Canon Rebel, a long busy delay

[kevs]

Never seen this before. Just snapping some reference shots of the apartment with the on camera flash. For the first 15 shot, no problem, but then after that, a consistent delay (busy) of eight seconds occurred between every shot. Very annoying. Does anyone know if this is normal? thanks. This did not happen if I closed the flash.

[robdickinson]

The flash is cooling down.

They get hot with rapid repeated use and protection circuts will cut in

[kevs]

Thanks Rob, so this is normal?
It started just after 15 shots or so today.
I've done quickie "polaroid" sessions of 40-50 shots with models without this happening.

It really ruins everything.

[robdickinson]

Its normal if the flash gets too hot.

Even big pro flashes do this but far less frequently and not for as long.

[Simon J.A. Simpson]

It may also be that the capacitor that charges to fire the flash runs our of charge after 15 or so flashes, and so the pause is caused by the capacitor recharging itself from the camera's battery.  Quantum manufacture high capacity batteries for off-camera flash guns to alleviate this problem  Sadly, the Rebel’s on-camera flash can only draw its power from the camera's (low capacity) battery, and also probably only has a modest sized capacitor to store the high voltage charge.