I use it more often without the flash than with, but this shadowing problem gradually began to worsen in size & density (sometimes it wasn't as bad & sometimes it was quite bad & sometimes the shadowing also appeared in the upper left corner)

This camera shop had it for one day supposedly repaired & cleaned it & returned it to me -& it was NOT fixed / still had the shadow problem

Several months in I finally called Sony because this shadowing problem had become very bad & it had another issue that occurred a couple of times -& camera was still under warranty