Okay, I was at a wedding weekend before last and my SB800 started turning off and on all by itself. Changed batteries...still doing it.

No problemo, changed over to my SB600 as a backup and it worked fine. (We went and purchased a new SB800 the next day. Works fine.)

I popped my SB 600 on a different camera yesterday to take some pics at VBS and IT started turning off and on all by itself!

What gives?? Any ideas? Anybody had this happen to them?

Help is appreciated. Thanks!

Must be the weather. I'll PM you.

But seriously, do you mean it's like you're pushing the on/off button? Or are they periodically flashing without provocation? (I just want to see that sentence taken out of context).

So, new flash, different camera, same thing happening. Hmm. User error? I really don't know what to tell you. That sounds weird.

OK...I'm a Canon user, but how are you connecting the flash? Is it hot shoe or sync cord? Is the flash popping by itself, or is the power shutting off? If sync cord and the flash is popping by itself, then the sync cord is bad-I've had it happen a lot when using sync cords. If hotshoe mount, you might want to have your hotshoe looked at.

Do you mean completely off or sort of sleep mode?

The SB00 has a setting in which will sort of power off to stand by in order to preserve battery. The setting can be turned off if you want to.

If you use rechargeable batteries, make sure you don't have a bad one mixed with the other 3 or 4 batteries.

Adam- could be UE (user error) but since I've been using them for years...I'm thinking not. Yes, it's like if I pushed the on/off button. It's not firing, it's turning off. oh,and

Rachael- hot shoe. power turning off. hard to imagine both hot shoes going out at the same time, but it could happen.

David- I'll try again with brand new batteries, just in case and I'll check to make sure I didn't inadvertantly change my stand-by time to something super short.....

thanks guys, sorry to be short....gotta go home!

Try cleaning the battery contacts with a pencil eraser.

Ooh ooh, yeah. I bet that's it! Oh wait. It was happening with the other flash, too. Well, if they're both about the same age, they could both need cleaning.

I had this problem with my d200... which camera are you using?