How should I open my housing???

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do it easy

Contributor
Scuba Instructor
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Location
Chicagoland, USA
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Are there any special tips about opening a camera housing after a dive?

I just let most of the water drip off and then I blow the water out of the groove for the o-ring. The manual says that I should use a soft cloth to dry the housing.

Does anyone do anything differently? Hair dryers? Wait 24 hours? Wipe the camera down after opening? :D

Has anyone damaged their camera by opening the housing incorrectly?
 
I just rinse it and then dry it with a towel. I've had some drops fall on the camera before but no damage. I think cameras are a lot tougher than we think.

I do clean and grease all o-rings and clean the areas where they fit every time I go to put it back together but other than that, no special treatment. I've opened the housing on boats as well, which some people say is taboo...:D
 
I dry it off completely with a towel. I gently blow sideways along the buttons and latches to get those droplets out and redry.

With my compacts, I open them so the camera falls out onto a soft pile of towel - this way if there is any water when I open it, the water falls away, not into the housing and onto the camera.

With my Subal, I undo the latches, check for droplets, redry as necessary and lift the back straight off. I then tidy up any droplets around the edges so I don't knock those into the housing and then remove the camera.

Just like with closing it up, a little care goes a long way!
 
The advice from Dennis and Alcina is spot on.

I always completely dry my housing before opening it. As far as possible, I try not to open it on a boat or before going into the water on a shore dive. So it's best to make sure everything is set properly before leaving for the dive.

Really try to prevent any water from dripping into the housing because even a drop or two of moisture can create a condensation problem. needless to say, no water on O-rings. Great the rings everytime you open the housing, no matter what. I also wipe the rings when my housing is open, and make sure the cloth or whatever you use to wipe the rings doesn't leave any threads.

I usually wear a headlamp when working with a housing so I can really see what is happening.

Jeff
 
When I get back to land I run the housing under water for a couple minutes and push all the buttons and twist all the knobs to get as much SW off as possible since I am not going to attempt to take apart my Ikelite housing. Then dry it off with a towel and pop the case open.
 
It depends on your housing. My point and shoot has a single o-ring on the back, and I open it regularly after a fresh water rinse, and dry. I clean the o-ring by feel. Never have had any problems.

My DSLR and Subal housing are a different story. Same procedure as Alcina above, but I think I have much worse vision and use a head mounted binocular style magnifier to check o-rings and housing guides. Also mount a tampon in the housing opposite the leak sensor to pick up an stray drops and hopefully keep them away from the leak detector.

In both cases, I dry the ports thoroughly and clean with optical cloth so no water drops/smears dry on them.

Sounds like a bit of work, but it is pretty fast. And so far no floods.

Good luck,

Dan
 
Since my point & shoot is basically a 1st generation Sony with a short battery life and I have to change the battery after every dive, I don't worry about it too much. If fresh water is available I just give it a quick dunk or rinse & shake off the excess.
Then dry it off with a towel, t-shirt or whatever is available.
I've been doing this for years.
Now as for using compressed air, I'd say that's a definite no-no. Just too easy to apply too much side pressure and blow water in past the o-ring. Remember that doing this at the surface there is no pressure on the major housing parts pushing the 2 halves together & the oring is probably only lightly compressed. On many housings, the most critical time for a leak is the 1st 3 ft as you descend from the surface.
 
With my UW case and camera (Canon A570IS), I rinse the case off in fresh water, pushing all of the buttons and turnign all of the knobs in order to get the sw out of them. I let the case dry off completely, and then take the camera out of the housing. I actually used the camera with the UW housing on land after our last dives during the last trip. Pics came out well as iif not in the case. Didn't want to get any sand in it, etc.
 
Are there any special tips about opening a camera housing after a dive?
<snip>
Has anyone damaged their camera by opening the housing incorrectly?
No special tips, other than the obvious one that you are less likely to drop cameras or strobe or get them sandy if you open the housing only in a controlled environment like your house or hotel room.

I don't know if anyone has damaged their housing by opening it incorrectly, but several divers have reported that they have flooded housings by closing a housing with a pinched o-ring or with debris on the o-ring.
 
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