Compilation: Ways to Flood a Camera

[ewong]

I ruined a TTL connector while unscrewing it from the housing while there was water on the connector threads. The water sipped it and the connector got corroded.

Now I learned to unscrew the connector with the camera upside down (connector facing down). That way if there's any water it will be harder to get in.


Eddy.

 

[vkalia]

I had a knob come off my Aquatica housing at 26m. While trying to replace it, I ended up pushing the control shaft into the housing. Water soon followed. Result - 1 dead 20D. I managed to save the lens by bolting to the surface, dropping off the camera and then going back to do my deco. Was my 8th day of diving with the housing, too.

Oh well.

Vandit

 

[pekka]

Hi
I did hope, that I never have a reason to write here, but here I am.

A week ago I jumped to water with my S60 in Canon WP-DC40 combined
with brand new ULCS tray & arm system supporting my new flash.
Yeah, when in the water at about 3 meters,
I did carry the camera system with one hand holding the camera only...
Some bubbles and the housing was half filled with salt water.

What's the problem?
Later, when doing a analysis of this mistake, the reason was hard to find.
First tests: The housing seemed to be ok - no problems at all...

My buddy did ask me? was the screw lose... that might have been...
I might have fastened the tray fixing screw without thinking!?!?

... so a new test.

And the results:
It is really possible to flood the housing that way.. :11:
ULCS tray has a 3mm high shoulder at back of the tray.
On that dive I did mount the the tray so, that the tray shoulder
is on the backside of the housing behind the back cover of the housing.

As I do have quite long flash arms, there is quite a lot of force,
that flexes the housing and may cause, that the shoulder moves
so, that the shoulder is _under_ the back door of the housing.
It helps, if the screw is a little lose, but it is not needed,
at least not in my sink when moving the tray by hand.

Ok - when the back door is pushed upwards by the tray (and
the hand holding the system when diving) and the the fixing screw gives
it's force to the front part of the housing, it seems, the door will leak.
It helps of course, if you fasten the tray screw without checking, that
the shoulder is not under the back door...

Might have done that too...

Pekka

 

[Mariozi]

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

( I hope your 5D is ok?)

OUCH...

I got a few close encounters.

- Hugyfot housing for N80 (old model), as soon as I reached the bottom found a drop of water inside the top LCD visor. Stop for a few seconds watching it, the drop grew slowly and fell over the cam LCD... turned it upside down and got up, luckily my housing-guru was aboard the boat, and we managed to fix it with silicon glue.

- Saved by the flood detector... At a live aboard trip on the first diving with my Sea&Sea NX-80 (bought used and serviced in a good UWshop in the US...) the flood detector started flashing as I got to the bottom (13m) got back up. Once on the boat, found out a spoon of water inside. It took me 2 dives to locate the leak with the housing empty: The thumb selector on the back of the housing had NO O-RING in it!!! How to save the trip: overextend an strobe cable o-ring (later destroyed) to fit the missing one.

- Arriving at the pier after a 2 dive boat trip, I found one button cap completely gone, Sea&Sea NX-80 housing, the camera kept it in place, never knew if it was on the boat or uw...

- At a pool in gym, doing some work pics, I had opened and closed the housing many times to feel automatic... on the last roll of film I got the hot shoe connector cable in between the two halves of the housing, when I put everything in the water just felt the housing shaking with the bubbles coming out. One shower was enough for my beloved and rare Nikon F80s! Just last week I found one here in Singapore, mint conditions, and since I still have the housing, I bought it.

This is the best thread in several years!!!

 

[peterbkk]

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

I once heard the sales rep for the Nikon (and Nikonos) dealer in Australia tell an audience of would-be underwater photographers that, "if you run out of the Nikonos o-ring grease, just use Vaseline."

Vaseline is water soluble. If anyone had of taken his advice, the Vaseline would have created a pathway into the camera for the water to follow.

Actually, no one took his advice because, after his presentation, I quietly went round the audience and corrected the misinformation.

Regards
Peter

 

[ianw2]

Vaseline is water soluble. If anyone had of taken his advice, the Vaseline would have created a pathway into the camera for the water to follow.

Vaseline is a brand name now owned by Unilever for a particular brand of petroleum jelly also called petrolatum.

It is a petroleum derived product. I would not recommend using it on a silicon o-ring. However, it is NOT water-soluble.

From wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum_jelly

Petrolatum is a flammable, semi-solid mixture of hydrocarbons, having a melting-point usually ranging from a little below to a few degrees above 100°F (37 °C). It is colorless, or of a pale yellow color (when not highly distilled), translucent, and devoid of taste and smell when pure. It does not oxidize on exposure to the air, and is not readily acted on by chemical reagents. It is insoluble in water. It is soluble in chloroform, benzene, carbon disulfide and oil of turpentine.

There is a common misconception (resulting from the similar feel they produce when applied to human skin) that petroleum jelly and glycerol (glycerine) are physically similar. While petroleum is a non-polar hydrocarbon hydrophobic (water-repelling), insoluble in water, glycerol (not a hydrocarbon but an alcohol) is the opposite: it is so strongly hydrophylic (water-attracting) that by continuous absorption of moisture from the air, it produces the feeling of wetness on the skin, similar to the greasiness produced by petroleum jelly. The feeling is similar, but petroleum jelly repels water, and glycerine attracts it.

(Emphasis mine)

Ian

 

[peterbkk]

Vaseline is a brand name now owned by Unilever for a particular brand of petroleum jelly also called petrolatum.

It is a petroleum derived product. I would not recommend using it on a silicon o-ring. However, it is NOT water-soluble.

Thank you for correcting my mistake about the solubility of Vaseline. Personally, I am not a big user of Vaseline...

But that does not invalidate my original assertion that:

1. Vaseline should not be used for o-ring lubrication, and

2. A Nikon rep should not have made such a statement.

Regards
Peter

 

[wombat201]

On the first dive I ever took a camera on, I quite embarassingly used my $40, rated to 100ft-type camera to bash against my tank trying to get buddies attention.....must have knocked the housing out of alignment... camera survived the ordeal, although the flash is toast, and the film was of course ruined... and my buddy didn't even hear it (the housing being plastic and all)... OOOOPS!!! Just happened to be in my hand, didn't think about it at all at the time... its not even as if my buddy was particularly far away! At least I learned my lesson on one of the cheapies - would have been seriously annoyed with myself had it been a "proper" camera!

 

[CUunderH2O]

I once handed my camera to a boat crew member who opened my housing for some reason (can't remember now; was a couple of years ago) and re-latched it, catching a bit of fuzz of the camera strap in the seal (not that I knew it at the time!). I was at 90 ft when I noticed the screen flickering and then I saw some water in the housing! I immediately turned off the camera, but figured it was toast anyway and finished my dive. Upon return to the boat I saw it was only a few tablespoons of water, so I emptied it, threw out the rechargeable batteries and let the camera air-dry for a week. It turned out to be fine and I'm still using it today. I'm lucky it was fresh water; I'm sure it wouldn't have survived a salt water dip. I also never let ANYONE touch my camera anymore.

 

[Hidroj]

Closed my Ikelite Housing port, but didn't pay enough attention to hear the "click" of both port locks. One of them seemed to be locked, but... wasn't. While entering water, the lock slided back, the port opened on one side and it flooded the camera. It happened luckily during a shore dive, just while going into water. My D70 never worked again, but the battery, the Memory Card and the lens have been used again. The electronics (iTTL) has been finally replaced, cause some time later it began to cause some errors...
Which was the reason for the flood? Some days after the incident, going again and again through my Housing's mounting porcedure, I noticed the port lock didn't always "click" when pushed to lock. I remembered then that changing the standard port locks and replacing them by the low profile ones, I probably didn't loosen the port lock retaining screw 1/4 of turn, as it's mentioned in Ikelite's instructions. That probably caused the impression the port was locked, but it didn't. Since then I triple check the port locks and listen carefully to the "click". Was really happy to find the reason for my flood, otherwise it would have been really difficult to go on with underwater photography.
Jordi