Canon T5i Flash

Coverage and Range
Inconsistent flash exposures with somewhat uneven coverage at wide angle. Average positive exposure compensation required.

Coverage. At wide angle, the Canon T5i's built-in flash produced some dark corners, though that's not unusual. Coverage was a bit uneven vertically as well, with slightly dimmer band in the middle. Coverage is more even at full telephoto, though, as expected.

Exposure. Indoors, under incandescent background lighting, the Canon Rebel T5i's flash performed well, requiring an average amount of positive exposure compensation of +0.7 EV for a bright image, and the camera chose a fairly typical 1/60s shutter speed. The camera's slow-sync flash mode only required +0.3 EV exposure compensation for bright results, though the longer shutter time (1/15s) results in a warmer orange/yellow cast from the ambient background lighting.

ISO 200 Range. At the 18-55mm lens' maximum wide-angle setting, our flash range test shots at ISO 200 started out dim at 6 feet, but increased slightly from there up to about 11 feet, where exposure dropped-off with distance. The peak exposure is still a bit dim, but we'd say the range is 11 feet. At full telephoto (55mm), behavior was similar with somewhat dim results at 6 feet, exposure peaking at 8 feet, then falling off from there.

Manufacturer Specified Flash Test. The Canon Rebel T5i's built in flash has a rated Guide Number of 13 meters or 43 feet at ISO 100. That works out to about 12.3 feet at f/3.5 and 7.7 feet at f/5.6, the maximum apertures of the 18-55mm lens at full wide angle and telephoto respectively. In the shots above, we can see that the Canon Rebel T5i's built-in flash did not quite perform to specification at both wide angle and telephoto, producing underexposed targets at the rated distances. The wide-angle shot is underexposed by about 2/3 EV and the telephoto shot by about 1/3 EV.

Note: Our standard test method for flash range uses a fixed setting of ISO 200, to provide a fair basis of comparison between cameras. We've now also begun shooting two shots using the manufacturer-specified camera settings, at the range the company claims for the camera, to assess the validity of the specific claims.