screwy idea I have about saving my camera from flooding

[archman]

Now that I have a fancy schmancy underwater camera, I have been paranoid (from reading all your posts!) about it flooding. I have this hare-brained idea that I could keep a ziploc baggie in a little pocket, and stuff my camera in it if I start to see a leak developing. I fill the baggie with air, drop my weights, and make an uncontrolled emergency swimming ascent, thus saving my camera!

Sometimes I dive with little baggies anyway, to collect seaweed, little teeny critters, and to speak into (I prefer it to filling my bootie with air and using THAT to speak into).

I was wondering if anyone could comment on this whole stuffing of the camera into the baggie idea. I have a compact Canon S50 without accoutrements, and it DOES easily slip into the bag.

 

[Cave Diver]

Now that I have a fancy schmancy underwater camera, I have been paranoid (from reading all your posts!) about it flooding. I have this hare-brained idea that I could keep a ziploc baggie in a little pocket, and stuff my camera in it if I start to see a leak developing. I fill the baggie with air, drop my weights, and make an uncontrolled emergency swimming ascent, thus saving my camera!

Sometimes I dive with little baggies anyway, to collect seaweed, little teeny critters, and to speak into (I prefer it to filling my bootie with air and using THAT to speak into).

I was wondering if anyone could comment on this whole stuffing of the camera into the baggie idea. I have a compact Canon S50 without accoutrements, and it DOES easily slip into the bag.

While I'm sure you're joking about an ESA to save a camera, I'll comment anyway: Is the camera really worth it?

If you're paranoid about it, you could fit it with a tiny CO2 cartridge to equalize the pressure inside if it started to flood. Then you could shoot it to the surface on a lift bag and hope the housing didnt explode on the way up.

BTW, if you try that, can you set the camera to an automatic time lapse shot? Would be pretty cool to see a pic of the housing flying away as it breached the surface! :54:

 

[H2Andy]

I fill the baggie with air, drop my weights, and make an uncontrolled emergency swimming ascent, thus saving my camera!

well, you know... a better idea would be to hand the camera in the baggie
to your buddy, ripping his/her weights off, and sending THEM in an
uncontrolled emergency swimming ascent. you can then make a safe
ascent, thus saving your camera AND not risking air embolism.

 

[jonnythan]

Keep a lift bag or surface marker handy, and if it starts to leak send it to the surface.

 

[Dee]

If this isn't in fun.....

If you're that paranoid about floods, you're better off not taking it down with you! What they say is true...it's not IF you'll ever have a flood, it's WHEN.

There are precaustions we all take, starting with a meticulous preparation of the housing. 99% of all floods are cause by user error so if you are just careful preparing your rig, you'll be fine. The biggest precaustion I take is with gear and flood insurance. If/When something happens, at least it will be repaired or replaced.

Forget the ziplock idea, by the time you have noticed the water, the electronics are probably fried. What you can do is submerge it slowly in the rince bucket and watch for those bubbles of death. Never jump into the water with your camera, always have someone hand it to you after you have entered. As you descend, watch you housing closely. If you see ANY seepage at all, return to the surface and hand off your camera to the boat crew and blow it off for that dive!

But in the end, if you're going to worry about it this much, it will take all the fun out of it for you.

OH...and you can't take samples or collect specimines most places!

 

[archman]

OH...and you can't take samples or collect specimines most places!

Well Dee, I have "special scientist powers", enabling me to pillage the underwater environ to my heart's content!
Naw, I do have SOME "special powers" to collect, but normally I don't need them. I DO pay close attention to federal, state, and local laws. Macroalage for instance is barely regulated at all, and hardly anyone even knows what sediment infauna is, so who's gonna regulate THAT? Game wardens actually encourage you to remove intrusive exotics, but you have to convince them that you know what you're doing. Sanctuary Preservation Areas like Looe Key are ultra-protected even from the likes of me... unless I take a wee bit of time to grab some permits. Usually the stuff I collect nobody else gives a rat about.

Too bad about the baggie, but I'll follow what you said about water entries. I routinely jump in with my crappy Auto35, but I also never have done maintenance on it and could care less if the thing floods. Lately it's lost the ability to know when the film is all used up, so unless I keep an eye on the counter it'll start double-exposing things.

 

[Gilligan]

Flooding the housing is all in the odds. Those odds are kept to a minimum with sticking to a routine and keeping some type of absorbing pads in the housing for a small leak or one you catch in time.

I flooded my PT-010 a week ago after 273 dives on it. I got lax on my routine and cut some corners. Instead of checking the housing right after hanging it overboard I geared up then checked it. By then it was half full of water. Something caught in the main O-ring or it was not seated properly or the door wasn't closed and locked properly. If I had of checked it right away the mini pads in the housing would have absorbed the small amount of leakage with likely no damage to the camera.

Bottom line is two choices:
1. insurance if you have a big bucks camera
2. eat the loss as I did for a $239. refurb C4000Z replacement.

 

[pipedope]

How about a regulator that would keep the housing pressurized underwater. You would only need a slight positive pressure. Any leaks would blow bubbles.

You also have a large source of clean, dry air available to operate it.

The big drawback is that the camera will be attached to the diver by a hose, increasing the entanglement hazzard. The other good news is it makes it hard to drop the camera.

 

[iflyprops]

How about a regulator that would keep the housing pressurized underwater.

Are we talking about a Low Low Pressure hose? LOL! However thath would work quite nicely if you had some sort of valve to release a constant stream of bubbles like many first stages do.

 

[H2Andy]

you can use my Sea Elite octopus...