Loose Canon hot shoe mounts see users turn to DIY solutions as camera maker refuses recall for long-running issue

Canon's EOS R5 and R6 mirrorless cameras are certainly some of the most capable options around, especially for photographers and videographers looking for premium image quality and feature sets. One issue that's recently cropped up, however, results in the hot shoe mounts on these premium cameras coming loose or falling off entirely, according to PetaPixel.

Users of the Canon EOS R5 and R6 cameras have taken to social media sites, like Reddit and Twitter, to tell their tales of woe. Some owners had the benefit of having the issue covered under extended warranty, but others report that Canon charged them US$189 to repair the issue. Others, still, were quoted as much as US$550 to repair the issue.

There is evidence, like this Change.org petition, that this is a long-running issue with Canon's expensive hardware, yet it does not appear that Canon has issued a recall or even a formal response.

Not wanting to deal with the long repair lead times and out-of-warranty repair costs, some users, like @parkers_tiger on Twitter, took matters into their own hands, tearing down the camera entirely in order to get to the top plate and tighten the four tiny screws that hold the hot shoe in place.

In the same vein, several YouTube videos have popped up detailing the DIY repair, and, if their view count is anything to go by, there are more than a handful Canon R5 and R6 users that are encountering the same issues. Where previous Canon designs had the fasteners going through the hot shoe mount from the outside of the camera, the new design has the screw mounted from the inside, making a complete disassembly necessary to fix the issue.

Nikon has recently found itself in a similar situation, but it appears to have handled things slightly more gracefully, at least in the case of the faulty lens mount that resulted in a recall. It's still early to cast judgement on the Z8's loose strap lug debacle, but Nikon has yet to issue an official response, although the company has reportedly issued replacement units to correct that issue.

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