Thanks for the Canon housing feedback and advise, much appreciated - and my shoddy / lack of maintenance / excess silicon for sure the cause of my G11 loss - I think in the 100 or so dives I removed and cleaned the Oring maybe 3 or 4 times only, and foolishly applied a tiny bit of silicon every 4 or 5 dives - but stupidly did not remove the old silicon .. I've learned my expensive lesson ! :depressed:!
Intresting to hear of the 'refurb' from Canon (in the States) and I'll pursue that one, as I contacted Canon here in Taiwan and basically all they said was
'if it's been submerged in seawater, throw it away and buy a new one' - which is basically the logic with anything in Taiwan, but it was a legit Canon purchase so I'll contact a couple of Canon offices out of Taiwan and see what happens.
Meanwhile, as I was heading on another 3 day dive trip (to Orchid Island) weekend just been, I went to the camera shops (we have a street full) in Taipei last Friday, looked at many models of camera and eventually invested in a G12.
Saturday arrived at Orchid Island, Dives 1 and 2 - with (very) carefully cleaned and (very) lightly greased Oring took the original WP-DC34 housing with a tissue wrapped 1kg weight in it down on a couple of dives to max 35m depth - played with all buttons at depth, no sign of leaks and dive 3 with a lot of hesitation took down the G12 - studying very closely for leaks on descent and thankfully
No leaks, and no problem. Having told several on the boat of my G11 loss I think everyone with a camera thought of their 'lack of maintenance" spent a little time with some Oring maintenance before dives as well !
Pics from the new G12 seem as sharp as G11 so no problem there, and I'll post a few with Orchid Island trip report in the Taiwan forum in next few days - I've also now soaked the closed housing in fresh water, dried it off, removed Oring, cleaned it and housing with Oring now in a plastic ziplock bag in the housing ready for use the next time. Also found some liquid silicon and a tiny drop on each button from outside will be done - hopefully no more problems ever !
Though the Canon WP-DC34 worked fine again this weekend, I'm still contemplating investing in a better housing, with a "
Patima G12" FUN-IN Underwater Photo Equipment being suggested to me by the dive camera shop, it's more than double the Canon price, but if anyone is using that Patima, I wouldn't mind a bit of feedback on it, it looks more robust, but has anyone ever had one fail/leak ?
Cheers guys, and gals.
