300D and no pop-up flash

The pop-up flash no longer pops up on my 300D and gives error 5. It may have got wet at some stage and jammed the micro switches under the hood.
Anyone got any ideas of how to pop the flash so I can clean underneath.
Has anyone been brave enough to take the casing off one of these, if so what are the problems involved.

This is a common failing with Canon pop-up flashes. I've had four Canon's with built-in flashes (two film, two digital) and this has happened to all four at one time or another.

What has probably happened is this: On the camera hotshoe (for an external flash) there are two little pin switches that sense when a flash is installed and prevent the built-in flash from popping up. These switches have a tendency to stick causing the camera to think there's a flash installed on the hotshoe and the pop-up won't pop...

There are two solutions... You can carefully remove the little plate that covers the screws on the hotshoe and attempt to pull the switch pins up, but you have to be very careful as they are extremely small and easy to damage. There's a thread on here somewhere about this, but I can't find it. The preferred solution (at least in my opinion) is to forget about the built-in flash, buy a decent external flash and use it instead. A hotshoe flash is much more versatile and useful than the built-in. I rarely go anywhere without mine...

My flash stopped popping automatically a couple years ago. I have a 350D. So when I need to use it I push the flash open button and pull it up manually, but you have to do it within a few seconds or it goes into error.

goldboughtrue wrote in post #3692771
My flash stopped popping automatically a couple years ago. I have a 350D. So when I need to use it I push the flash open button and pull it up manually, but you have to do it within a few seconds or it goes into error.

Probably the same problem I outlined above...

I finally found a picture of the hotshoe switch for the Rebel. Check post number 2 in this thread...

https://photography-on-the.net …php?p=3477861#p​ost3477861