Hot shoe not working

Hi all,

After taking about 20 shots this morning my ring flash stopped working and after spending ages trying to sort it out I decided to use my Metz flash instead. That doesn't work either.

Both flashes work when you press the 'test' button so neither of them are communicating with the camera so I assume there is something wrong with the hot shoe.

Does anyone know if there is a way to fix this please? - camera is of no use what so ever to me if I can't use external flashes on it.

Many thanks
Charlotte

First I would clean the contacts, then make sure that nothing has been inadvertently set to disable the flash hotshoe.

If all is still not well, flash circuits on cameras very, very rarely cause problems. I suppose it's possible that if you have been using an older flash with a very high trigger voltage you might have damaged the circuits.

Otherwise, warranty repair if possible or paid for repair if not.

Hi Charlotte

First thing I would try is to clean the contacts on the hot shoe with some isopropyl alcohol or similar.

Also, do you have a screw down clamp on your flashes which tightens them to the hot shoe? If so is it tight? KI often have to re-adjust to make sure my flash is pushed fully into the hot shoe and also that it is fitted tightly, otherwise it doesn't always fire.

It may not be either of the above, so please excuse me if you have already ruled these out.

Regards
David

Does the pop up flash work on the KR?
what ring flash model?

Thanks everyone,

The first thing I did was to clean the contacts and I usually have to fiddle with the clamps every-so-often.

I'm confused now though I tried the flash with just the lens and it worked - I then tried it with the lens and the 'auto' tubes and that worked as well, it doesn't work with the manual tubes or as I was using to start off with a combination of manual and auto tubes. Why it worked to start off with and stopped I have absolutely no idea.

I really don't understand why it won't work with the manual tubes at all.

Hey ho - at least my hot shoe isn't busted anyway.

Thanks again,
Charlotte

That's electricity for you, not sure that it is fully understood!

Charlotte, it shouldn't make any difference whether you have manual tubes fitted or not. I would also suggest cleaning the contacts on your lenses and on your camera's mount as it sounds as though there may be a short-circuit somewhere between the camera and lens / tubes.

Regards
David

my sigma flash manual suggests that the flash circuit can overheat, at full power its not many continuous flashes, could you have hit the overheating point?