Problem with zoom on Fix housing with Canon G12

[jimthediver]

During our last 4 liveaboard trips to the Pacific, we have had the problem of the zoom on our Fix housing with Canon G12, randomly locking up underwater. We always check to make sure the zoom is working before we enter the water but it frequently stops zooming during the dive & usually won't release until we're topside. This makes it very difficult for my wife to shoot macro. Has anyone else experienced this problem & if so, how were you able to prevent the locking up problem? We are leaving for PNG in 3 weeks & want to be able to photograph all the macro critters. We'd appreciate any suggestions. Thank you.

 

[Ryan]

I'm sorry for the trouble. I'm not able to tell from your description exactly what is happening, though.

Is the zoom lever centering, or failing to center?

Can you feel the lever "skip", where the zoom control jumps over the zoom tab?

 

[jimthediver]

Hi Ryan,

I am not really sure exactly what happens because my wife is the user of this camera so it is always in her hands when the problem occurs. However, I set it up and check it out before she takes it on the dive. The zoom always works fine on the boat before we leave. The problem occurs frequently but not every dive. However, once the zoom "locks" it's stuck, and nothing gets it working again until we get back on the boat and we take the camera out of the housing. We can put it right back in, close it up and it works fine! It is always in the max wide angle position when it sticks. She doesn't report feeling anything unusal with the zoom lever before she discovers it has locked up again. We have had this happen with both our primary G12 and our back-up G11 so I really don't think it's the camera acting up.

Jim

 

[DiveWild]

I have had the same exact problem with my G12 housing several times and continue to do so, especially a depths below 80ft. It seems worse at depth. Please let me know if a solution was ever found. Also, just FYI, I am very much in the marker for another Fisheye FIX G12 housing if you ever consider selling yours.