Elan7 Flash Reliability

Greetings,

 

I'm in the market for a new camera system, as my Maxxum 7000 has

finally given up the ghost. Looking at the Elan 7; actually had one

for a week, and the on-camera flash quit popping up, which confused

the camera, and it'd give the error symbol and refuse to reset.

Finally figured out that if I popped up the flash manually, it'd think

everything was OK and start working again.

 

That scared me off, so I returned it, and am toying with an N80 now.

But, I really liked the Elan.

 

SO, can anyone tell me if this was a fluke, or is there a problem with

the flash servo reliability, since it operates so frequently if

enabled for autofocus assist?

 

Thanks for any and all advice,

Dell*Phinus

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I've never had that problem with the built-in flash. In fact. I've never had any problem. My 7e has worked perfectly as long as I've owned it, about 9 months. IMHO, the 7e rocks for the price.

I think the Elan7 has one of the best built in flash. Never have any problems with mine. I don't use it so often now since I bought the 550EX.

 

Kirk

That's the first time I've heard of that problem so it's probably rare. At any rate, the flash only pops up in the Basic Zone. In the Creative Zone--P, Av, Tv, M--you must lift it up yourself.

DOesn't it raise then lower the flash for AF assist in all modes?

"DOesn't it raise then lower the flash for AF assist in all modes?"

 

Nope. Only in the Basic Zone. In the Creative Zone you must make a decision to use flash and then lift it up yourself. In all modes you must push the flash down to retract it. It isn't automatic. Popup flash operation is explained in detail on pages 81-84 of the manual. This misunderstanding may be the source of your problem.

"Nope. Only in the Basic Zone. In the Creative Zone you must make a decision to use flash and then lift it up yourself. In all modes you must push the flash down to retract it. It isn't automatic. Popup flash operation is explained in detail on pages 81-84 of the manual. This misunderstanding may be the source of your problem."

 

I agree that in the Creatice Zones, you had to manually pop up the flash for main or fill flash. In situations where the camera didn't have enough light to focus, it would pop up the flash, strobe it rapdily until it achieved focus,then pop it down. We were in a heavily treed theme park and it used it ALOT. Then it quit popping up and refused to operate at all, showing the error symbol in the LCD. turning off the auto-focus assist function via CF, and going P mode so it wouldn't try to fill flash restored operation and cleared the error.

This is one of those common problems that Canon will not recognize. I ran into it by accident myself. If you wear a hat and the flash tries to pop up and cannot and it does that several times it will fail. The next time it tries the camera gives the battery dead signal. This only occurs in idiot mode. The only work around it to use the camera in another mode and pop up the flash manually. Wolf is currently fixing my camera for me and they are covering it, but I will have to be much more careful in the future.

In custom function 7 (I think, see manual for sure) you can deactivate the AF assist. Then, you will use manual focus in lowlight conditions.

"This is one of those common problems that Canon will not recognize. I ran into it by accident myself. If you wear a hat and the flash tries to pop up and cannot and it does that several times it will fail. The next time it tries the camera gives the battery dead signal. This only occurs in idiot mode. The only work around it to use the camera in another mode and pop up the flash manually. Wolf is currently fixing my camera for me and they are covering it, but I will have to be much more careful in the future."

 

DO you know what failed? Was it the servo/solenoid/whatever type of actuator, or a linkage? Any idea what the cost would be if it was out of warranty?

 

Mine did the same thing, and I too could work around it by manually opening/closing the flash, but I'm concerned about the LONG TERM reliability of it. My Maxxum lasted 17 years. I'd like my next camera to go that long too, if digital doesn't make it a moot point....

Thanks for the info!

Long term the pop-up flashes reliability on the Elan 7 is probably as good as any camera, including the Nikon N80.

 

In reality, long term your best option (no matter what brand you buy) for quality lighting is going to be to buy a separate flash unit. Those popup units are great for once and a while use outdoors in a fill situation, but are totally inadequate for use as an all-inclusive answer for indoor lighting. Some lenses even cut off the light in part of the scene due to the front of the lens being too large in close. If you have the Elan 7 you need to eventually have at least a 420EX. If you get an N80, you need either an SB50 or SB80.

How comes every time one person on this forum has had a problem with a unit (that's sold thousands), it's a 'common problem designed in and ignored by Canon'.

There's hundreds of us here all happily using and in some cases relying on for our bread and butter Canon cameras.

They're not a cheap and nasty operation. If you want better built than Canon, you have to pay BIG BUCKS.

I'm a happy user of an EOS 30, the eye control focussing which some call a 'gimmick' is the best focussing system I've ever used.

The built in flash is there, like a consumer 28-200 lens, so that if you don't want to carry round a bag of stuff you don't need to.

But don't pretend it'll give as good results as a 50mm 1.4 and a 55ex.

 

There You Have It.

"it would pop up the flash, strobe it rapidly until it achieved focus,then pop it down."

 

Must be a design change. My 3-year old Elan 7E and my wife's Elan 7 will only pop up the flash for AF assist in the Basic Zone. However, they have never retracted afterwards.

 

Hats in general, especially baseball caps, are a no-no with any popup flash. Without flash use, my Elan 7E is already touching the hat brim. A tight fitting baseball cap would be like holding your palm against the retractable flash when activated. I'm sure you'd quickly break it. I wear my hat backwards when shooting...

Hi,

 

I have an Elan 7; In SOME OF THE BASIC MODES ONLY, the on-camera flash pops up if there is not enough light; if for some reason the flash is prevented from popping up, there is an error code on the display, and you have to open your flash by your-self: the camera does not try a second time. I think you can also reset this by putting the camera to off, but I am not sure. Of course it will also not pop-off if you put another flash on the camera, but then there is no error.

The camera NEVER closes the flash by it-self.

 

Probably while wanting to close the flash you have prevented it from popping-up while pushing the button half-way by mistake.

 

Regards,

 

Olivier.

I hate to disagree with Mr Snotty but the reason I said it was a common problem is because the guy at the counter at Wolf said that they saw about 3-5 of the same problem a week. Maybe in your part of the world that is not a common problem, but for me it is.

My 7e is about two years old. No problems.

I also had to face the problem Dell Phinus mentioned here originaly.

In face, it was just a week old EOS33. I got it repaired from the service center. But the camera has come back from the service center with a new problem of not able to select any of the the focus points manually.

Finally, Canon agreed to exchange the camera for a new one. Now waiting for the new one.

 

I guess this problem is particular with the new EOS30/33's...none of my friends had such a problem with their 1~2 year old EOS30/33.

 

-Anoop.