Zap, Pop And Smoke

I wonder if my 5 year old Canon SX530 HS camera is approaching its end of life. Last week, while trying to take some pictures of the fascia board that I have repaired, there was a zap, then a pop and a second later some smoke coming out from the top of my camera. I panicked, got anxious and then had that uneasy feeling.

A quick press on the Playback mode button shows that the captured photo was alright.

I took some more pictures just to satisfy my curiosity. No zap and pop this time. No smoke either. I previewed the pictures - they look alright.

So what went wrong? Where did the smoke come from?

The only place that I could think of is the bulb in the built-in flash unit. It must have blown. Funny thing is, I did not even enabled the flash when this incident happened. The flash unit on top of the camera was facing down, not up. A lose wire? Problem with the circuitry? I have no idea.

I did not test the built-in flash this time round as not too long ago I had some problem turning it off after using it. I will leave this "zap, pop and smoke" mystery as it is for now.

The camera is still usable though, as the picture above shows. I have taken about 20 pictures since this incident. All pictures look good.