Flooding

I'm new to diving and even newer to underwater photography. I pulled out my old Minolta 110 "snorkel" camera only to learn that the shutter button will fire itself and not return when under 15 feet! So I bought a new point and shoot uw camera, but haven't yet tried it.

In scanning various threads I've seen comments about flooding the camera case, and one reference to flooding by jumping off a boat camera in hand. Is there a trick to avoid flooding (other than making sure the o-ring is in good shape)?

Any sudden impact like jumping off a boat or going thru the surf increases the chance of a flood. Jump off the boat then have someone hand you the camera. For beach diving a small camera will maybe go in a BC pocket for a little protection. As you know, the beach invites sand, so inspect the o-rings very closely. Test the empty housing at depth & work all the controls several times. A static test (nothing moving) is not 100% assurance that all is ok.

jcclink:

Any sudden impact like jumping off a boat or going thru the surf increases the chance of a flood. Jump off the boat then have someone hand you the camera. For beach diving a small camera will maybe go in a BC pocket for a little protection. As you know, the beach invites sand, so inspect the o-rings very closely. Test the empty housing at depth & work all the controls several times. A static test (nothing moving) is not 100% assurance that all is ok.

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jcclink, that sounds like good advice. I do a lot of sandy beach diving and I just flooded my camera (see my post in the canon subsection)

Let me ask you a question - say you were doing 2 beach dives a day, 40 feet depth, for 5 days in a row - when you say "test empty housing at depth", are you suggesting before each dive you go down to 40 feet with an empty housing and test it?

Also, would you open the camera and inspect the o-ring for sand after every dive? would you grease the o-ring (possibly attracting more sand) ?

thanks alot!

Scott