How I ruined my 5050

[scubanimal]

My 5050 I think is done-for. Nothing but wavy lines when I take a picture.

I started seeing this a couple days into my trip to Roatan. No the housing was never flooded (L&M Titan) or ever showed signs of moisture. I've tested several cards (some that did not go on the trip). And no joy, I can not seem to get the camera to take a real photo.

During the trip I saw the beginnings of this and considered the condensation from going from air conditioning to hot air then hot water might be the issue. I tried various things to dry it out, and had interesting results. The camera would work fine in the room, fine before the dive, fine on the surface before decent, then go wacky on the first shot at depth.

Now its wacky all the time.

In the future, I'll stuff moisture munchers in the housing, keep the camera sealed in the housing unless doing maintenance, and most likely try to keep it out of air conditioned environments.

Hope you never have a similar experience.

 

[Monkey Knife-fight]

Packing the camera in air conditioning shouldn't be a problem...in fact it's one of the prefered methods i think (i never seem to have AC when packing my camera). The air will be very dry from the AC so less moisture is getting in to condense on the inside of the housing. Packing a few hours in advance with moisture munchers could only be a good thing though.

Chris

 

[1honukane]

It may not be anything you have done...
Oly has a recent put out an advisory regarding potentially defective CCDs, problems stemming from use in high humidity environments. Your C-5050Z may be one of the 'blessed' cameras.. and you may be able to get Oly to repair it at no cost. Recommend going to the Oly web site and checking it out.
Good luck

Jim

 

[Dee]

I recently sent one of my 5050's in for repair for the same thing. The photos on the monitor and when viewed looked like runny paint.

Oly replaced the CCD and updated the firmware for $196. It was covered under my DEPP insurance. Woorks good as new again.

 

[crum]

Thanks for tip 1honukane. I found the article Olympus Repair Service Advisory.
I had the same thing happen on my last trip, right after my first dive my camera was borked and only taking pictures that were purple. When I got back I called Olympus and it was going to cost me $200 to get it repaired. I am glad I waited!!!