Follow up questions for flooded camera

[zuzanne]

I just returned from Aruba my Canon A520 with WP-DC60 housing flooded. unfortunately the camera is toast. After the first two stops, the batteries were dead and I made the mistake of changing them out on the boat. I apparently did not have a good seal on the oring and the housing flooded when I re-entered the water. As soon as I saw the water in the housing, I returned to the boat and dried everything off and took out the batteries but it was already to late. The housing seems fine. No corrosion and everything moves when I push all the buttons. My question is about the memory card. Since the camera is toast, I can't download to my computer to see if any photos survived the salt water. Does anyone know if the salt water ruins the memory card? Is there a chance that if I take it to have the photos developed that I would have any photos on the card?

The other question is since the A520 is pretty much obsolete now, will any of the newer Canon cameras work in this housing?

Thanks,

Suzanne

 

[Ann Marie]

Suzanne,

Sorry to hear about your camera accident. I flooded my camera on Bonaire last year. My memory card was fine even though the camera was fried. When I was finally able to download the camera I had a really neat last picture. I don't when the picture was taken....perhaps at the last moment. It is just a blur of black and white. I kept it thinking, this is the last thing a camera sees before dying.

Cannon usually makes its housing specific to a camera, so you might want to check out ebay for the same camera if you like it. My insurance paid for the camera so I bought a refurbished camera from Olympus and then a new one on ebay as a back up. I have several lenses that fit that housing. (Since then, I bought another housing so I have 2 underwater camera but I let my students use them while diving.)

If you have homeowners insurance, you may want to see if your camera is covered under that policy. Myself, I use D.E.P.P. insurance on all my gear.

Good luck with the card! Take the memory card in to a store (Sav-On) that has a self processing center and put it into the machine and see what it reads.

 

[zuzanne]

Thanks for the help Ann Marie. I will take the card in and see what there may be on it.

Suzanne

 

[randini]

Or get a USB sd card reader. I think they're only like $5-$10 from any computer store. You just plug that intot eh computer, ststick teh card in and you can access the pictures via the file manager as if it were another drive.

Sorry to hear about the camera. AFAIK the housing is only for the A510 and A520. You should be able to find the same camera around someplace searching the web. Since it's obsolete, you should even be able to get one pretty cheap (I'm guessing about $150 or less). That would be much less expensive than trying to replace camera & housing.

 

[zuzanne]

Randini, thank you so much for your suggestion on the card reader. I went to Compusa and got one for $11.99 and there were 56 photos on the card. One that I was really hoping to find was there. Hubby calls it a snake eel. I have no idea other than it looked like a snake to me.

I would post a photo of it here but not sure how to do it. I have one other question if you all don't mind. Now that I have the photos downloaded from the card, how can I reformat the card so it can be used again? Once I get a new camera.

 

[Ann Marie]

When you get a new camera, you can then put the card in the new camera and then use the camera to format the card. Not necessary to do it now unless you want a blank card, then ask a friend to put it in a camera and format it for you.

Glad to hear you saved your pictures.

 

[randini]

Great! You're welcome.

You shouldn't really have to format the card just to use it in another camera. If you just want to delete the pictures, just open the folder where the pics are and delete them once you've saved them elsewhere.

Formatting it can be tricky becasue the cameras tend to like a particular directory structure on them. The other day I had to format my card for a camera (I'd been using it in a mp3 palyer and needed it in my camera for a day of skiing - the card didn't have the proper directory structure to work in my camera). But my camera won't format it. I ended up using a friends powershot (IIRC it was a a510) to format it and then the card worked perfectly in my Yakumo camera.

Point is, wait until you get a new camera before formating it. The camera should have a feature to allow you to do so if you need to. Otherwise there'll probably be some software for it that will format the card from within the computer.

 

[bandit_TX]

Snake eel = sharptail eel

 

[CompuDude]

Randini, thank you so much for your suggestion on the card reader. I went to Compusa and got one for $11.99 and there were 56 photos on the card. One that I was really hoping to find was there. Hubby calls it a snake eel. I have no idea other than it looked like a snake to me.

I would post a photo of it here but not sure how to do it. I have one other question if you all don't mind. Now that I have the photos downloaded from the card, how can I reformat the card so it can be used again? Once I get a new camera.

Memory chips are pretty tough. I've seen several go through washing machines and come out just fine.

BUT, that's fresh water. Salt water corrodes fine electrical contacts. And unless you can open up the chip and rinse inside the case thoroughly, you can't be sure that the chip is in 100% working order and will not continue to corrode from residual water over time.

The long story short is this: Chips are cheap. Buy a new one. Do you really want to trust irreplaceable trip pictures to a memory chip that may or may not be ok?

Your current chip may indeed give you years of fine service. But for me, I'd rather not take the chance, when replacements are so inexpensive.

 

[zuzanne]

Thanks everyone for all your help. I contacted Canon since both the housing and camera are still under warranty til November. They will repair it if possible for $89.00 plus parts and shipping with the exception of if it was damaged by liquid or sand, so much for the one year warranty. If its damaged by iquid or sand then its more expensive and as it would require more parts and labor to repair it, no price estimate was given in this instance. Or I can trade it in for a refurbished one with a 6 month warranty for $99.00 plus shipping. I also checked eBay and Amazon.com and can get a brand new one for anywhere between $150.00 to $200.00. I am now deciding on a brand new one for $150.00 with a years warranty or the refurbished one for $99.00 with 6 months warranty. At least I now know my options on the camera.

Thanks again for all your help.

Suzanne