Hammerhead
Contributor
Those of you who were there will probably remember when my brand new Olympus 8080 flooded in Anilao on the very first dive.:sad:
At the time, I was too pissed off to really wonder about how it had happened, but having found out that theres no way my insurance is paying out, I decided last night that I should sell all my old Oly kit to help pay for the DSLR bits and bobs Ill need.
If you know the set-up, the port containing the lens is removable (its very large and makes packing easier). Anyway, when I got to Anilao, I unpacked the housing in two parts, removed, cleaned and re-greased both o-rings (housing + port), installed the camera and did a 1 minute water immersion test in the sea by the boat prior to going to the dive site. All this carried out with out hitch.
The camera flooded immediately on hitting the water. Prior to that, I can stake my life that it suffered no knocks, was not re-opened and was passed down to me in the water by hand rather than me just jumping in with it. After flooding, the camera was then removed and (un-repairable) dumped.
The housing was then rinsed in fresh water and left with the port still attached to dry before being stowed away in my gear, packed safely, but still assembled.
While taking out the camera, the o-ring at the housing was fine and I could not work out the leaks source, a visual check confirmed that both port clips were closed and o-ring ok. Note I did not remove the port at this point.
Basically I was mystified, but determined not to beat myself up over something that couldnt be fixed or mess up anyone else's day, so I did not go on about it.
Either way, last night I took the housing out of the cardboard box with padding that I used to transport it back (lens port intact) from Anilao (via Tubattaha
) for the first time since it happened. As I unclipped one of the two port clips, the lens port dropped off onto my bed. A bit odd, I thought the other clip should have held it in place
I know that I never undid it.
The other clip WAS clipped on! Clipped on to a bit of plastic that formerly was part of the camera housing and had at some point broken off.
Now Im prepared to swear on any amount of bibles that this could never have broken on the boat as a result of impact (there wasnt any), and as it was still worth money, I made a point of packing it very carefully to bring it back to HK (in hand luggage only BTW), so I can be virtually certain it did not happen there either.
As the housing did not just leak gently, but was completely flooded in about 30 seconds while still shallow, a pinched o-ring would be unlikely. If, the housing itself was broken around the clip point, the speed of flooding would make more sense.
Long story short, Im as sure as I can possibly be that this is one of those rare times when the user was actually NOT at fault.
So what do I do? Any similar experiences, anyone?
At the time, I was too pissed off to really wonder about how it had happened, but having found out that theres no way my insurance is paying out, I decided last night that I should sell all my old Oly kit to help pay for the DSLR bits and bobs Ill need.
If you know the set-up, the port containing the lens is removable (its very large and makes packing easier). Anyway, when I got to Anilao, I unpacked the housing in two parts, removed, cleaned and re-greased both o-rings (housing + port), installed the camera and did a 1 minute water immersion test in the sea by the boat prior to going to the dive site. All this carried out with out hitch.
The camera flooded immediately on hitting the water. Prior to that, I can stake my life that it suffered no knocks, was not re-opened and was passed down to me in the water by hand rather than me just jumping in with it. After flooding, the camera was then removed and (un-repairable) dumped.
The housing was then rinsed in fresh water and left with the port still attached to dry before being stowed away in my gear, packed safely, but still assembled.
While taking out the camera, the o-ring at the housing was fine and I could not work out the leaks source, a visual check confirmed that both port clips were closed and o-ring ok. Note I did not remove the port at this point.
Basically I was mystified, but determined not to beat myself up over something that couldnt be fixed or mess up anyone else's day, so I did not go on about it.
Either way, last night I took the housing out of the cardboard box with padding that I used to transport it back (lens port intact) from Anilao (via Tubattaha
) for the first time since it happened. As I unclipped one of the two port clips, the lens port dropped off onto my bed. A bit odd, I thought the other clip should have held it in place
I know that I never undid it.The other clip WAS clipped on! Clipped on to a bit of plastic that formerly was part of the camera housing and had at some point broken off.
Now Im prepared to swear on any amount of bibles that this could never have broken on the boat as a result of impact (there wasnt any), and as it was still worth money, I made a point of packing it very carefully to bring it back to HK (in hand luggage only BTW), so I can be virtually certain it did not happen there either.
As the housing did not just leak gently, but was completely flooded in about 30 seconds while still shallow, a pinched o-ring would be unlikely. If, the housing itself was broken around the clip point, the speed of flooding would make more sense.
Long story short, Im as sure as I can possibly be that this is one of those rare times when the user was actually NOT at fault.
So what do I do? Any similar experiences, anyone?
