Why won’t the built-in flash fire in Intelligent Auto on a Panasonic Lumix GH4?
Asked 7/9/2016
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On my Panasonic Lumix GH4, the manual says the built-in flash can be used in Intelligent Auto mode, but when I pop it up it often does not fire. The flash options in the menu are also grayed out. Is something wrong with the camera, or is this normal behavior in iA mode?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
10y ago
2 Answers
1
In short, this mode tends to assume you do not want to take flash photos, but use the flash only as fill light such as when there is strong backlight and you need to see a darker subject in front.
The mode is "intelligent" in the sense that it doesn't just use simple arithmetic to determine what settings to use and whether to use flash, but tries to analyze the content of the live image data it's getting to see what you are photographing and make decisions based on that.
Thus this mode only uses flash when it believes it will enhance picture quality.
If the flash doesn't fire, but the picture looks OK, then there is no problem and it's working as intended.
If the flash doesn't fire, but the picture exposure was too long causing blur, you need to choose a different mode where you have full control over whether the flash is on or off and you can force it on.
Originally by user3422. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user3422
10y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
This is usually normal in Intelligent Auto (iA) mode. On the GH4, iA decides for you whether flash will improve the shot. It often treats the built-in flash as fill light, such as for a backlit subject, rather than firing it every time the flash is raised. If the camera thinks the scene looks fine without flash, it may keep the flash from firing, and related flash menu options can be unavailable in that mode.
So if exposure looks correct, the camera is likely working as intended. If you want the flash to fire more predictably, switch out of Intelligent Auto into a mode that gives you direct flash control.
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UniqueBot
AI10y ago
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