Hello,
I have a Sony A5100 camera with the Meikon housing and I've got about 100 dives with it.
Few days ago while preparing it for a dive I noticed salt crystals inside of the housing's o-ring, although during the previous dive I haven't noticed any water inside it. I cleaned the salt and as an extra precaution I removed and carefully inspected the o-ring. It was good so I cleared it, lubed it and put it back. I didn't give much more attention to it and went diving.
At the end of the next dive on the surface I could hear the moisture alarm beeping (underwater the beep was so weak that I couldn't hear it) and I could clearly see water in the housing.
These are the bad news. The good news is that the amount of water was not enough to reach the camera hence the camera survived!
After the incident I removed the moisture detection circuit and rinsed the (open) housing inside and outside with fresh water and then let it soak in a light vinegar/water solution to remove any salt deposits.
The question is what's next? Is there any neat ways to detect where the leak is? Dive was a shallow one (15m/50ft) for 75 minutes and judging by the amount of water inside the housing (maybe 3-4 teaspoons) I guess the leak is too small to detect it by submerging the case in a bucket of water and wait for bubbles. Any other ways?
Since the main o-ring looks good (although to be sure I'm thinking to change it anyway) I am suspecting the buttons. There are 14 buttons in the case including 2 rotary ones, most of which use tiny e-clips to be held in place. Does it worth the risk to disassemble the buttons to clean/inspect/lubricate their o-rings? Given their large number I'm worried that if I don't do perfectly well even a single one the case will be still leaking.
BTW apart from soaking the whole thing in water after every dive, what is the standard maintenance procedure for this kind of buttons? Keep using them until they fail or are they serviceable?
Any other suggestions?
Thanks in advance for any info
I have a Sony A5100 camera with the Meikon housing and I've got about 100 dives with it.
Few days ago while preparing it for a dive I noticed salt crystals inside of the housing's o-ring, although during the previous dive I haven't noticed any water inside it. I cleaned the salt and as an extra precaution I removed and carefully inspected the o-ring. It was good so I cleared it, lubed it and put it back. I didn't give much more attention to it and went diving.
At the end of the next dive on the surface I could hear the moisture alarm beeping (underwater the beep was so weak that I couldn't hear it) and I could clearly see water in the housing.
These are the bad news. The good news is that the amount of water was not enough to reach the camera hence the camera survived!
After the incident I removed the moisture detection circuit and rinsed the (open) housing inside and outside with fresh water and then let it soak in a light vinegar/water solution to remove any salt deposits.
The question is what's next? Is there any neat ways to detect where the leak is? Dive was a shallow one (15m/50ft) for 75 minutes and judging by the amount of water inside the housing (maybe 3-4 teaspoons) I guess the leak is too small to detect it by submerging the case in a bucket of water and wait for bubbles. Any other ways?
Since the main o-ring looks good (although to be sure I'm thinking to change it anyway) I am suspecting the buttons. There are 14 buttons in the case including 2 rotary ones, most of which use tiny e-clips to be held in place. Does it worth the risk to disassemble the buttons to clean/inspect/lubricate their o-rings? Given their large number I'm worried that if I don't do perfectly well even a single one the case will be still leaking.
BTW apart from soaking the whole thing in water after every dive, what is the standard maintenance procedure for this kind of buttons? Keep using them until they fail or are they serviceable?
Any other suggestions?
Thanks in advance for any info