Yesterday, after shooting I had to take the lens and flash off the camera body, but my flash 550EX got stuck and I can't get it off the body (EOS 5D).
How to take it off? I turned the ring to loosen it, but it just wouldn't come out.
The flash works fine though if I turn everything on.
I've had the same problem recently with my Canon flash not budging when I tried to slip it off the hot-shoe of my Canon 40D body. I'm afraid I did use a lot of force to get it off... but I think it's still OK. And I think I've figured out the problem.
After reading the answers here, I took the ring-flash and... while staring at the bottom plate... began turning the tightening-ring back-and-forth between the extreme "tightened position" and the extreme "loosened position". In doing so, I could see the (forward-most, round) pin slowly go up and down. Seeing that, I now understand the (simple) mechanism that helps secure the flash to the body and keeps it from sliding off the hot-shoe.
When the circular tightening-ring at the bottom of the flash is fully loosened, the round pin is flush against the plate... and as the tightening-ring is tightened, the round pin begins to raise.
My mistake was not turning the tightening-ring to its fully (extreme) loosened position before attempting to slide the flash off the hot shoe! I was under the naive impression that the "cinching down" produced by the tightening rings is what held the flash in place. So, when removing the flash, if I turned the ring enough so that the flash looked and felt loosely-cinched against the hot-shoe, I figured I could slide it off. Not so!! Because the round pin only becomes flush with the base of my flash when its turned all the way to the completely loosened position.
There's a tiny locking pin inside the flash's foot that descends into the camera hotshoe when you tighten the ring, maybe it's stuck.
Try to hold the camera up side down (with the flash below the camera), tighten the ring all the way and then losses it all the way, grab the flash foot ant try to gently move it forward and backward - maybe you can get the pin to drop back into the flash.
Be gentle, don't use too much force - you don't want to break or bend anything. If this doesn't work go to an authorized service center (if the camera is still under warranty) or to any camera repair shop - the repair should be pretty simple to anyone trained in taking cameras and flashes apart.
there is a possibility that the flash hot shoe and the hot shoe on your camera is fixed tightly . or a element is stuck to each other in it.
method 1) even if it is a bit hard, gently push only at the base of the flash(near the hot shoe) with your thumb till it pops out.
if that did not work ,
method 2) insert a thin plate between the camera and the flash to see if it can be loosened a bit.then try "method 1" again
if that did not work ,
method 3) produce your beloved camera to a authorized service center. don't force any more.
happy clicking :)
Found that the round plastic plate on the base of my 430 was cracked and slightly lifted preventing it from sliding off correctly. Pushed down on the raised portion with a small flathead to remove and repair it.
The post by A.S. saved me a lot of time and heartache! It's spot on. I recently bought a Canon T6 and had the same problem. It's not really a problem if you turn the tightening ring all the way, as loose as you can. It will slide right off. The ring pulls the pin back up allowing it to release.
Sony A7RII here, I tried the methods above, and I don't want to force too much. So eventually I took mine to a camera repair shop. Took me 10 minutes to drive to the camera shop, then 10 seconds for them to remove it with a special tool (very thin blade to slide in between camera hotshoe and flash foot). They charged me $25, which is their minimum service fee. I now regret the time that I spent fiddling with it before the repair shop.
The root cause for my case is that the two pins that protrude as I tighten the flash foot do not retract as I unscrew the flash foot. So make sure to inspect the retract mechanism every now and then before putting your flash into your camera hot shoe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGFcjrXkzh4
this video helped me - same problem as probably most.
In front of the flash below the red TTL lights above the locking wheel there is a small space where you can fit a really tiny knife or plate in and push the front pin down. On my 430ex it was really hard, because the space is so tiny you need to almost lock/tighten the wheel completly, in order to even be able to access the hole, if it's in unlocked position the wheel is in the way.
My Jessops 360 AFDN got stuck on a Nikon D90. I tried almost everything mentioned above, except taking it to an authorised dealer. In the end I disassembled the flash to get it off.
I turned the camera upside down with the flash knob loose and slide an exacto hobby knife between the pins and the hot shoe
i was thinking of sawing away the flash. but then I would not be able to use flash anymore sigh..well it's a sacrifice, rather than carrying it with me everywhere.
