I don't have an MX to look at so I might be wrong but on the other M bodies the hot shoe hits a spring contact inside the body. It causes this frequently.
Remove the silver plate with the "X" in it by lifting the front and sliding backwards. Remove 4 screws and lift the hotshoe off. Clean the contacts you see in the camera and on the hotshoe. (Pencil eraser) Re-assemble and test. There might also be a set of contacts on the hotshoe to disconnect the center contact when the flash is removed. If so clean these too. (they are on the underside and look like switch contacts) Easy, but take your time. HTH Don > -----Original Message----- > From: Carlos Royo [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Saturday, May 21, 2005 10:30 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: MX hot shoe inoperative > > > Hi gang: > Although I rarely use flash, some days ago I took some photos with my AF > 360 FGZ flash on the MX, without any problems. Yesterday I received my > second MX, a beautiful black one I bought this week (I bought the first, > a silver one, new in 1981, it was my first "serious" camera). > After I checked the most usual functions of the "new" MX and found that > everything seemed to go well, I have tried to fire a flash mounted on > the hot shoe, and it works erratically, it has fired only two or three > times out of twenty or more tries. The puzzling thing is that I have > tried the "old" MX, whose hotshoe worked fine a few days ago, and now it > doesn't want to fire the flash, in solidarity with her new black sister. > I must add that I have tried two flashes, the Pentax AF 360FGZ and a > Vivitar 285, and both of them don't work on the MXs, but I have just > checked them on my MZ-5 and MZ-S and they worked without a glitch. > Any ideas? > > Carlos >
