Olympus 720 housing leak

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TSandM

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I have an Olympus 720, and I love it. It came with the Olympus housing, and worked well for a year or so. The housing is now leaking, and as best I can determine, it appears to be a leak under the large ring that covers the lens on the camera. This ring is held in place by six small screws.

My question is: Has anybody else had this kind of leak, and were you successful at fixing it? I'm cheerfully willing to take the thing apart and try. As far as I know, neither the camera nor the housing is still sold.
 
Leaks in that location are often from cracks around the screw threads, and the leak gets worse over time as the cracks grow with each cycle of pressure and release. Sometimes the housing won't leak until it gets 30 to 40 feet underwater, when the plastic deflects enough to open the crack. I hope this isn't your problem, because there's very little that can be done (silicon caulk or RTV sealant can delay the inevitable, but your camera and housing will be living on borrowed time).

Some things you can do: first, be absolutely certain that you have a leak and not, say, humid air condensing inside your housing. Second, try to observe if the leak gets worse at depth than at the surface. Third, check to make sure the six little screws are tightened, while being very careful not to overtighten and strip the plastic.
 
Oh, foo, Dave. You described the symptoms precisely. Yes, it is a leak, and can be a big one (thank goodness for cameras which are, themselves, somewhat waterproof). It is clearly very depth-related, as I had to soak the camera for quite a long time in a bucket to figure out where the leak was, whereas when I hung it in the bottom of the pool, it leaked quickly enough that I lost the information as to where the source was.

I hate that nobody makes housings for old cameras, so if the housing fails, you're left looking at a pretty useless camera, if you want to use it underwater, anyway.
 

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