Compilation: Ways to Flood a Camera

[Taxgeek]

Just thought it might be educational (if probably not fun) for us to tell all the different things we've messed up (or seen messed up) to flood a camera. Maybe we can do some vicarious learning? Partial floods, saved situations, close calls count too!

I'll start.

- I've flooded my Canon P&S in canon housing by forgetting to clean out the o-ring grooves between uses - salt crystals = very very bad!

- I've failed to completely screw in the Ikelite sync cords (dang those things are a pain).

Ok, now you. Let's see how many ways we can identify, and try to avoid them in the future!

 

[AUTiger]

- My friend (yes, really, it was a friend) flooded his housing by catching a corner of a dessicant pack in the seal. I've heard of this a couple of times.

-Another friend caught the tail of the string connecting his lens cap in the seal, causing a flood.

David

 

[justleesa]

I used the "wrong" grease for my o'ring and ruined it = camera flooded

( I hope your 5D is ok?)

 

[peterbkk]

Ex-girlfriend managed to place a strand of her long dark hair over the o-ring of her housed P&S camera. I spotted the bubble and the hair during the descent at about 5 meters down but it was too late.

Me, in a heavy sea: I jumped with housing in hand and fell slightly forward into a wave, smacking one of the video lights hard, glass down. Water must have squirted past the glass seal before the o-ring had a chance to do its thing. Very minor flood but that video light was useless for the rest of that trip. Now I don't do giant-stride entries with housing in hand.

Regards
Peter

 

[TSandM]

I shut my housing on a fruit fly. I don't know how to avoid that in the future

 

[Dive-aholic]

Checking the catch on my housing to make sure it was closed. Opened it and didn't close it securely. Saw water enter the housing as I descended. I saved the memory card, but had to replace the camera.

Got a hair caught along o-ring, was running 3 minute video clips on the dive. Got through 13 minutes before the screen whited out on me and the camera shut down. Powered it back up a couple times, but it kept shutting down. Saw some droplets IN the housing. Got to me deco bottle, tried to pull the hair out - BIG MISTAKE! Water started entering faster. Managed to complete my deco while holding the housing so the water didn't touch the camera. Made it to the surface and popped open the housing to release the water. Camera was saved! Phew!

 

[Dive-aholic]

I shut my housing on a fruit fly. I don't know how to avoid that in the future

If you have a clear housing, check around the housing for any foreign objects. If I had done that with my last almost flood, I would have seen the hair!

 

[Cacia]

I've failed to completely screw in the Ikelite sync cords (dang those things are a pain).

yes, I did that too...I screwed it in anyway and now its permanently fused. (but it works)

 

[Warren_L]

I had a flood due to a loosened nut on the back of the bulkhead connector on my Ike housing. My guess is that it loosened because of the vibrations of the boat engines on the way out to dive sites over time. I contacted Ikelite about this and was told that it is not something that normally needs to be checked. But now I do check it periodically, though.

 

[Ed Palma]

Saw someone who's camera had a minor leak. Made a bad situation worse by showing the owner of the camera that there was water in the housing by shaking the camera around, and not keeping it lens side down. Sure made a mess of things.