Bye bye C7070, floods r us

[rogerbear]

So any suggestions, I have used my C7070 and PT-027 for 8 months every day no problems and very happy. Until two days ago when underwater taking some pics of some divers it suddenly exploded! After a quick ascent and quick removal of the battery I had to continue the dive and handed it off to one of the boat crew.

When I get back to the boat I find that the flash connector on the top of the housing is missing and so a dirty great hole is the reason my camera no longer works! I went back down to search and found the broken connector which had snapped in half!

So a number of questions I need to answer;

Why did this happen?
Has it happened to anyone else?
What are the chances of the camera being brought back to life? And a replacement connector to fix the housing.

I have to replace it as I use it to make money from selling photo CD's in my diving centre, so if all is lost with the Olympus what do you suggest I replace it with?

Thanks

Rog

 

[Ian T]

the only thing I can tell you is that you should dunk it in fresh water (to rinse away the salt), since you removed the battery that quickly there might be a chanse that they can do something about it.
That's what they told us when we flooded our housing....we were too late with ours...oh well...

 

[discrepancy]

Bummer. Sincere commiserations.

Will your camera do a Lazarus and come to life again? Perhaps for a while when it's thoroughly dry, but don't bet on it. And if it does live again, it might die once more soon afterwards anyway. It happened to me.

No connection with the company, but if you're going to put your money into an Olympus again, I would invest the same money in an Ikelite housing. They don't explode, and if yours does, Mr Ikelite might talk to you.

 

[victor]

If it was in salt water then forget it. Even if it did recover it would not last for long. The cost to fully stip the camera, clean in solvent to remove the salt etc would be prohibitive.
If your insurance won't cover it then tough.
It might be worth trying Olympus customer care, what can you loose now. Contact them with your story, be polite but concerned that it might be a design flaw, etc. If you are luck you might get some compensation from them.

 

[f3nikon]

So any suggestions, I have used my C7070 and PT-027 for 8 months every day no problems and very happy. Until two days ago when underwater taking some pics of some divers it suddenly exploded! After a quick ascent and quick removal of the battery I had to continue the dive and handed it off to one of the boat crew.

When I get back to the boat I find that the flash connector on the top of the housing is missing and so a dirty great hole is the reason my camera no longer works! I went back down to search and found the broken connector which had snapped in half!

So a number of questions I need to answer;

Why did this happen?
Has it happened to anyone else?
What are the chances of the camera being brought back to life? And a replacement connector to fix the housing.

I have to replace it as I use it to make money from selling photo CD's in my diving centre, so if all is lost with the Olympus what do you suggest I replace it with?

Thanks

Rog

Because its stupid design by Olympus which is made it mostly from plastic. If you are not using that connector, plug it up or replace it with and Ikelite metal connector.

The Olympus housings work just fine its that connector that sucks. Oh and underwater its implode not explode.

 

[Henryville]

I got a replacement flash bulkhead for my PT-023 from heinrichsweikamp.net that is much more robust and versatile than the OEM bulkhead. In addition to being tougher than the plastic original, it lets you shoot full TTL with Nikonos or Sea & Sea strobes. But if I was starting from scratch I would probably not get an Olympus shousing again.