Is it OK to leak check a camera a day before a dive?

[I Dive]

The night before diving, I place a small piece of paper in my housing, seal it, and toss it in a sink full of water. I leave it in there for awhile, and also make sure running water hits all sides of it. Then I dry it off and crack it open to make sure the paper is dry before I put my expensive camera in the housing. This certainly isn't a guarantee the housing won't flood with the camera in it but it's better than nothing!

 

[sylpha]

The ice packs are certainly not overkill. The air temp around here in summer is 30 deg C, the water temp 8 deg C. You need to Keep the housing at a cool temp in these conditions otherwise it will fog up for sure. The cooler is more for the foam padding it offers than anything else. Leaving the camera in the boat tank is one way of flooding it.

that's one h*** of a temperature difference, not surprised you use ice blocks, and i'm not thinking of the camera fogging, but the air inside the housing cooling down as it gets into the water especially under pressure could force the water past the o ring.

i don't like soft bags for cameras on RIBS, i've seen too many careless people & would hate to see a foot in my camera box. I'm not sure i could cope with a life sentances & judges are not known for their understanding of camera protection

 

[MJSmith]

Some of those drastic temperature changes are more than I am used to here in the Florida area. The air temp is usally 85 + with the water temp usually above 70 even on deep wrecks. I too wouldn't do too well in some of those colder areas---brrrrrr

 

[Kukuisa]

The night before diving, I place a small piece of paper in my housing, seal it, and toss it in a sink full of water. I leave it in there for awhile, and also make sure running water hits all sides of it. Then I dry it off and crack it open to make sure the paper is dry before I put my expensive camera in the housing. This certainly isn't a guarantee the housing won't flood with the camera in it but it's better than nothing!

That is a good way to check your housing for leaks but after opening and closing it again you run the risk that the O-ring isn't sealed properly.
Do you test it then again in the sink ?

 

[I Dive]

That is a good way to check your housing for leaks but after opening and closing it again you run the risk that the O-ring isn't sealed properly.
Do you test it then again in the sink ?

Yep

 

[fppf]

that's one h*** of a temperature difference, not surprised you use ice blocks, and i'm not thinking of the camera fogging, but the air inside the housing cooling down as it gets into the water especially under pressure could force the water past the o ring.

i don't like soft bags for cameras on RIBS, i've seen too many careless people & would hate to see a foot in my camera box. I'm not sure i could cope with a life sentances & judges are not known for their understanding of camera protection

The cooling of the housing just makes a little vacuum in the housing. There is no way this would allow water into the housing as the seals are all designed to work against pressure from the outside to the inside. The little extra pressure added by the contraction of the air inside is a drop in the bucket to the pressure of the water at 100 feet.

You should not have any fogging issues if you use a good desiccant in the housing. Paper towels are not a desiccant, and silica has a finite life to it. Go to a store that sells hearing aids and buy a jar of desiccant they store hearing aids in. Its cheap and has color indicating beads in it. When the beads change color, you can recharge it and use again and again.

The only time I have put my camera in a cooler is ice diving, but to keep it warm. That prevents the water in between the buttons and seals from freezing.

 

[davelew]

I was just wondering if it would mess up the o-ring if I sealed it to soon before a dive.

There's a tiny difference in sealing ability if you let seals sit for a long time. After 200 hours without movement, most rubber seals can seal an extra 1 or 2 psi. Of course, you lose any of that advantage as soon as you press a button on a camera.

Letting the camera housing sit overnight won't cause a leak, neither will sealing it right before a dive.