A few days ago my Canon 450D decided it would wig out on me with my Speedlite 580EX II. It would randomly not fire, and when I was in the flash settings in the camera itself, it would randomly kick me out of the menu, if I could get in at all, and tell me "This menu cannot be displayed. Incompatible flash or flash's power is turned off." Which it could, it is, and it was.
I found with a little playing that it was mainly when I had the camera leaning to the right, meaning that the flash was rocking ever-so-slightly to the right side. I tried my 430EX Speedlite to see if it suffered the same dilemma. It did NOT. TO me that meant that it was likely the flash gun, not the camera, which kind of depressed me because I really want a 7D, and would LOVE an excuse to have to buy one. Also depressing was the possibility that my poor flash was going out, and I've really not used it all that much. So I scoured the intarwebs. I found a single post in a Flickr discussion group that solved the problem for me. I figured I'd post photos so that everybody else could see this problem.
(Click the photo to see the entire gallery)
So, in the photos (click on the picture) you're not trying to pry the hotshoe off/up. You're trying the get the metal tab to release it's grip on the hotshoe, which isn't that hard. All you need are a couple of tiny screwdrivers and you're set.
Hope this helps someone.
Dave
