topic Re: Canon R6 Hot shoe coming loose after 18 months. Canon Please Help!!!!!! in EOS DSLR & Mirrorless Cameras

EOS R6 Hot shoe coming loose after 18 months. Canon Please Help!!!!!!

jonathyny — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 12:08:54 GMT

Hi Canon Community,

I own a canon r6. I love it. Durning my photoshoot today, my flashes were misfiring. I noticed my hot shoe was loose. I started to look up solutions and found that this is a on going problem with some canon dslr cameras. I also found that in the R line they have changed the design which renders the users unable to easily fix the issue. Without a hot shoe, I won't be able to fully use the camera. I reach out to tech support. They refuse to acknowledge that this is a problem with the R6 and R5. This cost $400 dollars to fix. What guarantee do I have that this wont happen again in another 18 months. These are suppose to be top of the line cameras for Canon. Canon please acknowledge that this is a problem. Please come up with an alternative solution to your clients having to spend $400 every year to use a basic function of the camera.

-Jonathyn

Re: Canon R6 Hot shoe coming loose after 18 months. Canon Please Help!!!!!!

shadowsports — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 15:14:14 GMT

Greetings,

While unfortunate, I only see two other posts mentioning this phenomenon. Unnerving, I understand.

This video shows what the repair involves.

https://youtu.be/SqfJ7ciLUT0

Canon repairs come with a **6 month warranty. After seeing what has to be removed, I'd let them do the repair.

You'll have to decide.

Canon U.S.A., Inc. | Service & Repair

Re: Canon R6 Hot shoe coming loose after 18 months. Canon Please Help!!!!!!

NatalyaP — Tue, 31 May 2022 22:46:15 GMT

Greetings jonathyny,

I'm sorry to hear that you are having issues with the hot shoe of your camera. I would agree with shadowsports to where we would recommend for you to send the EOS R6 to our facility for service. The facility will repair the unit to factory specifications and it will include a 6 month repair warranty.

You may begin the repair process by visiting our online repair portal:

https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/support/service-repair/repair

Re: Canon R6 Hot shoe coming loose after 18 months. Canon Please Help!!!!!!

Jessiemonk — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 23:15:48 GMT

Spend the money to get it fix. I just tried to do it myself and ended up cause more damage that made the R6 unusable. It’s a canon problem enough to where YouTube videos are made about the defect.

Re: Canon R6 Hot shoe coming loose after 18 months. Canon Please Help!!!!!!

shadowsports — Thu, 06 Oct 2022 03:03:54 GMT

@jessiemonk,

Agreed good advice. Removing the "skin" alone was painful to watch on youtube. Not worth it. This repair should not not be done unless you are trained and have access to replacement parts. The risk and potential for damage is too high. Its one of those things that isn't designed to come apart easily, and all so some better loctite can be applied to the hotshoe's anchor screws and they can be tightened more securely.

Is this a manufacturing defect, not sure. While not many, there are enough of them out there that maybe Canon could perform the repair as a "one time" good faith service. I'm sure the majority of the repair cost is labor. I haven't heard of the issue reocurring after the repair.

Re: Canon R6 Hot shoe coming loose after 18 months. Canon Please Help!!!!!!

Jessiemonk — Thu, 06 Oct 2022 10:24:41 GMT

I’ve actually ran into a few that have had the problem with the Hot Shoe and didn’t know it till they tried to use it.
I regret trying to fix it cause now I’m having to send it to canon. I hope the cost isn’t as much as a used R6. This was an expensive lesson. I will say, when I did get to the point of tightening the Hot Shoe screws, the front two were loss and the two back ones were completely off. None had any lock tight, which would have help it at the beginning.
Anyway, I’m inching to get back out there and get some snaps in so I’m thinking of either getting another R6 or save up for a few month and get the R5.
Again, for those who have read this, if you have a loss Hot Shoe, send it to canon, it’s not worth the risk.

Re: Canon R6 Hot shoe coming loose after 18 months. Canon Please Help!!!!!!

normadel — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 17:39:08 GMT

I've been doing photography for 60 years. It has ALWAYS been recommended to not rely on hot shoes for holding what can be pretty heavy flash units. This is why off-camera flash cords and flash brackets can be a camera-saver. They're not just for moving the flash away from the camera.

Re: Canon R6 Hot shoe coming loose after 18 months. Canon Please Help!!!!!!

jonathyny — Mon, 28 Nov 2022 19:35:22 GMT

Please let me know if you get anywhere with this. When I wrote this comment. Techs from Canon acted like it was a phenomenon. Thank you for sharing your story.

Re: Canon R6 Hot shoe coming loose after 18 months. Canon Please Help!!!!!!

Djleophotograph — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 03:25:19 GMT

does canon repair it due it being a continues problem on r5 & r6? If not what is the cost for repair

Re: Canon R6 Hot shoe coming loose after 18 months. Canon Please Help!!!!!!

DamienVincent — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 14:36:47 GMT

I am having the same problem with the R6. This happened about 18 months of owning it. So unfortunate I’m a wedding photographer and I need this to be working.

Re: Canon R6 Hot shoe coming loose after 18 months. Canon Please Help!!!!!!

Djleophotograph — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 16:56:36 GMT

Word of advice, send it directly to canon for repairs, there is no tips nor tricks to get by

Re: Canon R6 Hot shoe coming loose after 18 months. Canon Please Help!!!!!!

SWC55 — Sun, 10 Mar 2024 14:56:35 GMT

I had the same problem with my R7 , which repair two times in 16 months . First time still within the warranty period and it it free, but the second I have to paid for it.

Re: Canon R6 Hot shoe coming loose after 18 months. Canon Please Help!!!!!!

wormhole33 — Sun, 14 Apr 2024 17:39:12 GMT

This is why when I got my R5C the first thing I did was apply thin locktite on the threads sticking up from the hot shoe. It will seep into the threads. I thinned some regular blue locktite but they do make a special locktite for already threaded screws. Haven’t had any issues with it yet but I don’t use the hotshoe much. I don’t understand why canon doesn’t put locktite on from the factory. Hot shoes take a lot of stress and that can loosen screws.

Re: Canon R6 Hot shoe coming loose after 18 months. Canon Please Help!!!!!!

jiaweihsu — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 17:45:53 GMT

I have transitioned from Canon DSLRs to Mirrorless 3 years ago. While shooting events with my 5D3 or 5D4 I used a flash bracket TTL cord to avoid shadows and red-eyes. I hardly put the 580EXs directly on the camera hot shoes.

Nevertheless, when I'm selling all my DSLRs, I had to send in one of my 5D3s for loose hot shoe repair (with CPS membership it still cost over $300) before I could sell it.

When I switched to mirrorless cameras (R3, R5, R6) I have also started mostly off camera flash photography. From the lesson I have learnt, I have modified brackets for each camera so I can sit the flash lights on the brackets and use much lighter remote triggers to trigger the "on bracket flash" and other off camera strobes.

A year and half ago my R6 became unreliable in triggering flash lights (all NOT on hot shoe) and I had no choice but to ship it for repair ($300+). This is a failure of the hot shoe with 0 on-camera-flash photography.

And just over the weekend, my R5 hot shoe stopped triggering other flash lights.

For 2 years plus I have been telling all fellow photographers to stop putting flash lights directly on hot shoes, but even with such precaution, the hot shoes still failed.

I have been extremely happy with the operation, the focusing ability, the color science of my Canon cameras, but this hot shoe issue is one thing that's driving me crazy. I don't know when my R3 will have the same problem.

I understand the stress on the hot shoe when anything significant is on it, and I believe this applies to any brand name, but I really think this should not have happened on a $3,800 camera especially when only very light remote triggers have been used on it.

Re: Canon R6 Hot shoe coming loose after 18 months. Canon Please Help!!!!!!

jiaweihsu — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 17:52:35 GMT

The repair is close to four hundred dollars without a CPS membership.

I've had a 5D3, R6 repaired, and 2 days ago I found the same problem with my R5.

I have learnt my lesson from the 5D3, and have not used flashes directly on the hot shoe. Instead I use brackets to hold the flash and a remote trigger on the hot shoe, still the R5, R6 hot shoes failed.

Re: Canon R6 Hot shoe coming loose after 18 months. Canon Please Help!!!!!!

jiaweihsu — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 17:54:48 GMT

I'm ready to send in my 3rd Canon camera in for the same problem. With CPS membership, the cost is still over $1,000😖

Re: Canon R6 Hot shoe coming loose after 18 months. Canon Please Help!!!!!!

tammys — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 19:41:47 GMT

I have the same problem with my R6- Here we are a couple of years later- after your post and the cost to fix this is over $600. Canon you need to do better! If you are going to pop new camera models out left and right you need to perfect the ones already on the market! I rarely use a flash on my camera- however when I want to use one I don't expect for my flash to just fall off due to a faulty hot shoe. Based on all of the post on this forum it IS an issue with the product. Why not own up to the faulty issue and do a recall and make it right for all of us that feel like we have been cheated. Paying over $2K for a camera and a few months later having to drop another $600 to fix a faulty issue is ridiculous! @canonusa DO BETTER!

Re: Canon R6 Hot shoe coming loose after 18 months. Canon Please Help!!!!!!

Adelyna1 — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 23:07:32 GMT

May I ask what brand is your bracket? I like the design of it, I will have to start doing this to not put stress on my hotshoe. Mine is currently getting repaired

Re: Canon R6 Hot shoe coming loose after 18 months. Canon Please Help!!!!!!

jiaweihsu — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 23:14:42 GMT

The brackets for both R3 and R5 (R6 is the same) are both Smallrig, I think around $99 and $30 at B&H and on eBay. You need to buy some 1/4" adaptors and cold shoe to put together yourself. Look at the top photo I posted and pay attention to where the flash sits on the cold shoe, be sure to get the cold shoe with a recess on the bottom so when the flash is on it, the contacts on the flash foot do not touch the metal to short the flash.

Re: Canon R6 Hot shoe coming loose after 18 months. Canon Please Help!!!!!!

jiaweihsu — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 23:16:00 GMT

Those adaptors you can find at B&H or Amazon, you also need those blue thread locks so the adaptors don't become loose during a shoot.