Smoking flash

[rs]

I was shooting an event yesterday, and there were the typical crowds of people taking photos with phones, compacts and DSLR's. At one point during an indoor part of the event, something caught my eye about a guy taking photos next to me. I'm not sure if it was a weird spread of the light from his flash or what, but something made me watch him take the next shot. He was shooting with a rebel of some sort, and as the internal flash fired again, a very noticeable amount of smoke came out of it.

He was wearing a baseball cap, and that was pushing the spring loaded flash back almost home, yet the flash still fired - presumably at full power due to ETTL and minimal subject illumination, and it was mostly projected into a confined black plastic area. I made sure to tell him what happened, and he then sniffed the flash and confirmed it smelt of burning. The flash itself looked fine from my half second glance at it, and I didn't have time to look in the area which I guess was burning.

I know using a crop camera in auto mode while wearing a baseball cap isn't something everyone does, but it can't be too uncommon. It wasn't hot either (inside a tent at about 15 to 20 degrees). If any Canon engineers read this, how about fitting a simple position sensor to detect if the flash is fully up, and only then allow the flash to fire?

 

[photonius]

I was shooting an event yesterday, and there were the typical crowds of people taking photos with phones, compacts and DSLR's. At one point during an indoor part of the event, something caught my eye about a guy taking photos next to me. I'm not sure if it was a weird spread of the light from his flash or what, but something made me watch him take the next shot. He was shooting with a rebel of some sort, and as the internal flash fired again, a very noticeable amount of smoke came out of it.

He was wearing a baseball cap, and that was pushing the spring loaded flash back almost home, yet the flash still fired - presumably at full power due to ETTL and minimal subject illumination, and it was mostly projected into a confined black plastic area. I made sure to tell him what happened, and he then sniffed the flash and confirmed it smelt of burning. The flash itself looked fine from my half second glance at it, and I didn't have time to look in the area which I guess was burning.

I know using a crop camera in auto mode while wearing a baseball cap isn't something everyone does, but it can't be too uncommon. It wasn't hot either (inside a tent at about 15 to 20 degrees). If any Canon engineers read this, how about fitting a simple position sensor to detect if the flash is fully up, and only then allow the flash to fire?

maybe not burning, but the flash may have vaporized some of the black plastic of the housing.
I guess there is a sensor, but it only recognizes fully down (i.e. when it's locked into position). A modified sensor might indeed be useful that detects when it's too low.

 

[pwp]

Hope it wasn't a non-smoking venue....

I had a Metz hotshoe flash a few years ago and it occasionally let off a barely discernible puff of expensive smelling smoke. It did die eventually. I suspect it was smoking related. Since then I've stuck with Canon 550, 580 and 580exII Speedlights and while their health has been mixed, they've all been non-smokers. Their health related issues more likely resulted from over-work and high expectations while hooked up to over-spec external batteries.

Worse was a 2400ws Profoto floorpack that self-immolated a couple of years back...much smoke, a positively alien soundtrack, fried board and stinking exploded capacitors. Nasty.

Frankly I'm amazed that flashes stand up to the workload as well as they do.

-PW

 

[Joe M]

I hope the gentleman takes the time to have the camera inspected before using it again. I can imagine that the smoking may originate from the overheating of the circuits or wiring. Before the flash malfunctions altogether or worse, he ought to have it repaired. I know of one user of a 7D that developed a problem with the popup flash. I don't know what she did to her camera and how she treated it but after three years of ownership a problem popped up so to speak. When using the popup flash, the camera's batter would instantly drain to nothing. It took two trips to Canon to find the issue and finally the entire top of the camera was replaced. Luckily, she had extended warranty but this is the first time I've personally heard of such an issue. With luck too, the gentleman in question in this thread will not find himself in a similar or worse situation in the future with his camera.

 

[distant.star]

.
Thanks for putting a lot of light on this smoking issue!

Hope it wasn't a non-smoking venue....

I had a Metz hotshoe flash a few years ago and it occasionally let off a barely discernible puff of expensive smelling smoke. It did die eventually. I suspect it was smoking related. Since then I've stuck with Canon 550, 580 and 580exII Speedlights and while their health has been mixed, they've all been non-smokers. Their health related issues more likely resulted from over-work and high expectations while hooked up to over-spec external batteries.

Worse was a 2400ws Profoto floorpack that self-immolated a couple of years back...much smoke, a positively alien soundtrack, fried board and stinking exploded capacitors. Nasty.

Frankly I'm amazed that flashes stand up to the workload as well as they do.

-PW