Compilation: Ways to Flood a Camera

[Jim Ernst]

Early in my photo days I bought a sealife Reefmaster!!

Did I say Reefmaster?? Sorry I meant FLOODmaster!!

It flooded twice and no reason ever discovered... well besides being a Reefmaster.LOL!

 

[truck1]

My son and I follow a set up ritual everytime, and are fearful every dive. In two years we have experienced one partial flood (camera saved) with two camera/strobe set-up's, have taken over 4,000 pics (priceless). Enjoy your camera, and get flood insurance to help with the piece of mind.

Cheers

I have never thought of insurance for my camera if it floods.Do you have any and if so with who?

 

[tedj01]

Only seen it happen once, but seen numerous close calls. Someone opens camera and/or housing on camera table turns around or leaves it for just a minute someone else comes by and almost sets a coffee/beer/rum drink/whatever; remember the almost part - only once did it really get it in housing soaking camera - other times - it made a real mess of camera table.

 

[CompuDude]

I have never thought of insurance for my camera if it floods.Do you have any and if so with who?

DAN sells gear insurance, and the other most popular option is DEPP (www.awryinc.com).

 

[crab lover]

OMG the rice worked!!! No, seriously. My Reefmaster DC500 flooded yesterday (had about a teaspoon of water in the housing and I thought the camera was fried. Put it in the huge tupperware container where I keep my rice and I just checked it. I think a miracle happened!!! It works! For how long I don't know, but it still works for now!

 

[djanni]

- My friend (yes, really, it was a friend) flooded his housing by catching a corner of a dessicant pack in the seal. I've heard of this a couple of times.

-Another friend caught the tail of the string connecting his lens cap in the seal, causing a flood.

David

Desiccant pack. Make it 4 times... I did that too. I even felt the difference when I closed the back but I latched it down and jumped in. 98% full at 10 feet down.

Glad I had insurance.

 

[Taxgeek]

Hi Jordi. I've never had a problem with this, but I notice on my Ikelite clamp locks on the back of the dSLR housing, the "fit and finish" isn't that great, so my top clamp can sometimes go "snap" and sound like it is fully locked, when in fact it isn't. I just have to remember to check it every time. I guess that emphasizes the importance of spending a lot of time fiddling your camera and housing in a nice, dry lighted area on land, so that you know all of its little quirks really well before you get into a dive boat situation, where things are sometimes a bit hectic.

 

[Hidroj]

As you say, Tax, dive boat situations can become really hectic. That's the reason I bought a plastic box where I keep my camera during boat trips. I feel much more confortable that way. Indeed I double check the port clamps and the housing clamps before jumping into water.

 

[Taxgeek]

Wow, Compudude, you've sacrificed for the rest of us! That s80 is a sweet little camera too. Hope you were able to get another.

Yeah, good call on the plastic box Hidroj. That way nobody can bash your camera but you!

Re the paper dessicant packs, Moisture Munchers also has packs that are like little clear plastic tubes about the diameter of a skinny cigarette. Impossible to catch in a seal. And they can be rejuvenated in a toaster oven, I discovered - those little dudes are expensive! (LOW heat for a LONG time turned out to be the key to avoid melting the plastic). (Hint for any newbies: if they're pink or lavender, they're dead. Dark blue is good.)

On my trip I just returned from, I dripped (wet hair) into my housing after one dive. The next dive, I noticed the drip rolling around right away, and kept an eye on it - didn't grow, just rolled around, I guess it must have been a drip. On our trip, out of 14 photographers (some with multiple cameras), we had 2 of the 4 P&Ss flood (reasons unknown), and one Nikon D200 (luckily the guy had 2 . . . but it was a new housing/camera setup for him). That's pretty good odds for the dSLRs.

I realized something that is good to bring with - a hair dryer and a soldering iron. We made good use of both of those on our trips. The soldering iron was used heroically to hardwire-bypass the "brains" of the d200 housing, so that the circuitry could still trigger a strobe to fire in manual mode. (Without the bypass, if you fry the housing electronics, even if you have another camera to put in there or your camera is fine, you can't fire a strobe.)

 

[uwteach]

To add my $0.02 worth...Flodded an Ikelite D-SLR housing in the rinse tank by not having the port latch locked, not just closed. My first flood in 10 years but damn! Nice doorstop, though.

Cannot agree too strongly on the need to take time getting the camera ready and not BS'ing around before a dive. This important lesson cost me a few dollars.