580ex dead

I own a Canon 580ex flash which is rarely used, it sits in my camera bag most of the time and I check it works every couple of weeks.

This afternoon I got the flash out to actually use it (shock horror) only to find it completely dead. I've tried new batteries (tested on another flashgun) but I get absolutely nothing. No LCD screen, no charging sound, nothing.

Has anyone encountered this before? Is there a reset that I can do to bring this puppy back to life? Unfortunately, it's out of it's warranty (18 months old)...

Cheers,
Ben

The fact that you don't even get the LCD screen is a bad sign. If you are certain your batteries are good, it sounds like it needs to go back to Canon for repair.

Thanks Scott, that's what I thought may be the case. I'll contact Canon and see how accommodating they can be seeing as it's only been used in anger half a dozen times, and even then it wasn't heavy duty usage.

Cheers,
Ben

I always have to ask the blatantly obvious...you verified very methodically that the batteries each were inserted in the right direction?

(My wife once frantically ran in with news about the clothes washer not working. I asked if she checked the power cord. I forget her answer, but it was not a nice one. I went to the washer and discovered the power cord had gotten pulled out of the AC outlet.)

So what was the conclusion? I have the same problem right now with my 580ex. It just stopped working out of the blue.. No trauma impact or anything.

Contrarily I found it very hard to kill mine. One of mine was under water in a flood, out in hurricane force driving rain, dropped a dozen times on varying surfaces and finally stopped working after been though up in the air, bounced high and bounced back down the stone church steps to my feet ~ where it looked up at me and ……..


………… Canon fixed it inside a week less than $100

envision1 wrote in post #4626942
So what was the conclusion? I have the same problem right now with my 580ex. It just stopped working out of the blue.. No trauma impact or anything.

My flash did the exact same thing as the OP said... still deciding on a fix. It's out of warranty... how much does it seem it's going to cost?

GerBee wrote in post #4628534
Contrarily I found it very hard to kill mine. One of mine was under water in a flood, out in hurricane force driving rain, dropped a dozen times on varying surfaces and finally stopped working after been though up in the air, bounced high and bounced back down the stone church steps to my feet ~ where it looked up at me and ……..


………… Canon fixed it inside a week less than $100

Man I'm jealous. My canon rebel xt has been to hell and back and still works (including a dip into a stream) This is the first damaged equipment I have to send to canon. I'm going to put it in the mail tommrow.

Well...mine works...however...it doesn't zoom for some reason (probably the fact that I most likely screwed it up while attempting to add a sync port )

pagnamenta wrote in post #4629714
My flash did the exact same thing as the OP said... still deciding on a fix. It's out of warranty... how much does it seem it's going to cost?

I had a 580 EX stop out of warranty. They charged me $125 flat rate to fix it.