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Intermittent Motor Noise FL360L Flash

Started Jun 7, 2019 | Questions
dickg1 Regular Member • Posts: 320
Intermittent Motor Noise FL360L Flash

With my Panasonic FL360L mounted on my GX7, with a 30mm prime, I get a sort of a  grinding motor noise coming from the flash.  This happens regardless of the camera or flash settings.  It doesn't happen when the flash is off the camera.

It kind of sounds like its internal focusing motor is hunting for a place to be, but never finds it.

Also, what would cause the flash to jump settings, without changing any settings in the camera?

Any ideas?

diskg1

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Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-140mm F3.5-5.6 O.I.S +1 more
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Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7
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JakeJY Veteran Member • Posts: 5,442
Re: Intermittent Motor Noise FL360L Flash

The only motor in the flash should be the zoom motor. With a prime it should only move to the setting suitable for your 30mm and stay there. I don't have your particular flash, but my Nikon flash also moves the zoom to widest position when you use the diffuser panel.

Did you try with a different lens and see if the same issue happens? And I presume you aren't talking about the capacitor charge up noise typical in most flashes.

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Peter 1745 Senior Member • Posts: 2,022
Re: Intermittent Motor Noise FL360L Flash

I once had an unusual intermittent noise on my Olympus FL600 flash which is very similar to the Panasonic 360L flash.

The noise was coming from the zoom head motor and I found the cause to be an incorrectly seated wide angle diffuser panel. The flash head zooms out to its widest setting when the panel is deployed which is triggered by a sensor in the flash head. The incorrectly seated wide angle flash panel was causing the sensor to be triggered intermittently. The cure was to push the wide angle diffuse back into its proper storage position.

This may not be the cause of your problem but it can't hurt to check.

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Regards,
Peter
'Keep taking the photos'

OP dickg1 Regular Member • Posts: 320
Re: Intermittent Motor Noise FL360L Flash

Yup - that was the problem - thanks

dickg1

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Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-140mm F3.5-5.6 O.I.S +1 more
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