Thank you SO much for those two links! It's great to know I'm not alone. Now that we've established that others are having the same problem, what do we do next? Simply call up Canon and ask "WTF is going on?"?
BTW, reading their threads, it reminded me that I had the exact same problem one day while shooting an outdoor concert in bright day light. I wanted to have fill flash filling in the shadows caused by the harsh sunlight, but it ended up blowing out all the subjects--which made no sense. So essentially, this problem comes and goes, due to no change of setting on my part--it just acts up once a while.
I emailed Canon and they advised me to ship the flash in for assessment. My warranty expired (bought it in June of 2005), so this means I'll have to pay repair fee. With that said, would I be better off just keep on using the 14mm diffusion panel as a fix instead of paying to get it repaired? I mean, using the 14mm diffuser panel doesn't seem to have any negative effect on my shooting at all--that extra flash zoom coverage doesn't effect longer focal lengths during exposure--if anything, it only covers a wider angle than necessarily--which isn't a bad thing in itself.
So should I pay for repairs, or just keep on using the 14mm flash diffuser?
Lunatique wrote:
So should I pay for repairs, or just keep on using the 14mm flash diffuser?
Only you can answer that.
If it were me, I'd send the flash and some examples of the problem you are having. They will advise you if the cost to repair is prohibitive vice buying a new one.
I'd only use it with the flash diffuser continuously deployed if you are sure that is the only way you ever intend to use it again. Seems like you'd be giving up quite a bit of capability on the flash if you choose to do that.
They will advise you if the cost to repair is prohibitive vice buying a new one.
Last time I was at a Canon Service Center--last Spring--the mimium charge was $150. The charge may vary somewhat by region but it's bound to be similar.
