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

[jonathyny]

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

[shadowsports]

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

[NatalyaP]

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

[Jessiemonk]

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. 

[shadowsports]

@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.

[Jessiemonk]

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. 

[normadel]

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.

[jonathyny]

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.

[Djleophotograph]

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

[jiaweihsu]

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.