What happened? D60 + 550EX exposure problem

[***MT***]

I have a Canon D60, about two years old, and the 550EX flash. I do very little flash photography and barely know which side of the flash is up. Everything has been working fine on automatic, until today: suddenly the flash is flashing but the images are completely flash-less. Tried all possible programs and exposures, two different lenses. Is there anything I can try before taking the camera and flash in for repair?

An example of the result - this is taken at 1000 ASA because I was desperate by this time...

http://www.payingold.com/salamongelma.jpg[/url]

[daaaveman]

You might need to take off the lens cap - just a joke.......


I will leave it to those more knowledgeable than myself to give a real answer.

Are non-flash shots turning out normally? My thought was that your shutter may not be functioning.

[DamienB]

Sounds like the same thing my D60 has just gone into Canon for... the flash you are seeing is the pre-flash, and the main pulse is not firing (easy way to tell - take a picture into a mirror, or use FEL to fire the pre-flash, then take the shot and note no further flash is fired).

When I had this start happening a bit of searching around on forums revealed it to be a common indicator that the shutter mechanism was on its way out and the repair is a shutter replacement.

The Canon tech I spoke to on Monday about this mentioned that there is a switch underneath the hotshoe that controls the flash firing, and a bent or mispositioned hotshoe can also cause these symptoms. Either way it's back to Canon for a repair I'm afraid.

[nosquare2003]

There may be several reasons for it:

1. as DamienB said, it's only a preflash
2. poor contact of the hotshoe
3. shutter problem

For 2 &3, there may be a preflash and the real flash. But it is not synchondise with the camera.

You may try using flash with a longer exposure. Compare the flash and the shutter if the shutter close too early or too late. Try 2nd flash syn and compare.

Sometimes loosen the flash a liitle bit may help...

[rudrasen]

HI ,
I had several shots like this, I blame the weak batteries in the flash.
The flash would not fire & the camera would calculate the shutter & aperature with the flash in mind. I think it is the inablity of the camera to understand that the flash is not ready.
Correct me if I am wrong here.
My solution to that problem for me as a newbie, was to physically remove the flash off the lens mount.

Can you someone provide more insight here & a proper approach to this ?

BTW I am need advise for the 10D :) .

thanks

[Malaxos1]

HI ,
I had several shots like this, I blame the weak batteries in the flash.
The flash would not fire & the camera would calculate the shutter & aperature with the flash in mind. I think it is the inablity of the camera to understand that the flash is not ready.
Correct me if I am wrong here.
My solution to that problem for me as a newbie, was to physically remove the flash off the lens mount.

Can you someone provide more insight here & a proper approach to this ?

BTW I am need advise for the 10D :) .

thanks


I agree, check the batteries before making any other assumptions. It is usually a sign to me that I need to replace the batteries...Dean

[***MT***]

Thanks - I did change the flash batteries and recharge the camera's battery too but nothing helped. Did find a post about the shutter problem in a D30 - is this a common enough problem so I can force Canon to repair it for free even though the one year warranty has run out? At least over here there was a problem with the display on one of Nokia's phone models, it stopped working in too many phones and was ruled a "model flaw" or whatever that is in Enlish and repairs were made for free even though the warranty had expired. Worth a try, if it's common...

Anyway, I'll go take some pictures into the mirror, thanks for that tip!

[robertwgross]

I don't think it is a standard flaw in the D60.

I'm curious. Before you got your 550EX flash, did you have another flash unit on the camera? If so, what was it?

---Bob Gross---

[***MT***]

Ach - forgot to say that the problem is the same when I use the pop-up built-in flash the camera has. So to the repair shop I go... The shutter problem is looking more likely. Unless of course it's either dog hair or sand from the horse arenas clogging something up. Bob, I bought the flash at the same time as the camera, so I've never used another one on the D60. Before the D I had an old Metz flash for my film EOS. Thanks all!

[DamienB]

To follow up on this - Canon have had my D60 for two weeks now, and finally taken a look at it. It is indeed the shutter that needs replacing (costing £95 out of warranty).

[robertwgross]

Sorry for your bad luck, but it seems like the camera is in good hands now for a while. That didn't sound like a standard weakness or flaw of the camera.

(I have a D60 also.)

---Bob Gross---

[joeseph]

If you can, are you able to tell us how many photo's the shutter has done?

(curious D60 owner...)

[robertwgross]

If you can, are you able to tell us how many photo's the shutter has done?

(curious D60 owner...)

Oh, Geez, I can't even guess.

Let's see. About 100 RAW files on one CDR. About 50 CDR's on one spindle. Three spindles here now. How many is that? That's around 15,000 so far on mine (since October 2002).

---Bob Gross---

[DamienB]

Bob - come back when you've put twice that number on it at least and you'll find it certainly is a standard failure mode, as can be found from the briefest of searches in the various photography forums.

[robertwgross]

Has that been discussed here?

This is the only forum.

---Bob Gross---