FL36 works fine on my OMD.

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Olympus E-M5, Sony A65, lenses.

I have the same issue with my new E-M5. The FL-300R worked fine for an LX3 and an E-PL2, but didn't register in the E-M5. A non-TTL flash (non-Olympus) fired fine in the E-M5 using the required Manual mode. Forum posts indicate that some E-P3 users also have this issue.

I found a kludgy workaround for my E-M5: there seems to be a micro-alignment issue in the hot-shoe. I noticed that in addition to the contacts on the seat of the hot-shoe, there are also bared metal on the shoe rails & corresponding springy contacts on the sides of the 300R base. So I tried applying pressure to shift the flash base to the side, & lo & behold it registered & worked (stayed registered after releasing pressure until next jostled, such as tilting the head to a new position; then I'd have to re-apply the pressure to "re-register".)

What works for me is to pressure the flash base, direction to the right (right, facing the back of the camera.) Pressuring left did not help. Flash movement from this pressure is *tiny*, so with current design it would not take a shoe being out of spec by much for this problem to occur.

I wonder if gently tightening the shoe rails might alleviate this, (needle-nosed pliers/ cloth between pliers & shoe to avoid marking) - reluctant to try that though.

Thanks for the finding man. I currently don't have an Oly flash to try out beside the FL-LM2. I'm wondering if you put thin tape on the bared metal on the side rail, would it register without extra pressure?

For the flash to register, I think the 300R's springy side contacts have to make contact with the bared metal on the hot shoe rails. It's possible they're not pressing tightly enough when registration fails.

To bolster this idea, I tried your suggestion of tape over the bared part of the rails, and was unable to register the flash regardless of applying pressure. After the tape was removed; the flash again registered once horizontal pressure was applied.

This was the solution for me:

The more I used the FL-300R on the hot-shoe, the more reliable it became. I realized that the "break-in" was helping remove whatever "glaze" there may have been on the bared metal portion on the inside edge of the OM-D hot-shoe rails. I cleaned these further (gentle scraping with an exacto knife, or fine sandpaper), and now the operation is flawless; no more break in contact or lack of registration.

I just registered to say thank you

I was about to take my OM-D to Olympus service because of the hot-shoe problem but decided to Google one more time if anybody had found a solution. Just a quick rub with a fine sandpaper did the trick.

I was in the same situation, and I came across this thread. My FL-300R wasn't working with my new OM-D, despite it working reliably with my E-P1 and my working in Remote Commander mode. I took a bit of metal (end of a USB cable) and scraped it along the metal edges of the hotshoe rails. Now my OM-D recognizes and fires my FL-300R every time.

Just wanted to confirm that this worked for me as well and say thank you. :)

I've been looking for this thread forever. I have the same problem. I'd been mulling sending my E-M5 for servicing since the warranty is coming to an end soon but thanks to this thread, I'm not. I was afraid to receive a refurb.

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Body: E-M5
Lenses: R7.5/3.5, O12/2.0, P20/1.7, O45/1.8, P7-14, P12-35, P35-100, O12-50, P45-175
Accessories: FL-50R, FL-600R, FL-300R, HLD-6, CS-36FBC

I was wondering why it wasn't working right on my OM-D as well!

Yup... A few scrapes on the contacts of the hot shoe worked for me but it will intermittently stop communicating with the camera until I wiggled the flash on tight. I use it mainly with the EPL1 or in RC mode now. Oh well

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