The tools you'll need are a jeweller's screwdriver and much smaller fingers than me. If you do things in the right order it should be a pretty quick repair.
The first thing you should do is make sure that the locking ring is rotating normally. I didn't do that and ended up having to re-attach the foot so that I could get enough leverage to move the ring. If the ring is locked up you can use a pair of pliers or a wrench to get it moving again. Be careful not to use too much force or you could cause more damage
 Next remove the four small screws at the base of the foot. Be careful not to tug the ribbon cable when removing the foot, and you will have to work with the cable attached so be careful not to damage it. |
 Inside the detached foot you will see a small circuit board. This is attached with four small screws. When you unscrew these, be very careful, as the locking pin on the shoe is spring loaded and you could lose the spring and the locking pin.
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 With the circuit board loose, the shoe and locking collar will come loose and you can unscrew the collar. Take note of the orientation of the parts as you unscrew them so that you know how to put them back together. You should now be able to put the new shoe onto the collar and start re-assembling. This is very fiddly indeed. Don't try and force anything and make sure you don't lose that spring-loaded locking pin. |
Once you know what you are doing its a pretty simple repair to make and very inexpensive too. If you need spare parts contact the Nikon Spares department at spareparts@nikon.co.uk
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That sounds nasty Paulo.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised you were able to just get the parts to fix it yourself. Is this a weak point with Nikon flashes?
I've never heard of a Canon flash breaking under its own weight.
Nice demo :o)
The flash foot is meant to be weak so that you damage the foot rather than the flash or the camera. Flapping it around on a monopod isn't exactly normal wear and tear on a flashgun.
ReplyDeleteGreat tutorial mate. My SB26 suffered a similar demise. I've contacted Nikon and unfortunately, they do not stock a replacement foot for the SB26. Not to worry, I have found the parts (foot and locking nut) on eBay in USA. I'm waiting for the delivery!
ReplyDeleteI'll do a similar DIY repair blog post as inspired by you. Lol
I've done my own repair job!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.marlondelacruz.com/blog/2009/08/nice-and-easy.html
Thanks again mate!
Good tutorial, just successfully repaired my sb-28. It took me well over an hour as the shoe wouldnt screw down completely, after a lot of head scratching i worked out that the new shoe was slightly different from the original. There was a small groove on the original shoe that the repalcement didnt have so with a hot knife i adapted the shoe and it went straight on.
ReplyDeleteI think the later sb-28's are slightly different from the earlier models. The way to tell is if you look on the side of the shoe you will see either silver or gold contacts, the later version has the gold ones and requirers the sb-28DX shoe.
What do you mean with the silver/gold contacts? You mean the contacts at the bottom of de shoe? The ones that connect to the camera?
ReplyDeleteThx.
I think that he means the ones between the foot and the locking wheel on the side of the foot. The ones that connect to the camera.
ReplyDeleteBut I can't see any contacts. If you look at your pictures on this page, you can't see any contacts either.
DeleteI don't have a flash in front of me at the moment but I'll take a picture when I get home. But perhaps your contacts are being obscurred by the locking wheel?
DeleteI think I can just make out the contact on the image in the link below
http://mir.com.my/rb/photography/hardwares/classics/nikonf4/flash/SB28/sb28midwest4.jpg