Our new camera flooded!!!!

[diverrick]

I just returned from our latest dive trip. Right before we left, My wife bought a new digital 5MP camera, with underwater case, tray and strobe(Bonica). It worked well the first dives, but we started noticing fog inside. We thought it was due to temp changes between dives, and we took the usual measures to stop the fogging.
After a few more dives I noticed a few small water drops inside the case. I looked the case over carfully and found no obvoius causes. I took the case out without the camera, and found no leaks, at least in shallow water. I thought that maybe I had somehow got water in while installing the camera.
On day 4, I was on the first dive of the day, and noticed right away that there was over 1 inch of salt water in the case, just as I was reaching depth. I held the camera as level as possable, and returned to the dive boat. I opened the case and let out the water. After the dive was over we let it set out for a day to dry out, in hopes that it might still work. It doesn't.
Now I looked at the case again, and noticed that the part that goes through the case to trigger a picture, had a loose jam nut, so that the whole lever assembly rotated on the case hole. I figure that is where the water got in.
I think that would qualify as "defects of material workmanship", as it is a new camera case, and only had about 5 dives on it since new. Does anyone know what I can do to recoup the loads of money we spent on this camera?
It seems that someone should replace the camera, and fix the case as well, but The dive op I was with told me "good luck" I wondered about DAN or the creditcard we bought it with. Maybe there is some other way there to get it replaced.
Other than warrenty work, is there any reasonable thing I can do to save the camera? I figure the dive case might get replaced, but the camera is going to be on us. I was advised by the Dive op to submerse the whole camera in fresh water, to flush out the salt water. That sound like adding insult to injury, so I didn't do that. Any help woild be greatly appreiciated.

 

[regtech17]

Unfortunately i think you are up the proverbial creek. In the future i would suggest getting all peril insurance on your system from your house insurance. I have a 18,000 dollar system that is insured for a mere 105 dollars/year. Good thing since a shark in Cuba got hungry for it.

 

[DoubleDip]

Next time... you see a drip of water in a underwater camera housing, use Gilligans Kool-aid trick, and take the housing deep to find the problem. Sorry to hear of the disaster.

 

[wolf eel]

Bad advice everywhere check with your credit card they may pay to replace it for you. You did nothing and the case leaked. Thats not your fault things that cost that much come with a gaurentee (SP?). Do it right and talk to them and explain what happened. I am beting your credit card has insurance for it for a bit. Don't just give up it was not your fault. Dont tell them the entire story as they will use it against you and may say you should have known better even though its not your fault. Is this your first camera ?

 

[medical1]

Most of the major credit cards should cover the camera for 90 days. I wouldn't mention that you thought the camera was leaking previously though. Just explain that while diving with your new camera with no-fault on your part that the camera flooded and now is unoperable - period. I've had some great success with AMEX on a laptop that was out of manufacturers warranty by 7 months. They extend an origional warranty by up to 1 year. AMEX said the laptop was terminal (After I provided a diagnostic from CompUSA - that they paid for) and refunded the purchase price!
Good Luck

 

[diverrick]

yes this WAS our firswt camera. When the wife gets back with the camera we are going to contact everyone involved to see what we can recover. On a good note, I saw a used Canon here for sale for 900.00 so if all else fails i might go that direction.

 

[LChan]

check with your home owners insurance or renters insurance.

i checked with my agent before leaving to Roatan last wk. He said that everything is covered for loss but not for flood. You would need DAN or DEEP to cover floods.
Be careful, DAN doesn't cover housings that are lost or "missing" overboard.

 

[ShoalDiverSA]

My commiserations!

I came close this weekend. Backward roll entry off the RIB, quick check of the camera before descending. Get to 22m - look at the camera, and there is water inside the housing! I signalled the problem to the DM and my buddy, then ascended to the boat. Held the housing up so that the water (about a teaspoonful) was away from the camera. Assisted skipper with opening the housing carefully, drained the water. Long surface swim back to the buoy (!) and continued the dive.

Fortunately, the camera lived to tell the tale. I think the backward roll might have been the culprit (didn't really check the camera that well before descending). I also suspect that the main o-ring may be too stretched which would make it prone to becoming displaced.

However, I left the camera behind for the remainder of the dives. It will only be taken along again once I am sure that I have identified and fixed the problem.

Phew!

Cheers,

Andrew

 

[DWJ]

I just returned from our latest dive trip. Right before we left, My wife bought a new digital 5MP camera, with underwater case, tray and strobe(Bonica). It worked well the first dives, but we started noticing fog inside. We thought it was due to temp changes between dives, and we took the usual measures to stop the fogging.
After a few more dives I noticed a few small water drops inside the case. I looked the case over carfully and found no obvoius causes. I took the case out without the camera, and found no leaks, at least in shallow water. I thought that maybe I had somehow got water in while installing the camera.
On day 4, I was on the first dive of the day, and noticed right away that there was over 1 inch of salt water in the case, just as I was reaching depth. I held the camera as level as possable, and returned to the dive boat. I opened the case and let out the water. After the dive was over we let it set out for a day to dry out, in hopes that it might still work. It doesn't.
Now I looked at the case again, and noticed that the part that goes through the case to trigger a picture, had a loose jam nut, so that the whole lever assembly rotated on the case hole. I figure that is where the water got in.
I think that would qualify as "defects of material workmanship", as it is a new camera case, and only had about 5 dives on it since new. Does anyone know what I can do to recoup the loads of money we spent on this camera?
It seems that someone should replace the camera, and fix the case as well, but The dive op I was with told me "good luck" I wondered about DAN or the creditcard we bought it with. Maybe there is some other way there to get it replaced.
Other than warrenty work, is there any reasonable thing I can do to save the camera? I figure the dive case might get replaced, but the camera is going to be on us. I was advised by the Dive op to submerse the whole camera in fresh water, to flush out the salt water. That sound like adding insult to injury, so I didn't do that. Any help woild be greatly appreiciated.

I had a 2 month old sony camera that got doused while shooting a sailboat race. Because it was new I was able to get the credit card company to refund the $$ for it.
It was a pain to do all the paperwork but the camera was $900.+ . The upside was when I got the refund, the replacment camera was a few hundred less than the first.

Dave

 

[diverrick]

Good news! I contacted Bonica camera company, and they gave me a return authorization to send the whole thing back. They will repair or replace everything. Man that is rare customer service these days. They never even gave it a second thought, just told me to send it back. Thanks everyone for all the helpful ideas.