I'm near the end of my birding trip to Panama, and my 580EX flash simply stopped firing after fairly light use. Pilot light stays red indefinitely. There is the brief normal whine when switched on, but it abruptly changes to an intermittent soft pulse (a very soft beep) as it seems to fail to charge.
Yes, fresh batteries have been triple checked. Contacts are clean.
Anyone run across this and find a fix? Sending to Canon doesn't help me now, and no opportunity to pick up new one where I am.
Also check that you did nt accidentally set it to not fire either in the flash menus itself or the camera's menues. i have done that to myself once (maybe twice )
jfwoodman wrote:
I'm near the end of my birding trip to Panama, and my 580EX flash simply stopped firing after fairly light use. Pilot light stays red indefinitely. There is the brief normal whine when switched on, but it abruptly changes to an intermittent soft pulse (a very soft beep) as it seems to fail to charge.
Yes, fresh batteries have been triple checked. Contacts are clean.
Anyone run across this and find a fix? Sending to Canon doesn't help me now, and no opportunity to pick up new one where I am.
Thanks
Jim
Jim, the bulb is burned out and needs to be replaced. It will cost you around $70-130 with parts and labor. There's no way around it.
Thanks all! Perhaps it was a humidity thing (makes sense). But after several hours back at the lodge, I switched from ettl to M and it fired. Then switched back to ettl and it fired. I'm pretty sure I toggled that in the field to no effect, but perhaps not. So I'm not sure if the switch or some time indoors cured it, but it works for now.
I still find it odd that the red pilot light does not switch off anymore after it powers up (pilot going off after a few moments is normal, right?). But we'll see what happens in the field maņana. Thanks again, all, for the quick advice.
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