popup flash not working

I accidently dropped my D70 from a height of around 12inches onto concrete. A Sigma 50-500 lens was attached.

Anyway, both seem to be OK, except for some reason the D70's popup flash is not firing. Now I am not sure if it really was the fall which caused the damage or if stopped working before that. Needless to say the popup is not firing. I've put the camera into TTL, manual and commander modes, but still don't get a flash out of it. When the camera is in AUTO interestingly the camera will automatically pop-up the flash, but won't fire it. Also if I keep shooting in AUTO with the flashed popped out, the camera keeps trying to popup the flash, and consequently the little flash release catch keeps clicking every time I press the shutter release.

Could I have somehow disabled the popup flash in the menus and forgotten about it? I've also tried all the different flash modes, ie. pushing the little lightning button and twiddling the wheel through all the modes.

The camera seems to worth fine with my SB-800 hot shoe flash by the way.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Could the flash bulb inside the pop-up flash have smashed?

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Martin

The bulb inside looks intact, though it might have a hairline fracture I can't see.

overtune said:

Could the flash bulb inside the pop-up flash have smashed?

----------------
Martin

Click to expand...

I was very stupid dropping it. After a shoot I wrapped the camera in a jacket and put it down on the back seat floor of my car. Then I went to a gas station. I remembered my wallet was in the pocket of the jacket which I'd wrapped the camera in, so I absent-mindedly reached for the jacket to get my wallet. The camera unrolled from the jacket and deposited itself on the tarmac.

Ouch!

One of those 'Heart-Sink' moments I suspect!

Hmm.. I suppose the bulb could have an hairline fracture,

I dont think itll be anything 'setting-wise' seeing as using an external flash works fine..

Do you need the built-in flash though? Seeing as you have an SB-800?

--
Martin

Well I guess I don't need it really. Still it is a good backup to have. I'll probably send it off to Nikon for servicing and see if my household insurance will cover the repair. It is out of warranty long since and of course the warranty might not have covered that kind of damage anyway.

Well good look with getting it serviced..

If the household insurance wont cover the repair, im sure it wont be TOO big of a bill anyway..

Like I say, good luck =)

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Martin

Hopefully it won't be too much, and I ought to be able to claim insurance for it.

I am not usually that absent-mined, but on this occasion I had my new girlfirend in the car with me and I guess my mind was mostly on other things...

Robotnik123 said:

Hopefully it won't be too much, and I ought to be able to claim
insurance for it.

I am not usually that absent-mined, but on this occasion I had my
new girlfirend in the car with me and I guess my mind was mostly on
other things...

Click to expand...

Under the circumstances your forgiven “other things” always take president.

Good luck on your camera repair.

Well I just got my D70 back from the Nikon service center. It was New Zealand $200 to fix (that's like US$100 or so) the flash circuitry. I guess it took 2 weeks, so not so long. Only problem is that in the meantime I couldn't stand to be without a camera, so I bought a D200. Will have to ebay the D70 now I suppose. Oh well...

I recently had this happen to my D70 as well. The pop-up flash will pop up, but it won't fire. In my case it wasn't the result of a specific drop, but rather, I suspect, the cumultive effect of some rough travel in my backpack.

In answer to this question

overtune said:

Do you need the built-in flash though? Seeing as you have an SB-800?

Click to expand...

The answer is most definitely "Yes! Absolutely!" You see, once you get used to the freedom of using the SB-800 off the camera and triggering it with the pop-up flash as the commander, it's really hard to go back. The SB-800 is great and all, but being forced to use it on the camera suddenly feels so restrictive. At least that's been my frustrating experience.

See ya,

Bernard

My Photos: http://www.pbase.com/bhymmen

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That is the pop-up stopped working(in the middle of a shoot, no less). I need the commander function, so after talking with Nikon Tech support, off it went. $212.50 and a few weeks later it was back and functioning better than ever.
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http://jmj575m.smugmug.com

All the Best,

JMJ

Popup flash not working?, then get some Viagra!