Housing Failures - Catostrophic or Seepage

[dlwalke]

I've got a PT-015 for an Olympus C5050 digital, and am wondering if I DID have a failure, would it most likely be the sort of thing where I see some seepage and can abort dive to dry things off...or do these things tend to be more like a flooded camera. I do inspect the O-rings of course and would do a prelim test for waterproofness, but...

Thanks,
Dave

 

[DWJ]

Be it catastrophic or a little dribble of water. Your best move would be camera insurance. Digital cameras and sea water don’t play well together I had a Sony f717 that got wet while I was shooting a spinnaker run of off fisher Island NY. The camera was instantly dead. Insurance paid for a new camera and because the cost of the camera went down I had a couple of hundred left for a new WAL.

Dave

 

[fdog]

My experience is from housed SLRs. Every flood has been slow rate and catchable, either by looking through the case in an Ikelite housing, or getting squawked at by a moisture alarm. The most I've ever had has been a spoonfull at depth, and that was on a cracked Ikelite housing.

So I've always had time to turn the housing dome-down and get it back to the surface.

The worst flood was actually only a few drops at 60-80', but turned into about a handful in the rinse tank. I've never had the "biblical" flood, where it happens in a few seconds, and fish flop out when you open the housing on the surface.

I'm very anal about o-ring maintenence and keeping the sealing surfaces surgical. Because my limited number of floods have been small amounts and slow-moving, I have avoided the housings that "fit like a glove" and have little or no space available for a bit of water to slosh around without harming the camera body.

All the best, James

 

[justleesa]

I had a BAD flood. The camera did well on the first dive (100') took it down about 3' on the 2nd dive and the o-ring popped out on the side and filled the housing with 1 1/2" of salt water in no time flat.
My 2 mistakes were:
1) I was using the wrong o-ring grease causing it to go bad
2) I didn't have insurance

Always keep a watchful eye on your orings and care for them after and between every dive.

 

[jcclink]

With the PT-015 keep a very watchful eye on the mode/on-off control. That's where weepage will occur at some point (based on past experience of myself & others). The main o-rings are ok unless you plain screw up or grease it with the wrong type of grease. Regular silicon grease will damage the silicon o-ring, causing it to swell & elongate (stretch). Actual grease isn't necessary, just lub with water when installing. If you feel you really must grease, only use the stuff that Oly supplied but VERY VERY sparingly. Don't remove the o-rings unless necessary to clean. If it isn't broke don't fix it. Get insurance for anything that water can damage (cameras, strobes, electronic stuff). Water can't really hurt the housing, but insurance should pay for a replacement or repair should it leak. Good luck.

 

[Jazz]

A friend's Oly 5060 Flooded on it's very first dive!!!! She was totally traumatised but Olympus replaced it for it, Brand New :dazzler1: