My camera flash problem.

[Fedrisia]

Hi there,
Well my older camera was expired due to some technical error, so I just bought a Canon Rebel XSi, I've read the manuals and I can't seem to figure out why my camera's flash is flashing before I take a picture.
I hold the shutter button halfway down to auto-focus, and my flash starts flickering (like a strobe light) then stops. Then when I hold the button down all the way it takes one big flash. Is there a way I can shut this off? I am really pissed off these days…

[BigFuzzy]

having spent 2 minutes to look at your manual I've seen that you probably have red-eye reduction turned on. Turn that off and see if it works.

This is the manual I looked at. Should be same one you have.
http://gdlp01.c-wss.com/gds/3/030000...EOS450D_EN.pdf

if not, you're probably shooting in low-light conditions where the series of flashes have to turn on in order to achieve focus. If that's the case, either get into a more well lit area, or use manual focus.

[RichardTaylor]

Possibly It's using the flash to help with auto focussing

See page 45 of the English user manual

You can disable the flash.
See page 52

Edit:
See page 59 for disabling red eye reduction.

I don't have this camera so I can't walk you through the steps.

[gturner]

If it is in a very dark area, the camera cannot focus in the available light so the pre-flash helps the camera find a target to focus on.

[Jim Poor]

Originally Posted by Fedrisia

I've read the manuals …

Nope. At least not very well.

[inkista]

By "flicker" do you mean it's kind of like a sparkler on the 4th of July? If so, watch that you're not accidentally depressing the DoF preview button (it's right below the lens release button on the side of the lens). That triggers the "modelling light" mode with flash.