Forum Thread: Pop-up flash will not activate!

It rather depends on your location Paul.   If you are within travelling distance of an authorised Canon repair centre, you could always drive there and get the job seen to whilst you wait.  There Canon guys are very good if you speak nicely to them and I was offered this service a while back.  Could be worth a try?

Malcolm,

  Thanks.  I will check around here to see what gives.  I will post back if I have any luck.  Canon, as much as I like there product, does not seem to care too much one way or the other unless I am willing to buy the service package at one of the higher levels.  Kind of sad!

I don't know if you got it fixed yet or not but it is a simple fix that can be done at home. In the hot shoe there is a rail on either side under the retaining ridge. These very thin rails cover a micro switch that they trigger when an external flash is put in. After a while of having your external in the shoe the rails tend to get bent down. Take an exacto knife or thin knife blade and ease each of them up so they remain up off the micro switch. It will then allow your camera to pop up the built in. I had to deal with this myself not to long ago and im not a big fan of paying some one to do what I can do at home. Hope this helps in the future so you don't pay some one to fix it again.