clixpix Loc: Surprise, Arizona

Recently I was at our local newly opened butterfly pavilion. The temperature in the butterfly area was about 75 degrees F and about 80% humidity. I was in there for about two hours taking photos, went to the small restaurant to cool off, then back into the butterfly area for another couple of hours. The photos I took came out well. However, a couple of weeks later as I wanted to take some flash photos using the pop-up, it would not pop-up and would make clicking sound and giving me an error message. I sent the camera to Canon for repairs and the repair sheet indicated that they found "the upper cover assembly has been submerged in a liquid causing an error to be displayed. Repaired pop-up mechanism, cleaned soft drink"

I know that the camera was not submerged and that no soft drink was near the camera or was spilled on it. I am wondering of any of the UHH folks had similar occurrences with the built-in flashes on your cameras in high humidity situations and how you may have solved the issue.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Regards---Joe

oldtool2 Loc: South Jersey

Joe,

I would guess that at some point something got spilled on the flash. I don't think the problem was caused by the butterfly pavilion. The temperature and humidity you describe are normal outside conditions for the area I live in and have never had a problem. "Cleaned soft drink" makes me think of something sticky was spilled on the flash. Humidity is nothing but water or moisture, not something sticky.

Going from a high humidity warm area into an air conditioned area can, and will, cause condensation on your glass such as your lens but it would not be sticky. I have had this problem and waited a few minutes, then cleaned my lens, view finder and back screen using my normal methods.

Jim D

clixpix Loc: Surprise, Arizona

Jim:

Thanks for the reply. I know for sure that nothing spilled on the camera but things do happen. Anyway, you are right about humidity and the camera's ability to work in some humidity. I will be gling back to do more butterflies and will be much more attentive to what is going on and hope this does not happen again.

Regards---Joe

oldtool2 Loc: South Jersey

Joe,

You are quite welcome! I will help you hope, repairs can get expensive! Can you post a few of the butterflies photos? I would like to see them. Are you taking these in Tucson? It has been quite a few years back but that is where I took my photos at.

Jim D

Annie_Girl Loc: It's none of your business

One of my 7Ds has this issue, I spilted lemonade all over it. I never use the pop-up flash so it's not an issue for me, I've never sent it off to be repaired and most likely never will.

Did Canon repair it or is it still an issue? I would recommend purchasing speedlight and ditch the pop-up flash anyway.

oldtool2 Loc: South Jersey

I agree that external flash units are the best way to go, but soon or later you will wish it worked. You never know.

Jim D

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

There is really no way to know for sure that something didn't get spilled on your camera. I am a very careful person and thought the same about my kitchen floor. I mopped it one day and by that evening I found a small coffee spill on my floor. I was the only one in or out of the house that day. My point is, I consider myself to be very careful and I would always clean up a spill if I saw it happen but sometimes things happen that you can't explain.

clixpix Loc: Surprise, Arizona

Thanks to Annie Girl, Old Tool2 and jeep daddy for your responses. The responses were helpful and thoughtful. I do have a 580 EX external flash that I plan to use as well. This was my first trip to the new Butterfly Wonderland in Scottsdale, AZ and was not sure on what equipment would be optimal, so I just went with my 50D, 100 mm macro lens and the 50D. Turn out the pop up worked just fine and the lens was not casting a shadow on the butterflies. I am posting three photos from that shoot. These are out of the camera.