5060... Flooded on first weekend out :(

[SuPrBuGmAn]

I can just state that I followed all directions with the housing and I'm not sure what its worth, but if a product doesn't work initially, it should be repaired/replaced. As far as I can tell and by the direction of the manuals provided, I made no error and the camera flooded, I'm just hoping they don't throw the fact that I didn't have the camera insured yet back in my face when it would have flooded regardless.

The reason to buy insurance, IMO, is to cover a user error, not to cover an initial manufacturers error(whether it be a defective part or design - others have had the same problem with the Oring dislodging from the exact same corner for no apparent reason apparently) that prevented the housing from doing its job from day 1.

Believe me, when this is all worked out - like I said before, I'll have insurance as planned - but I want to make sure I'm not insuring a product thats destined never to work.

 

[justleesa]

A while back I had developed cracks that spread out from the screws that secure the locking clasps on my PT-016 housing, looked like strain cracks. The housing was about 6 months old and it had not been taken below the max. depth. I sent it into Olympus and they denied any responsibility and I had to pay to get it replaced. So it didn't matter what I thought....it only matters what they thought....I hope you have better luck.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

So true... still gonna be ticked if they tell me I damaged the product before it ever got wet...

 

[SwimsWithSharks]

You stated that the o-rings were still lubed from the factory. Does Olympus say anything about the lube it is sent with in the directions? Generally, in my experience, I would clean the o-rings of any lube that it was shipped with and then lube myself. A mistake I made with my first housing was thinking that the lube was part of the system to keep the water out....so, if a little is good, more is better, right??? Well, no, wrong. I used too much and developed a little leak. Fortunately, no damage. The lube is just to keep the o-ring pliable.

Just a thought about maybe might have caused/contributed to the f---d.

 

[Michael Schlink]

Sorry to hear about your flood, if you are going to take cameras U/W you might want to get used to it. I've had a pretty good run of luck the past few years but I've flooded just about everything I could have. Nikonos, digital stills, Video cameras and lights. I have all our photo/video stuff insured. You can always do it in a few minutes online-I went through the link on DAN's website-
I hate to add insult to injury but my personal opinion is I don't want an electronic camera that's had salt water in it. I just don't believe that they'll ever get back to 100%- Good luck

 

[lamont]

i'm the proud owner of my first UW housing (PT-015) so i've been reading this thread with a lot of interest...

would it help prevent these kinds of incidents to take the housing on a deep dive without the camera first? that's what i've been planning on doing...

and what kind of gear insurance do people use?

 

[SwimsWithSharks]

This is my opinion only so take it for what it is worth. It might help to test it with a deep dive and I have heard of a lot of people doing that. The problem is that you then have to open the housing to put the camera in and that is when the problems start. All the careful work you did to set it up to test will be lost when you open it up. Also, I hate to lose a dive....that test dive is when I will finally see a whale shark.

The way I do it is that I am extremely careful in setting up the camera to begin with. I will run the o-ring through my lips and tongue (I know it sounds weird but it works) because the senses on the lips and tongue are more likely to pick up the small stuff. I use two lens clothes. One for the housing and one for lenses. When setting up the camera, I try to use a magnifying glass and bright light.....after all that I close my eyes and turn around three times followed by clicking my heels and knocking on wood. Finally, I pay my insurance premiums to H2O insurance through DAN....and (wait...turning three times, etc.) and hope I don't have to use it.

 

[justleesa]

One other thing about the olympus oring maintenance....be sure that you only use the oring grease that is delivered with your housing. When I was setting my camera up I wanted to use up what we had flying around the house first and it caused the oring to weaken and bulge on the 2nd dive (made it ok to 110' on the first dive and bulged at 3 feet on the 2nd dive)...bye bye camera....

 

[orangeBloke]

I've had the same problem as SuPrBuGmAn and had a PM chat about his failure.

In my case the camera had been down 60+ times and my preparation of the casing was almost religious in detail. I know mine was okay for 20 mins at a depth of over 30m so the pressure should have made the seal tighter keeping the casing tight and the o-rings in place. The casing didn't get hit or banged but the o-ring popped. If there was foreign matter it shouldn't have caused the o-ring to pop, it would just have caused a leak. If the o-ring was going to go why didn't it go in lower pressure or in the rinse bucket? I may never know the answers to these questions but I'm going to try get an answer from Olympus.

From checking about the net I've noticed that we're not the only ones with this problem so there may be something in it. Also a wetpixel postings on the subject says that Oly Australia admitted that there was a fault with the housing so there may be hope. Either way I'm going to take mine plus everything I've heard on the net to Olympus to see what they've got to say. I've mailed them about it a couple of weeks ago but they never replied so this time I'll pay them a personal visit later this week.

If anyone knows of anyone else that has had this problem please let me know. It's all more to present to Olympus. Nothing may come of this but I'm gonna give a go, there's nothing to lose anyway

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

You stated that the o-rings were still lubed from the factory. Does Olympus say anything about the lube it is sent with in the directions? Generally, in my experience, I would clean the o-rings of any lube that it was shipped with and then lube myself.

Doesn't say in my manual, if thats the case, I think it should say...

Sorry to hear about your flood, if you are going to take cameras U/W you might want to get used to it.

I can accept that one day, I will get a flood... but on the first day? Seems to me I have a product with a problem, that in turn destroyed another product.