sony housing, oil in the lens, and no joy about replacements

[orangeBloke]

Just a word of warning about housings, particularly Sony

I have a housing for a Sony Cybershot P-8 which had served me well for 6 months or so but recently it had a problem. Not the usual leaky O-ring but rather that some diesel oil, that someone had dumped all over the surface, made its way between the laminated glass plates on the front of the housing that cover the lens of the camera. The housing was only exposed to the oil for a few moments but it was enough to do the damage.

Now, if remember my school chemistry properly, oil molecules are bigger than water molecules so I figured that if they managed to get between the laminate what was to stop water doing the same? Besides the danger of water entering, it's also hard to take a clear shot through a haze of oil on the lens (I have some foggy whale shark pictures to prove it)

Thus there appeared to be a fault with the housing. I contacted Sony but they say that they won't do anything as the housing is not under the guarantee despite having full receipts for the purchase of the camera and housing.

I know I should have checked for a guarantee with the housing but as I'd filled out one when buying the whole lot I never thought to question what it covered.....I'll know better next time. Now I'm stuck with a housing that I've had to strip and try flushing the oil from the lenses....not with great success...but hey, at least I haven't voided the warranty.

So the moral of this story is, if you're buying some pricey equipment, make sure you know what's covered by the guarantee.

In the meantime if anyone knows a way to fix oil trapped between laminated glass please let me know. So far soaking in soapy water hasn't shifted it all

Cheers

 

[marpacifica]

Any chance of going after the person who spilled diesel oil on your camera? Sorry to hear about your housing.

Try soaking the affected area in ammonia/Windex overnight. That's what I use to remove the accumulated, gummy oil that deposits on the metal filters for the hoodfans in kitchens. Let us know if that works.

 

[orangeBloke]

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll dig out the Windex from under the kitchen sink and give it a go....can't make it any worse

As for the person who did it, the diesel was on the surface of the water (which I didn't really make clear below), left by some boat when we were on a dive. The brief surface swim back was when the diesel did its damage, so it didn't really take much time to seep in

I'll let you know how the cleaning goes

Cheers

 

[frogfish]

Is that standard Sony company policy ? Not providing a warranty for their products ??? Sounds pretty bad...