Scorch marks and puffs of smoke from 540EZ

Chris L

Chris L

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Christian
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I've got a Canon 540EZ that I bought 2nd hand a few years ago. When it arrived there were two small areas of discolouration on the fresnel screen but everything worked fine when I tested it. The other day I was using it to test a new set up to use with my film cameras and noticed a small puff of acrid smoke come out of the flash head when it was triggered.

A little testing has shown that it happens on full power and 1/2 power on either 24mm or 28mm settings but has gone by the time I zoom to 35mm even on full power. Unfortunately a replacement 2nd hand 550/580EX or even a new 560yn aren't really within my current budget but I have found a supplier for a new genuine Canon fresnel screen for the 540EZ for a lot less than even a new 560yn and have found a tutorial on how to replace it online.

So my question is, is the discolouration and smoke likely to be due to the age of the fresnel screen and the materials in it breaking down due to the number of times the hot flash tube has fired next to it?

Cheers,
Chris
 
BandyQuill said:
i cant really help on fixing it but ill offer the advice of DONT touch anything inside it without making sure its fully drained of power, the flashes can have the same effect as a tazer... not recomended...
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice Chris :)

The repair manual shows that the main capacitor is also housed in the hinge that has the retainer screws for the cover that surrounds the fresnel screen so I will indeed be being ultra careful when/if I go ahead with the repair. Having said that, from the link below to a tutorial for changing a flash bulb in a 550EX I'm pretty sure I won't need to fully remove both parts of the top cover to swap over the fresnel screen and so won't even need to risk exposing the capacitor.

Link to swap flash bulb in 550EX
 
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