Sunday, January 03, 2010

Smoking flash - SD1200

Wow, this I had not seen before. When I was taking some photos earlier today and the flash (auto) was on, I saw smoke come from the flash after use. Not much but some, enough to make me worried, not enough to make me stop using the camera. Everything seems to work fine still, but in situations where the flash is needing to go full strength, smoke is coming. Just check out this video taken a few minutes back....


What do you think? That's not normal, not in my book. I guess I will be calling Canon tech support tomorrow to see what they have to say. Have you ever seen this? Please comment and pass along....

Update 1/4/10 Called Canon and a friendly and nice guy said that it is likely some dirt, grease, or lotion on the Flash that makes the smoke. Previously this has been fixed with an easy external cleaning of the Flash. I tried, but it still gives off the smoke and when looking very closely, the surface of the Flash seems damaged. Camera is now sent to Canon for evaluation and hopefully paid warranty repair.

Update 1/14/10 Canon got the camera 4 days ago, and today it was logged online as "repair complete" covered by warranty. I guess in a few days I will see what they did as I have no idea. No call or questions has been asked.

Update 1/21/10 Camera back. Read here

6 comments:

Jay said...

So do you still love the 1200 over the 780?

Mats said...

Yes, I would suspect this could also happen with the SD780 and I still would buy the SD1200 over the SD780.

Jay said...

I could understand that....
I've been going back and forth between 1200, 780, and 960 for the past couple of weeks and there are so many mixed reviews it drives me nuts! :(

Mats said...

It's all what you need. Need/want HE movie, then SD1200 is out. Use it enough that button ergonomics is important, and no need to HD, I would get the SD1200. If size is not important, maybe the 960 is better (I know nothing on this one).

Jay said...

Don't really care for HD as I have a UltraFlip HD pocket cam that does well for the short vids...I want quality pictures mostly used for family and small enough to have it on me all the time.

Michelle S. said...

Hi Mats,
The smoke is caused by oily debris that can build up on the flash lens over time. It will smoke like that, it does get pretty warm there especially with the flash at hi power or flashed over and over like your video. Try to keep that area clean. Wipe it down every now and then. Storing in a pocketbook is really bad. They get filhy inside, lol.