so we have 3 d700's and 2 of them are starting to experience this issue where the hotshoe is getting loose. not detaching from the camera but the metal is bending slighting where the sb900 and sb800 flashes are starting to get really loose. loose enough where at times it will cause the flash to flicker and get all f'd up and change the mode it is in or cause it to miss fire the flash. it sometimes looks like a strobe light is going off and it wont let me take a picture. i was wondering if anyone else is experiencing this? one came is 13 months old and has been dropped a number of times so i can see why this might have happened but the other is 5 months old and never dropped not even a mark.
well we think we fixed them by pushing the metal heads down slightly to make the flash heads more snug. but this is only a temporary fix until the wedding season ends in december and we can afford to let 2 of our main bodies for for a few weeks.
anyone else see this happening with the d700s or other cams?
Yes, I had the same experience regarding weird flash behaviour a couple of times with my D700 + SB-900. Obviously the camera is the problem as the flash works fine on my D300.
I do not yet know what to do since all the weekend long now it worked fine without any problem.
try pushing the metal foot down on the sides on the camera slightlight. be careful as you dont wanna break it. it seemed to fix mine for now. but we will see after this next weeks heavy use.
I often have questioned just how much weight that shoe will handle,, any type of bumping places considerable force on the unit and after time is bound to loosen up,, as the strobes get bigger the shoe just seems to stay the same,, believe all the cameras builders need to rethink some beefing up of the way it is held on the camera as well as the material it is made of,, guess they have the loosening built in as a safety in lieu of just breaking something else,,
We have 3 D700's at the studio and one just came back from warranty repair. They replaced the hotshoe. We could no longer get our SB900 or SB800 to go into TTL-BL mode.
We also have occasional flash fires and modeling lights from our flashes that are hooked up to our D700's. It is weird.
Have the same problem with m d700 going crazy. Sent the camera to Nikon with the flash and they didn't see a problem. DID A WEDDING THIS WEEKEND AND THE STROBES WENT NUTS. about to go back to Nikon. Have all the miss fires on disk.
I have a similar problem but it's def the flash not the hotshoe. I think the locating/locking pin that is activated when you turn the black locking device isn't working properly. The flash (SB800) is wobbly and you can even slide it off when locked. Sometimes works fine, sometimes won't give me TTL + BL unless I jiggle it.
I started having the same problem today during an 9 hours photo shoot. I'm using the D700 with a newly acquired SB900. I didn't have any problems when using the SB600 for the last 6 months. The SB-900 is huge compared the SB-600. Now that the (damage) is done, my SB600 exhibits the same modeling flash like symptoms. I'm reluctant to bend in my own hotshoe connections as that might cause problems if I send in my D700 later for warranty repairs. I'll keep looking for more input from others seeing this problem.
I was looking for a thread like this. I shoot with 2 D700's; one about 15 months old (bought when they first launched); and a backup purchased this summer - a refurb.
I use SB-800's on both and work the head of the flash left and right, up and down, pretty aggressively - change the bounce angle on almost every shot. I can tell the extra pressure over time feels like it's loosening the connection with the camera.
And in the past couple weeks, I got the same problem you all describe: flash flickers on occasion, firing on it's own, sometimes the flash not firing - and the attendant Pocket Wizard won't trigger remotes (linked to camera by PC sync) as well. UGH. Both cameras seem to exhibit the same issue.
Thought it might be one of the SB-800s, but all four of mine seem to have this issue, and another photog I worked with last night suggested it's a hotshoe problem - he had the same thing and sent his body into NPS.
So anyway, just wanted to throw my 2c in here since there are only a couple threads that came up via Google last night. This definitely seems like and issue and I think it's important to get this info out there so others know about it...especially the folks at Nikon.
I'm sending my cameras out to Melville first thing - hope I can get them back ASAP.
I've experienced the random misfire and the pocketwizard issue with one of my bodies but not the newer of the two, I use Sb900s and 800s and the 900 is the only one with the issue. A few weekends back the camera took a dive during a wedding and the shoe got bent in slightly on the right side, now i have to jam the flash in and have had no issues since, a screwdriver assisted in wedging it back up a bit, but until I have 4 weeks to wait for nikon to repair it, it'll have to do, its become my available light camera or off camera light body for the remainder of the season, hopefully come the new year I'll be able to get a quick fix from nikon as I don't have many weekends off and NPS seems to prefer taking Doctors and Lawyers with toys over real professionals as a preference to becoming members now adays.. I have numerous friends who don't shoot professionaly and have only the latest and greatest toys and got their apps approved within days and many pro friends who can not get through... maybe they should follow canon's suite and make it a pay service.. i wouldnt mind paying a bit extra to get quick turnaround time..
also had a sb900 flash tube explode on me last weekend, seems like this stuffs not made the way it used to, my f5s and sb28s never had a single issue...
I don't have a flash and considering buying one. Now with all your testimonial Im holding it back. Maybe I'll just go for theSB-600 for lighter weight.
FOLLOW UP REPORT - I sent my D700 into Nikon Melville for expedited repair (I'm a NPS member.) They determined it was a faulty hot shoe; so they replaced it and I got the camera back in about ten days total (and they lent me a replacement). The camera works fine now with all my SB-800's as well as Pocket Wizards.
FYI, my other D700 started to exhibit these problems and have it in getting looked at. The Nikon guys said they had very few types of these issues, nothing that drew his attention to it as abnormal? Oh well. 2 for 2 for me. I assume they'll just replace the hot shoe again.
There was another thread in dpreview about this very same symptom. Plaintiff was a wedding photog with 2 d700 and 3 sb-900. At first only one of his 700 exhibited flash abnormalities then his 2nd d700. read his full story below.
Well, the Nikon tech guys did not replicate the problem or find anything wrong with my D700 hotshoe. So I'm getting the camera back today and will be using it for two jobs over the weekend (of course I have a backup D700 in case).
I'll just reiterate that my problems were with the D700/SB-800 pairing, whereas a lot of the issues seem to be with the SB-900 and the larger footprint of its hotshoe foot.
Mine current situation was just a couple of mis-fires and poor TTL, not the crazy stroboscopic flashing that characterizes a bad short with the hotshoe and or flash...yet.
I'll keep a close eye on my 4 SB-800s and 2 D700s and try and see which combination gives me problems. I have a feeling it might just be a connection that is a bit loose, but we'll see...finger's crossed.
It may just be that the D700 hotshoe is inherently a bit weaker than some other models - which sucks because I work my flash head like crazy, bouncing off all directions of surfaces.
