550 Flash Problem

[Jerry Eisen]

Used the 550 on my 1D this afternoon at a bowling party. During the first 30 or so shots the flash was ok giving me a 1/60th reading at 3.5 or 4 using the 24/70L lens. The flash indicator was visable in the view finder. After that the flash indicator went off and all the readings in the viewfinder were between 1/5th of a second to 1/20th of a second. By the way I was in the P mode. The flash did not fire. What happened.

Thank you.

Jerry

[scottbergerphoto]

jerry eisen wrote:
Used the 550 on my 1D this afternoon at a bowling party. During the first 30 or so shots the flash was ok giving me a 1/60th reading at 3.5 or 4 using the 24/70L lens. The flash indicator was visable in the view finder. After that the flash indicator went off and all the readings in the viewfinder were between 1/5th of a second to 1/20th of a second. By the way I was in the P mode. The flash did not fire. What happened.

Thank you.

Jerry

The fact that your camera was using a shutter speed of 1/5th to 1/20th of a second indicates something fishy is going on. In P mode the slowest the shutter speed can drop to is 1/60th of a second when the flash is on.
Is it possible your flash lost power or slipped out of position in the hot shoe? It seems that the camera ceased recognizing that the flash was on.
Scott

[cmattdvc]

My 10D had the problem of "forgeting" the flash, now our 1ds will forget that it has a flash, it seems to do it when I change batteries (on both cameras) (lost power?)Is there a "right way" to power down? Should you shut everthing off before you pull batteries? It will work fine untill the batteries in the flash run down. BTW way I'm running Maha 2200's

Stay Safe,
Matt

[Jerry Eisen]

The flash did not lose power as the batteries were fresh and the ready light was on.

Jerry

[scottbergerphoto]

Is it possible that the flash backed part of the way out of the hot shoe? Have you tried reseating the flash? Have you tried turning both off/on and seeing what happens? Just a few ideas.
Scott

[AndrewEllinas]

I had exactly the same problem yesterday.

About half an hour after attaching the 550, my 10D seemed to forget that it had a flashgun and started taking photos using ambient light only.

I checked that the 550 was attached propertly and that it hadn't worked lose - which it hadn't. There was no flashgun symbol in the viewfinder.

I took the 550 off the camera and switched them both off. When I put them back together and switched on, the symbol was back in the viewfinder and the 550 worked properly again.

Any ideas as to what is causing the 10D to forget that it has a flashgun attached?

[teddynet]

Do these flashguns go into a sleep or standby mode at all, or is the camera going into sleep mode and not recognizing the flash when it wakes up?

Does turning the flash or camera off and then back on reset things?

[AndrewEllinas]

I was using the camera pretty constantly and the batteries in the camera and the flashgun had plenty of charge left.

Switching the flashgun on and off had no effect, it was not until I removed it from the hotshoe and switched both off and then on again that it started working properly.

Interesting to learn that I am not the only person that this has happened too.

[DaveG]

AndrewEllinas wrote:
I was using the camera pretty constantly and the batteries in the camera and the flashgun had plenty of charge left.

Switching the flashgun on and off had no effect, it was not until I removed it from the hotshoe and switched both off and then on again that it started working properly.

Interesting to learn that I am not the only person that this has happened too.

As someone else suggested the flash may have just not been seated in the hotshoe properly.

If you are using a zoom lens with the flash pointed directly at the subject (not pointed up for bounce) you can zoom the lens and it should show that zoom on the LCD display on the flash. This is an indication that the flash and camera are speaking. If you DON'T see this reaction then something might be going on.

By the way if the flash is pointed up - for bounce - it will default to 24 mm, and the flash will not react as you zoom. Of course you can't have manual zoom selected either.

I use the Remote Cord 2 and I've had this "Geez what's going on!" problem when I didn't have the flash fully seated in the cord or the cord seated in the hot shoe.

[gogo]

Also did have same problem.10d forgot about flash in the middle of shooting.Did have frash batteries and hotshoe was in good position it didn't slip out.
But 10d doesn't in Av mode reconize flash doesn't set shutter speed.All other modes work fine.
Canon should do something about that.

[slin100]

gogo wrote:
But 10d doesn't in Av mode reconize flash doesn't set shutter speed.All other modes work fine.
Canon should do something about that.
That's a not a bug, it's a feature. When using Av mode, the camera will set the shutter speed and aperature to expose the background properly.

[jcsorensen]

Well, my camera is back to its old ways of frequent, unexplained ERR 99s regardless of lens, battery, or CF card. Now I'm starting to have flash synch problems with both the internal flash and my Sigma Super 500 DG and it occasionally not recognizing the presence of the flash all together as others in this thread are experiencing. What's strange is that after powering everything on and off several times and then leaving things powered up for a while, things start to synch up.

When the flash is out of synch, I can actually see the flash through the viewfinder (impossible to do if things are synching up because the mirror would block the view of the flash in the viewfinder), and the photo pretty much comes out black, except for strong lights.

I suspect my shutter element is going out again, which is what Canon replaced last summer. Well, at least it is still under warranty, so I'll struggle with it through the holidays, and then it will be back to Irvine, CA for another go around with Canon. Maybe I can at least get a free sensor cleaning and firmware upgrade while it's there ;-) Maybe I can even get Canon to pay for my shipping costs, and then maybe the tooth fairy and Santa will deliver me some L glass, studio lights, and a light meter (my current wish list).

At least I got my wife an Canon A60, so I won't be digitally dead while the camera is in the shop this time.

(By the way, I'm not sure how a Canon or Sigma flash can slip off the hot shoe as some suggest. As long as you use the lock ring to lock it into place, the flash should be immovable. That lock ring also drops a lock pin that I would find hard to believe would not firmly keep the flash in place)

Well, when it's working, I do love my 10D, and when it's not, it's like a troublesome teenager--you still love them, just wish they were behaving better.

I guess there is no real purpose to this e-mail other than to get my current frustration's off my chest. But then again, when things are looking gloomy, all I need to is walk outside into our Sunny, 80 degrees plus weather here in Paradise (Hawaii), and I realize--life really is good!