Major Hot Shoe Crisis - solved !!

Nothing to do with overheating trainers (!) - down to me using the external flash on Saturday - and the "old age" of the camera I guess !! Noticed yesterday that the Exposure Compensation seemed "stuck" at +2 - and the pop-up flash ... wouldn't. Seems that there is a tiny plastic (aargh !) switch in the hot shoe that drops down when you attach an external flash, and (should) pop up when you remove it (allowing use of the on-board flash) - all I was getting was a whirring noise and "ERR 05" !

Step forward Google - or more to the point Conrad Erb - an excellent article indeed (that does beg the question "How do you take photographs of your own camera - ha ha !) - so - a quick trip to the local DIY shop for some baby screwdrivers (£1-69) - a piece of paper so I didn't lose the tiny screws (free !) - and bingo - problem solved ! The plastic switch was "sticking" in the down position, so I gave it all a bit of a clean - dust and gunk - wiggled accordingly - and put it all back together again.

Success !! (although I may well stick that tiny screwdriver in my camera bag, because it may well happen again - maybe not just age of camera, but also my insistence in "not hiding in the stands" when the rain comes down - and we've had a pretty cold and wet winter - haven't we ??).

So - all sorted for tomorrow night @ Curzon Ashton ... but - before that an appointment with a "Personal Adviser" down at Chez Dole - I've hit the magic 13 week mark - maybe they start to get dirty now ... suppose I also ought to mention the job interview I had on Friday - the interview went fine - then I was given a lengthy test which unfortunately included "newer" stuff from SQL Server and T-SQL where my knowledge is next to non-existent - ouch - this was not mentioned at all in the job spec - ouch - we'll just have to wait and see - and in the meantime ... keep looking and keep trying ...
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