On 18 Jan, 14:54, "Eric Miller"
wrote:
We hated...
* after lots of continuous shooting, the flash suddenly needed a very
long time to recover, and became very sluggish

Until you switch over to one of those flashes that doesn't use batteries,
this problem will continue to plague you. That isn't to say that other
cameras might not do "better" in this respect, but likely only because of
other trade-offs, like less powerful flash and use of higher ISO's, etc.
Remember that you said that you shot more images with this camera; are you
comparing apples to apples? Off camera flash or a grip that holds an extra
battery will help alleviate the problem.

Was it really the battery? I was told it was some kind of safety shut-
off that prevents the built-in flash from overheating. Certainly I
could wait a minute or so (with the camera switched on) and then
hammer it again for just as long until it slowed right down.

I wasn't noticing the battery indicator - I just replaced it when told
to. I know on other cameras the flash gets sluggish as the battery
runs down, but my recollection is that this issue happened with a
fresh battery, and was no worse 100 shots later. I could be wrong
though: the 400D has gone back to its owner now :-(.

Cheers,
David.