Serious complaint

Rock and Rollei wrote:

Alastair Norcross wrote:

I don't often complain about Canon, but I do have a serious gripe. It will take a bit of explaining, so please bear with me. A bit over a year ago, I bought an R from the Canon refurbished store with a refurbished RF 24-105L. When I added the Canon loyalty discount to the price, the camera came to about $1100 (and another $600 for the lens). A pretty good price. My complaint isn't about that. It also works well, and produces really nice pictures with the various RF and EF lenses I use with it. My complaint isn't about that. The AF system is also excellent, not as good as the R5 and R6, but still excellent. My complaint isn't about that. I rarely use flash, but the other day I wanted a bit, so I started pressing the side of the EVF hump, where I expected the flash release button to be, but nothing happened. Perhaps they've put the button somewhere else (like on the M6II, which doesn't have an EVF hump), I thought, so I looked, but no luck. Then I carefully read the manual, and the various online reviews. No mention of a flash at all. It finally dawned on me that my R doesn't have built-in flash! What the..., I thought. I have bought many Canon cameras over the years, compacts, DSLRs, and M series mirrorless. And every single one has a built-in flash. Every. Single. One. Well, not every single one, actually. The original M has no built-in flash. But, and here we're getting close to my complaint, when I bought my M in a two-lens kit on firesafe for around $400, the kit included an external flash, the 90EX. I actually used it once (maybe even twice). So, every single Canon digital camera I've ever bought has come with a flash, either built-in or included. Every. Single. One. Until now. What is happening to Canon, I thought. Then I remembered reading about a Canon flash that automatically adjusts the bounce head. The 470EX, I think it is. That would be cool, for the one time every two years I use flash, I thought. And it costs around $300, apparently (but doesn't seem to be available). Anyway, I thought, why didn't Canon throw that flash in with my refurbished R? Perhaps because it's not available, and maybe not compatible with the R? OK, but they make a lot of other flashes too. There's one for around $600. That would be nice. Did Canon throw that one in for my occasional use? No, they didn't. Hell, they didn't even throw in a basic $290 430 EX III model. I know I already own four flashes, including the 430 EX II, which I actually used the other day. But that's not the point. It's the principle of the thing. Canon is a multi-billion dollar company, and they couldn't even throw in a $290 external flash with my $1100 full frame flashless camera? So here's my real and utterly serious complaint/question. Why is Canon so mean? Why? Why? Why?

(Just for the record, the 470EX-AI IS fully compatible with the R, I was using it on my R and R6 last week at a wedding.)

Good to know, but it does seem to be unavailable right now. To be serious for just a minute (I know, I know), that flash did look interesting to me. I almost never use flash, but I like the idea of a flash that swivels around on its own finding the best bounce angle. Just a really cool piece of technology.

When I got my R, knocking on for 3 years ago, it also didn't come with this gun. It DID come with a lens, and also with a free EF-RF adapter. But what I found mean was that it was just the standard one, not the control ring version or the drop-in filter version. And I had to wait nearly a week for the cash back to turn up on the offer. Disgraceful!