slow built in flash

Just tried to trigger my new studio flashes (not to be confused with continuous lights anywhere else on this forum :wink and found that the built in flash on my DS now takes about 5 seconds to get out of bed. It could be that it has become arthritic through lack of use but has anyone else had this problem?

Ken

Do you mean that the pop-up mechanics are slow?
If so, I seem to remember reading something somewhere... hopefully I can find it again
Matt

Yes, Matt, I do.
Ken

Ken,
Seems there was another:
https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1974

Not sure if it was resolved, but it sounds like a mechanical issue to me. On the K10D (which is probably similar) there's a small spring on the release catch side that does the actual "push" of the popup. There are also a couple of metal linkings that hinge from the flash head to the body - I suspect these are a form of "damping".

Maybe you should give someone like Asahi Photo a call and see what they say? Perhaps there's an easy solution... (here's hoping!)
Matt

I've had problems with an old Z1-P that had the same issue. It was a fairly cheap-ish fix done by Robin at Harrow Technical - think it cost me just under £30...

Sounds like a job for a spot of WD-40!

Thanks for the replies. I now think it really is down to lack of use - I've pushed it up and down a couple of dozen times and it is springing up more quickly, trouble is I cant remember just how fast it went up originally. I recall that we were always told to fire the self-timer on Spotmatics occasionally to stop them seizing so maybe the same applies here.

There's room for a really bad joke here, but this is a polite forum so I won't