Turning the Internal Flash On and Off

When you are using an external flash and do not want the internal one to fire, you can turn the latter off. Note that turning off the internal flash and folding it down are two different things. Turning off the internal flash means that the internal flash will not fire even though it is raised until it is turned on again. If the internal flash is turned off, the camera will assume that you have an external flash to use. As a result, if the illumination of the scene is insufficient, an under-exposed image is very likely. On the other hand, folding down the internal flash only means that we do not want to use it. As long as it is raised, the internal flash is ready to use.

Turning the Internal Flash On or Off

This feature is only available in the program (P) mode, aperture-priority (A) mode, shutter-priority (S)mode, and manual-exposure (M) mode. To turn the internal flash on or off, follow the procedure below:

Set the camera to the P mode, A mode, S mode or M mode by holding the MODE button and turning the command dial at the same time.
Press the MENU button once to enter the first page of the SHOOTING MENU. You will see the following screen:
Use the down arrow of the multi-selector to enter the menu system. The first menu item is highlighted as shown in the left image below. Then, press the MENU button twice to enter the third page as shown in the right image below.
Use the down arrow of the multi-selector to highlight the Speedlight Opt. option as shown in the left image below. Then, use the right arrow to select this option. The SPEEDLIGHT OPT. menu appears as in the right below.
Use the down arrow of the multi-selector to highlight the Speedlight Cntrl. option as shown in the left image below. Then, use the right arrow to select this option. The SPEEDLIGHT CNTRL menu appears as in the right below.
Now, there are two options to choose from. The option Internal Off turns off the internal flash so that only the external flashes fire. The option Int&Ext Active allows both the internal and external flashes to be fired at the same time. Use the up and down arrows to choose the desired option and press the multi-selector to make a selection.
Once the above steps complete, press the MENU button twice to return to the shooting mode.
Note that once this option is chosen, it will stay there even after turning off the camera. Therefore, you need to go through the above procedure again to reverse the setting..

To enable the internal flash, follow the above procedure to select the Int&Ext Active option.

An Important Note

After the internal flash is turned off, it will not fire even though it is raised and the scene is not illuminated sufficiently. In fact, once the internal flash is turned off, you are supposed to use an external flash. Check the external flash pages for the details.