Repair Question

[misse336]

Does anyone have any experience with sending a Canon camera to Canon for repair? Or experience with getting a camera repaired at all with success. I'm a little worried that it will be fixed short term and I will have issues with the flash later on.

I have a Canon Rebel t5i. The flash started to not work properly yesterday while I was at the Franklin Institute. It worked fine in the morning, but when I went to use it after lunch the flash would not work. Nothing was dropped/bumped/etc in-between it working properly and it not working properly. When in auto mode the flash will pop up, but will not flash. When you look at the information on the pictures it shows that the flash worked when it clearly did not. I could not force the flash to work in any of the modes on the camera. I kept taking pictures with my 50mm 1.8 lens hoping that I could salvage some of the pictures taken closer to the windows but they're all pretty dark.

I took it to the camera store where I purchased it and they were unable to fix it. They recommended that I contact Canon.

I looked at the Canon Community forum and found other people that have had the same issue so hopefully it can be repaired, but the website is quoting $190 and I have to somehow make sure that it isn't damaged in shipping and works long term after the fix.

Anyone have any experience with this or anything similar to this?

 

[mom2rtk]

Not a camera, but I sent a lens once for internal cleaning. They were easy to work with and returned it pretty quickly. They were also great to work with when I called back to report there was still a spot of dust inside the lens after the (pricey) cleaning.

How long have you had the camera? Any idea how many actuations?

FWIW, many of the issues I have had on rebels through the years have been related to that pop-up flash. I guess that won't happen now since my 6D has no built in flash!

Have you considered a small external flash instead?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/754467-USA/Canon_5247B002_Speedlite_270EX_II.html

Something like that is less expensive and will be nice to have in your bag long after this camera is gone.

 

[boBQuincy]

I had a 30D repaired by Canon (shutter replacement), the work was done properly and the camera was returned in secure packaging. Maybe that man-made lightning at the Franklin Institute had something to do with it (just kidding)!

 

[bob100]

Does anyone have any experience with sending a Canon camera to Canon for repair? Or experience with getting a camera repaired at all with success. I'm a little worried that it will be fixed short term and I will have issues with the flash later on.

I have a Canon Rebel t5i. The flash started to not work properly yesterday while I was at the Franklin Institute. It worked fine in the morning, but when I went to use it after lunch the flash would not work. Nothing was dropped/bumped/etc in-between it working properly and it not working properly. When in auto mode the flash will pop up, but will not flash. When you look at the information on the pictures it shows that the flash worked when it clearly did not. I could not force the flash to work in any of the modes on the camera. I kept taking pictures with my 50mm 1.8 lens hoping that I could salvage some of the pictures taken closer to the windows but they're all pretty dark.

I took it to the camera store where I purchased it and they were unable to fix it. They recommended that I contact Canon.
I looked at the Canon Community forum and found other people that have had the same issue so hopefully it can be repaired, but the website is quoting $190 and I have to somehow make sure that it isn't damaged in shipping and works long term after the fix.

Anyone have any experience with this or anything similar to this?

I've never sent a camera in for repair but I agree with the other poster about getting an external flash, once you discover how much better it is bouncing the light from an external flash you will never, ever go back to using the pop-up flash.

 

[misse336]

The camera is more than one year old so it isn't under warranty anymore. I will have to look into tutorial about external flashes.

I have been saving money for either a 70-200 2.8 or 17-55 / 28-70 2.8. I finally almost have enough money for one of the lens and have been debating which one to get so I would prefer not to use that money for repairs to my camera.

 

[elmoandzoey]

I had a 40D repaired by Canon once (broken display). It was an insurance issue so I didn't pay for it but it was rather costly. They did a pretty good job though. I am still using that camera 4 years later without an issue.

I also agree with mom2rk that you should probably look into an external flash rather than getting the pop-up flash fixed. If it is only $190 like you were quoted, that same amount of money is gonna get you a pretty decent flash. Heck, you could probably get two Yongnuo flashes for $190. It really isn't hard to use an external flash once you got the hang of it and it makes all the difference in pictures.

 

[littlekidagain]

You said you were at the Franklin Institute. So I'm gusseting you in the Philadelphia area. I would go to Canon in Jamesburg, NJ. That where my friends all go who shoot Canon.