I recently purchased an A2E body and the built in flash has failed three (3) times. It simply refuses to pop up after a few weeks. I purchased a new 540 EZ just before I bought the A2E body. This is my third A2E body in 7 months. Can anyone offer any suggestions?

I have attempted to make sure I was not doing anything strange with the camera and I cannot put my finger on a reason for this failure.

I had a Canon 620 for 10 years with no problems whatsoever. If I had any say I would take it back and get my money and use my old 620.

Any thoughts?

-- TM Amidei (tamidei@hotmail.com), July 06, 1999

Answers

Under either hot shoe rail (both sides) are micro-switches which detect whether an accessory flash is mounted. Sometimes these switches get stuck, indicating to the camera that the built-in flash cannot be operated. Try to free-up the switches with a dull knife.

-- Dave Herzstein (dherzstein@juno.com), July 09, 1999.

I had the same problem with my EOS5. I've read somebody else's suggestion to you about freeing the micro-switches under the flash rail bracket with a dull knife. This tip does not really address the problem and therefore is not the best solution. The switches get stuck because while the camera parts are manufactured under tight tolerances of high precision technology, the mounting and assembly is of a cheapo consumer level. What it means is that the holes in the flash bracket are just less then a hair width wider than the rubber micro-switches, but the bracket itself is mounted to the camera body with just two screws. Therefore if the tension on one of the screws is just a tidbit higher than on the other, the bracket is misaligned and one of the micro-switches gets stuck. I fixed this problem by loosening one of the screws. You only need to turn it by a few degrees, don't worry about the bracket becoming loose, it won't. I don't know if the same external flash unit activation system is used on Canon's pro cameras like EOS 1, but if it is, I am sure that there are positional pins on the body and additional matching holes in the bracket which assure the proper alignment of the other holes and the micro-switches. I know it is a semi-pro camera, but I have to voice my loud BOO of disdain to Canon engineers. They simply should have drilled wider holes for a cost-saving approach. I have read about people praying to all kinds of gods because of the intermittent nature of this problem. If the bracket is only mildly misaligned the rubber micro-switches will pop up after a while. The humidity (lubrication) and temperature change (widening and narrowing of the holes) make the problem totally chaotic. Despite multiple postings, when I experienced the problem myself and called Canon reps about it, I was told that they never heard about it. The morale: If you can't design, there is always MBA and marketing. If you've got an MBA, fire those engineers who can't design.

-- Vitaly Krivoy (vitalysk@yahoo.com), August 24, 1999.

This problem has 'popped up' several times on various photonet forums. I'll repeat my experience I have had 2 A2E bodies with flash head failure, I have a EZ 540 also. One was only several months old, the other 5 years old when it happened. I was not able to fix either one by fiddling with the microswitches. The authorized Canon repair place for my area said that the A2E was not designed to support the weight of the 540, although the Canon brochures show it happily sitting atop the A2 body. They recomended using a bracket at all times.

-- Cowan Stark (cowan@nh.ultranet.com), September 01, 1999.

I recently aquired an EOS A2 that has this same problem. I've found that when this happens, if I press the shutter button, the camera "comes back to life" and the flash will pop up the next time I try the flash button. For me the flash only seems to fail to pop up the first time I try after turning the camera on, then works fine til I turn it off and back on again.

-- Clint Alford (clint.alford@fritz.com), November 02, 2001.