O-ring maintenance question

[cageybob]

I just switched from an Olympus to a Canon set up (camera & manufacturer's housing). With the Olympus, their instructions said to remove the o-ring, put it in a small bag with a little bit of silicon grease and rub it all around to make sure the o-ring is covered (not overdoing it). The Canon housing (WP-DC8) is not clear and almost makes it sound like you leave the o-ring on the housing and apply the grease while it is on the housing itself. They mention the occasional removal for cleaning, but not for application of silicon. Is either one or both correct?

In comparison between Canon's and Olympus' housings, I think Olympus does a much better job of customer instruction and includes an o-ring removal tool and silica gel packets for humidity. The only extra thing Canon includes is a stupid neck strap that looks like it has the potential to get in the way of photos, but it does say CANON nice and proudly for advertising. I like someone else on the board's suggestion of using a guitar pick, which I have plenty of.

 

[f3nikon]

Sounds like Canon are just trying to reduce their liabilities by not removing the oring. A good amount of leaks are “created” by an incompetent user installing the oring wrong!

Olympus may assume that everyone is competent enough to install a simple oring and check for a seal.

It would be interesting to see which of the companies, Canon or Olympus has the most complains about flooding a housing.

 

[holdingmybreath]

it's just an o-ring.... on the canon it's simple.. slide your finger along one side of the housing towards a corner while applying slight pressure to the o-ring.. this will lift the corner of the o-ring away from the housing enough that you can get ahold of it without prying it up with anything.

It's just a me-ism, but I like to rotate the o-ring slightly each time I replace it so that the corners sit off a little from where they where.

 

[DiverDonn]

I don't think you can do a decent job of lubing the O-ring while it is still on the camera. Besides, when you take the O-ring off, it lets you inspect and/or clean the area under the O-ring where Sand or dirt might build up. In addition, by leaving the O-ring in place, you will nearly always end up with a slight excess of silicon around the edge of the ring and this can and will attract dirt.
Whenever I am not using ANY ringed equipment-including lights-for any period of time, I remove the O-rings and store them in a small zip lock baggie. DD

 

[sarita75]

This brings me to a question that I have been wondering about (especially in light of the lack of instructions with my canon housing) -- when should an o-ring be replaced? is there a simple answer like "about every 50 dives"? i remove the o-ring after ever dive session (at the end of the day if only diving one day, or at the end of a 3 day dive trip, etc).

 

[DiverDonn]

Sarita:
I have the IKE housing, not the Canon, but it should work pretty much the same way: Ike claims that an O-ring can last up to "several years" IF you take care of it. On my old Richoh with a S&S housing, I used the same O-ring for about 18months. You should have a spare, but if you take care of it, and visually inspect it (I use a magnifying glass) before each trip, and follow the other guide lines, it should be OK. 4 days 'til Coz. DD

 

[cageybob]

In spite of the lack of Canon instructions, I think I'll do what was sucessful with the Olympus housing and remove it and regrease the whole thing in a small bag on every dive day.

I just remembered another item the Olympus housing provided that Canon didn't, a weight. Gee, for a housing that cost me an extra $50 over the Olympus, you think they would add not subtract items. I made my decision to switch based on the camera (A630), definitely not the housing.

 

[amajamar]

I just purchased the Canon housing for an A620. I was going to ask all the knowledgeable peeps here what silica gel packs they use for their Canon housings. I am a newbie to the UW photography world so I'm sure there is an obvious answer...

Here is a link to Canon's housing tips...

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/c..._Care&keycode=UnderwaterPhoto&fcategoryid=113

 

[cageybob]

That was perfect. I wonder why they didn't put that in the manual?

 

[amajamar]

I just remembered another item the Olympus housing provided that Canon didn't, a weight. Gee, for a housing that cost me an extra $50 over the Olympus, you think they would add not subtract items. I made my decision to switch based on the camera (A630), definitely not the housing.

cageybob,

LP has the weight kit for the Canon for a reasonable (IMHO!) price.

What type of silica gel packs do you use?