The "F" Word (Flood)

[Gilligan]

My PT-010 flooded on today's dive.
User error no doubt.
After about a year and a half I got complacent with my routine and did not check for leaks right after hanging my camera setup overboard from my kayak. Instead I geared up for my dive. When I was ready to get in the water I looked down at the camera and saw bubbles coming from the lower left back corner of the housing. By then the housing was half full of water. Something no doubt was caught on the main O ring. The camera is toast but the housing did not leak after I put it back in the water w/o the camera. That just confirms something was on/under the main O ring.
The moral of the story is:
Never digress from your routine.
This is not a major financial disaster. I found another C4000Z refurb online for $239 + 29. Fedex to Hawaii.
This is why I have been, and always will be, a firm believer in using refurb cameras for underwater use.

 

[caymaniac]

The "F" word is a terrible thing! I have not yet had that awful experience after nearly 20 years of my Ike housing. Just listening to your incident is a great reminder to pay attention to what your habits are while loading and unloading the housing. Thanks to your reminder and sympathy to you for your accident. The main thing is, did we learn from this mistake or what?

Dive Safe,
Caymaniac

 

[ReyeR]

:bawling: Aaaargh! That's awful! But it's good to hear you took it in the right spirit!

 

[Dee]

Oh Man, sorry to hear that. "They" say it's not IF but WHEN you're gonna flood. You don't have to wonder anymore just when it will be!

That's a good price.

 

[Mitten Diver]

Gilligan,

This may not matter to you as you have a new(refurb) camera on the way, but Olympus has a flat rate for flood repairs. You may want to contact them to see if it is worth repairing your other camera. The information is posted in the tips and techniques forum above.

Mitten Diver

 

[ChrisM]

Sorry to hear about that Jim, but you've got a good attitude..... buy another and move on. Thankfully, it's affordable.

And a good object lesson - to paraphrase a scuba saying, Complacency Floods!!!!

Chris

 

[Tortuga Roja]

Man I'm sorry to hear that. Although you got off lighter than I did when I lost my WAL last month.

I wondered why I didn't see you out there this am. I put in about 8:45. You were probably already gone since your dive was truncated. I went out to 70 ft only to realize, like you, that I hadn't followed my routine of taking one shot when I loaded the camera at home. I had loaded it with the shutter lever in the wrong position, easy to do with my Ike, and so I was unable to take pix during the dive.

Let me know when you are up and running again.

Aloha!

 

[DennisW]

Sorry to hear about your flood. I surely hope I never have mine flood. I'll just keep checking that o-ring and making very sure there isn't anything on the seal when I close it. I usually clean the o-ring, grease it, inspect, put a desicant pack in, and then close up the housing the night before I dive. That way I close it up in airconditioned (low humidity) air and I can take my time with the housing. When I get on the boat, I usually do boat dives I put the camera in the camera bucket and watch for bubbles. So far, so good.

 

[TedJ]

Sorry to hear. Glad you are moving right along.
TEdJ

 

[Otter]

Crikey!
On our recent trip to Yap & Palau (report forthcoming) my buddy flooded is NEW 5050. O-ring got twisted -- complacency somewhere around dive 30. Thank goodness he insured it.