sx700 Flash does not operate.

[sylvesterthorne]

In full auto mode with flash raised and shutter half pressed I get a flashing icon showing flash is charging. This icon never changes and the flash never operates.

[John_]

The blinking lightning bolt icon means the flash is charging but it should stop blinking once it's charged. How are the batteries? Maybe they don't have the capacity anymore?

Does it take a picture anyway?

[Snapper95]

I have a similar problem. With the flash up (lightning bolt with A icon) if the flash is required for proper exposure, no picture is taken when I push the shutter button, but the flash icon turns ot a lightning bolt flashing on and off. If I put the flash down (lighting bolt with circle slash) and try to take a picture of the same scene it takes a picture just fine. With the flash up if the flash is not required for proper exposure it takes a picture just fine. I reset the camera thinking maybe I had made some adjustment that was causing this behavior but it still persists. Anybody have any ideas?

[Snapper95]

Following up on my post above, I can confirm the battery is charged so the flash should be charging. It seems like this kind of problem might be caused by a failure of the flash capacitor, not storing charge for the flash so the flash never adequately charges. Just speculating a little bit. More informed thoughts more than welcome. Thank you!

[Richard]

Hi Sylvesterthorne,

Please try the following:

When the [Flash] is set to [Auto], the flash does not fire if the surroundings are light. However, when shooting a backlit subject, the flash can be used to prevent the subjects face from being obscured by shadows.

The procedure for setting the flash to fire for every shot is explained below.

IMPORTANT

• In the following example procedure, the camera's shooting mode has been set to [Program AE] ().

1. Press the <Power> button to turn the camera on.

Move the <Flash> () switch to raise the flash.

2. Press the <Flash> () button.

3. Press the <><> buttons to choose [On] ().

4. If the following icon is displayed on the monitor, the setting is complete.

IMPORTANT

• The setting screen cannot be accessed by pressing the <Flash> () button when the flash is lowered. Move the <Flash> () switch to raise the flash, and then configure the setting.
• <Flash> cannot be set to [On] in the following modes:

[Hybrid Auto] (), [Auto] (), [Creative Shot] (), [ Sports] (), [High-Speed Burst HQ)] (), [Low Light] (), [Fireworks] (), [Standard Movie] (), [iFrame Movie] (), [Super Slow Motion Movie] ()

If the flash still won't fire, even when set to "ON", your camera will require service.  I regret the inconvenience this causes,

You may set up the repair of your camera by clicking here.

[Snapper95]

No, this is not a solution to the problems posed in this thread. What you've described is the ordinary operation of the camera. Myself and presumably the other poster know how to operate the camera correctly. What we are experiencing is a failure of the flash to fire when it should and the camera refusing to take a picture at all as a result. What appears to be going on is that the flash is not adequately charging so it just continuously displays the flashing lightning bolt icon indicating that it is charging. But it never does.

Ironicallly this has been a problem with my camera since late last year before my warranty expired, but I always thought it was a misunderstanding of how the camera operates. I finally got a chance to spend some time on it and determined that it was not an operator error...the camera had in fact failed. By that time my warranty period had passed. Frustrating!