Oside Jimc
Contributor
I love my ZS3, but in cold SoCal water gloves make holding it comfortably a drag, plus I'm used to the strobe arm on my old Nikonos so I thought it would be handy to buy a tray and handle to make the camrea easier to handle, and in the future maybe add an extrnal strobe. Bad Idea
Seems the Panasonic case plastic is somewhat flexible, so when I mounted the tray it apparently flexed the case enough to compromise the seal, result, 1 dead ZS3.
I had leak tested, but holding the camera upright in the bucket worked fine, but after a boat ride in the camera bucket I was heartbroken when another passenger yelled "hey, someone's camera is flooded", and held up my camera. :shocked2:
After I got home I experimented with the empty case, I found the tightening the tray screw even 1/2 turn past modestly snug caused a leak (only when the camera was upside down). So my opinion is:
DO NOT USE A TRAY ON THE PANASONIC HOUSING!
Now I'm out $90 for the tray and handle, and $282 for a new camera (which is getting harder to find!)
Seems the Panasonic case plastic is somewhat flexible, so when I mounted the tray it apparently flexed the case enough to compromise the seal, result, 1 dead ZS3.
I had leak tested, but holding the camera upright in the bucket worked fine, but after a boat ride in the camera bucket I was heartbroken when another passenger yelled "hey, someone's camera is flooded", and held up my camera. :shocked2:
After I got home I experimented with the empty case, I found the tightening the tray screw even 1/2 turn past modestly snug caused a leak (only when the camera was upside down). So my opinion is:
DO NOT USE A TRAY ON THE PANASONIC HOUSING!
Now I'm out $90 for the tray and handle, and $282 for a new camera (which is getting harder to find!)