Advice sought on external flash, please.

[Bikermike]

I have a Panasonic GF1 with a small on-board flash, but when I use it there is a frustratingly long delay between pressing the shutter and the flash. I understand this is because of flash-camera communication for exposure (?).

My question is, if I buy an external flash, will it do the same? I am looking for a flash which fires simultaneously with the shutter - like in the old film days!

Regards, Mike

[bambleweeney]

Seems strange Mike ! How long is this delay.
What mode are you shooting in and what's your shutter speed ?
No idea what a Panasonic GF-1 is but a quick Google for the specs and it seems it does everything pretty normally. The only thing that comes to mind is a long shutter speed and the flash set to second curtain. If you're shooting below sync then with say a shutter speed of 1/60th then the flash should occur within that time frame - otherwise the flash will fire after the exposure has been taken - won't it ?

[Bikermike]

Thank you for your reply. I've just been playing with the flash and various settings - 1st /2nd curtain, with and without red-eye, etc. to see what difference they make, and all modes are firing virtually instantly. Thinking a bit more about what I was doing before, I'm terribly embarassed to tell you that it was not the flash which was causing the delay but the autofocus!
I was trying to freeze insect motion (bees) on a fairly sunny day and was using autofocus. Of course the flash won't fire until the camera has locked onto the subject - and it was this which I think was causing the delay.
Your reply prompted me to investigate it further and learn more, so it has helped me greatly. Apologies for the false alarm, thanks again for the help.
Regards, Mike

[rpcrowe]

I think we have all experienced moments like that... I remember when I first got my 70-200mm f/4L lens and worrying that it couldn't achieve focus. I had the focus limiter set. If we learn from our mistakes, they can be extremely valuable in preventing the same thing happening later on...