Flooded S70; replace or buy new?

[sucnip]

Hi gang. I'm an experienced amateur underwater photog and after 18 months find myself with a very wet and ruined Canon S70. First, my rant. Why’d it flood? [well maintained Canon WP-DC40 Housing] I don’t know! What’s frustrating is that it was perfect on the first dive of the day, not opened during the one hour surface interval then flooded at the start of the second dive. ***?! Battery and CF card appear to be fine.

Second, my setup: Inon D2000 with 10-bar tray and optical sync cable, loc-line type arm

After having shot RAW for over a year I honestly don’t want to go back to manual WB. Is it worth trying to find a used or reconditioned S60 or S70? Pro: get to keep the housing. Con: housing might flood again – see above.

Another option is to buy a new camera and housing. Lots of folks on the forum rate the Oly SP-350. Could you please comment on the following items from a real world perspective?
- Battery life
- Shot to shot time
- RAW recording time
- Quality of the video modes

Has anyone used the Canon 710IS underwater? The image stabilisation seems like it would be ideal for underwater use. The videos I’ve seen from the new Canon are amazing… Again battery life from 2 AA’s is an issue along with not having RAW.

Thanks for your comments! Happy snaps and safe diving,
David

 

[joewr]

Hi,
And sorry to hear about your camera...

The cause may never be known...and that is extremely frustrating. However, it could be one of the o-rings internal to the housing that you cannot remove or grease. When did you last have it serviced? Unfortunately, a full service can be pricey--several hundred dollars--but is usually less than a complete rebuild of the flooded housing.

Another possible cause is getting banged around in an onboard rinse tank.

I am not certain this is true, but I have been told that if someone puts a dive mask in a camera rinse tank, the defog can cause pbs with housing seals. However, I do not know for certain that this is possible...

It is possible that, when you send it out to be rebuilt, the cause will be identified.

I hope this helps...

joewr

 

[Lyndon]

Ill tell ya those canon housings are pathetic....Ive flooded 2 Canons with their housings and I took such care cleaning the damn o rings n housings n the recommended pre-dive preps....

Olympus makes a better housing than canon and the SP-350 is a good camera and does good on all the things youve mentioned there...

Youve only flooded one camera....so youre 1 up on me...

Ill say buy an Ikelite housing, they are the best for the price...its 2-3 times the price of a canon housing but its well worth the peace of mind.....losing a camera is bad but nothing sucks as much as losing all your photos of a long awaited dive trip...

Ill say check out the Fuji E900 as well with Ikelite housing you can get the camera and housing within $600

 

[Packhorse]

I flooded my housing and ruined a camera. I took all the buttons, springs and Orings out and cleaned it all re siliconed it and reassembled. I removed a small beach worth of sand from it. Havent had a problem since. Took me less than an hour

 

[colm]

I think it's your cheaper option.
Plus you already have experience with the camera, and you have all the gear for it.
S70's can be had fairly inexpensively on ebay right now, some are purported to be "New In Box" too.
So instead of having to get a new housing, case etc. get a cheap S70, and use it for another 2 years or so. Then if it goes south check out your options then. This industry changes so fast, who knows what will be available then.

Definitely service your case though, and take it on a "pressure test" dive.