Video Camera Housing & Battery Storage

[gxsr_sarge]

Having just recently plunked down "my left arm" for a L&M Stingray Plus along with the Sunray 1000 lighting system, I'd like to really "baby" this baby and take good care of the equipment. I've even gone to the extent of taking my own camera rinse bin for dive boats (and even my own water where needed!).

I'm curious as to how you guys/gals take care of your housing/equipment in between dives. A few q's:

- Do you store the housing with the lid/backplate on or off? (Does storing a housing with the lids on compress the o-ring an reduce its life?). By "storing" I don't mean long-term, I mean in between weekly or monthly dives. The L&M instructions say to keep them off for the first 24 hours to ensure that whatever humidity has evaporated.

- Same with the battery tubes for the lights.

- Do you keep your camcorder, light and/or monitor batteries on the chargers (trickle charge) in between dives?

Any other tips or best practices would be great!

Thanks

 

[ssidiv3r]

Having just recently plunked down "my left arm" for a L&M Stingray Plus along with the Sunray 1000 lighting system, I'd like to really "baby" this baby and take good care of the equipment. I've even gone to the extent of taking my own camera rinse bin for dive boats (and even my own water where needed!).

I'm curious as to how you guys/gals take care of your housing/equipment in between dives. A few q's:

- Do you store the housing with the lid/backplate on or off? (Does storing a housing with the lids on compress the o-ring an reduce its life?). By "storing" I don't mean long-term, I mean in between weekly or monthly dives. The L&M instructions say to keep them off for the first 24 hours to ensure that whatever humidity has evaporated.

In between dives I leave the backplate on to avoid getting any water inside (I know I need some moisture munchers). For storage periods longer than 48 hours I leave it open. I don't know for sure if it will compress the o-ring over time if kept on but I'd rather not find out the hard way

- Same with the battery tubes for the lights.

I can't really comment on your light set up because I use Green Force but the same applies; longer than 48 hours and I'll break the light down for storage and then charge it the night before filming.

- Do you keep your camcorder, light and/or monitor batteries on the chargers (trickle charge) in between dives?

Nope, I do carry spare batteries and tapes

Any other tips or best practices would be great!

Thanks

I am by no means an expert but I hope this helps. I'm sure you'll be able to pick up more tips/tricks here and there and decide what works best for you

 

[BDSC]

I have the very same system you have. (Stingray + with Sunray 1000's)

The first thing I do when I get home after a trip is fill the tub with warm water and soak the housing in it for a few minutes and work all the buttons. I do that also when I'm on a trip each night by taking the housing in the shower with me but there is something about soaking it in your own tub that makes me feel like it's really clean at that point.

For long term storage, after a dive trip, I'll leave the back off for 24 to 48 hours and then I store the housing with the backplate on and the o-ring in place. I also store the battery pods that way. I store the batteries separate. (Not in the pods)

I also have a reminder set up so that every 2 months I take the battery pods and lights and put them in the tub and discharge them fully and then charge them up again for storage.

When I am on a trip, I will set up the camera/housing in the morning before the first dive and leave it intact for the rest of the day. I'm usually doing 3 dives a day on a trip. After the last dive I usually want to see what I have shot so I take the camcorder out to hook up to a tv/computer and at this time I just leave the monitor back off and for the most part leave it that way until the next morning. At that time I put the camcorder back in and seal it all up.

I can easily get three dives on one set of batteries for the monitor so I carry two sets of the rechargeable kind. I have one set in the monitor and one set always on the charger. I just put in a fresh set each morning. As far as the light batteries, they will also last me 3 dives because I'm usually diving in the caribbean waters and while I have the lights attached to the housing, I don't need them all that much. At the end of the dive day I just charge one and then the other for the next day. I am thinking of buying a second set though just to have them.

I know you asked about weekly or monthly storage but for me, I wouldn't store it any differently for one month as I would if it were to be 5 or 6 months.

One other thing I do is at the beginning of the year, like the first dive trip of the year, I put in new o-rings for the housing and battery pods. I'll take the used set out and keep them as a back-up. Then the next year when I put in a fresh set, I'll move the current set to be the back-up set and throw away what was the back-up set. I don't know if I really need to do that or not and maybe the o-rings would last a lot longer but a new set of o-rings each year really is a small price to pay for my peace of mind.

BY the way, I don't know if you saw another post I did but L&M is suppose to come out with a new left handle that will allow for true "one touch" WB if you have the Sony CX series camcorder. Right now I use the HC7 in my housing but will go to the CX camcorder once the new handle is out.

 

[gunsrunner]

Hi,
I read on the web that it's best not to store with o-rings in place. That they can be crushed when in the same position for to long and lose their elastomatic( i think thats the word) properties, they suggested to store the o-ring in a flat/clean plastic bag with no bends or pressure on it.
I have stored my o-ring like this for the last few years and haven't had to replace one yet. With my o-ring removed i close the housing(with moisture munchers inside) and wrap in a soft cloth before packing in my camera case.

On the toshiba laptop site it recommends that their batteries be stored at 40% charge and below 5 degrees celcius, they say that this makes them last longer and hold a charge better. I don't know if this is true for all batteries, but i would guess that most would be the same.

Probably should have done more reading before posting , but maybe someone with a bit more experiance can chime in!!

Oh!! Rinse, Rinse, Rinse.

 

[BDSC]

That makes sense about the o-rings. Might start doing it that way.

The folks at L&M told me to store the batteries in full charge. Those types of batteries are suppose to love that so that's what I do. And of course I would have no way of knowing when a battery is at 40% power.

 

[gunsrunner]

Did a bit more reading, thought everyone would be interested in this.
How to prolong lithium-based batteries

Didn't even know there was a battery uni!!!

I forgot to mention that my cameras travel that way as well, o-rings removed, closed with moisture munchers. I was told the pressure can effect the housing if sealed.