second before snapping the picture thus missing the action

 

[bludragon]

Are you half pressing the shutter first to get a focus lock? If not, that may solve your problem - try half press, "say cheese", wait for smiles all around, complete press

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Originally posted by: Onceler
I just got off the phone with polaroid tech support they told me that it was the way the camera is manufactured and there is nothing I can do about it.
If all cameras are moving to this ,then I imagine that there is going to be a lot of pissed off customers because they take pictures that wait a full second before snapping the picture thus missing the action

Polaroid doesn't care, because A) Polaroid is only for the extreme bottom-feeder market, and B) they've filed for bankruptcy. Again.

 

[Onceler]

yes I do press it lightly to prime the pic then press it all the way in for the shot
It's not just polaroid,it is a lot of new cameras

 

[Hyperlite]

It's a function of red-eye reduction. I played around with my FZ28 a bit to see just what made it do this (i have experienced it in the past). in iA mode, things like Face detection and red eye reduction cannot be disabled. Therefore, in iA mode, if a face is detected in the scene, i get a pre-flash a little less that a second before the exposure. What's happening here is that the camera assumes that, since there are "faces" in the frame, you are taken a posed portrait shot in which the delay won't be an issue. I proved this by putting my camera into manual mode and activating the "Auto flash+ Red eye reduction setting." with this enabled, i got the pre-flash every time. So, play with the flash settings, and play with the red eye reduction settings. Based on the fact that its a polaroid camera, there probably won't be a lot there, but i suspect the Red Eye reduction setting that you said you turned off is a post-processing feature the camera applies to images, and not a dynamic of image capture. Perhaps this is, as stated by the polaroid representative, a feature of the camera that cannot be disabled.

What you may be able to do is force the flash on. I know it can be annoying, and can be easily remedied in PP with very simple software, but it may very well be something that can't be worked around in a lower end camera.

I hope this helps.