Olympus C5050 - silicon grease

[chocolate]

Will be going on a trip real soon and just realise that i ran out of silicon grease for my C5050 and Olympus has no stock...
what do i do?

I have a some Ikelite silicon grease, can I use that? I heard that Olympus O-rings will swell if the wrong kind of grease are applied...

I also read it somewhere that it is actually better to use saliva?

pls advise...

 

[brucetrinity]

You might look here:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/olympus-outlet/61479-olympus-grease-versus-generic-grease.html

The implication is that any grease that is for a colored (not black) o-ring is ok. For instance, grease for most plumbing fixtures (black o-rings) would not be ok. Personally, I've used Canon, Ikelite, and Olympus grease interchangeably and never noticed a problem .... but it's your choice. I don't know how much you are using but a tube lasts a LONG time. You only need a tiny bit to lubricate the surface ... the o-ring surface should look slightly shiny with no lumps/clumps. It's a lubricant .... not a sealer. Too much lube just holds grit.

 

[Gdog]

Ive used the sea and sea lube from my strobe(blue oring) on my oly 5060 and pt020 orings (red) for a while with no trouble at all....

 

[chocolate]

seems like Sea & Sea is the choice...

any heard know anything about using just spit??

btw, my O-rings are red...

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

weird, I have been using ikelite grease and my oring has stretched like a worn out pair of underwear. It actually doesn't seem stretched when dry, but after lubricating it and putting it on the camera and trying to close it, oring lenghtens and it becomes a major pain putting it on the first time after it is in storage between trips.

 

[brucetrinity]

Assuming the O-ring fits properly when it's dry, it's probably getting stretched when you apply the grease. Try pushing (not pulling) the O-ring thru your fingers when applying the grease.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

I tried to lube the o-ring lightly and it doesn't seem to be stretched afterward. It even fits Ok in the housing. The 1st o-ring deep in the housing since it has nowhere to stretch to, stays put. But the 2nd o-ring sits on the cover side where when closing the cover, pressure is applied first to the hinge side of the o-ring, squeezing and squishing it, where the excess slack eventually squeezes toward where the clamp side of the cover. Lots of using multiple fingers to keep the o-ring in place is required while closing the lid in order to ensure the excess slack doesn't pop out.

Without lubricating it, the o-ring would probably be more grippy and not stretch, but then who wants to seal the case like that?