Egg on face?

[whacky]

I have on numerous occasions read how flooding a camera was inevitable. I replied sayiny that inevitable was a bit strong as surely a well maintained housing should't flood.

Well in a day to forget i now have egg on my face and a soggy camera

Took a trip to Swanage today went out on Mary Jo to dive the fluer a dive which lasted all of 10 minutes as my buddy had bouyancy issues drifted to the surface. I deployed my SMB in the hope that he may come back and join me. He never so I did my safety stop and surfaced. Not to worry I tell myself and my buddy a dive you can walk away from is always a good dive.

So we sit it out wait for the rest of the buddy teams to surface and head back to the pier.

We had always planned to do the second dive on the pier so we got in and i eagerly anticipated taking a few hopefully good shots. I settled down to take some shots of a wiling crab when i noticed there was something on the lense. So i turn the camera to face me and what do i see but a water droplet. oh i thought thats not good as my eye followed to the bottom of the case to see a pool of water. Oh C*** that's that busted then. And on the shallowest dive I have ever done.

A little disbondant I continued the dive did 45 minutes saw lots of nice stuff including my first self spotted tompot blennie. Sadly no pics though. On the plus side what a lovely dive swanage pier is. I have never done it before and thought it was lovely despite the camera leak.

But the real bad thing is tha i am now camera less for my trip to porthkerris next weekend. I suspect that the leak is from one of the buttons as once i stoppe pressing buttons there was no increase in the amount of water in the housing. Which meand searching for a second hand camera will not help.

So in all not the greatest day but atleast I am able to whinge about it here.

[TimIngmire]

What a bummer - condolences! I know exactly how you are feeling FWIW.

So what are the options, straight replacement camera and housing or an upgrade?

[whacky]

Well I have bought a second hand D70 with sea & sea housing i already have a sea & sea strobe to go with it. I needed a few weeks to get some pennies together to get a lens and port. So buying a stop gap isn't an option as it will just eat into the pot for the D70 bits.

[Cussy]

Whacky,
Sorry to hear that, been there, done that, gone "oh sh1t". But every cloud has a silver lining. I used my flood to justify an upgrade, so DSLR for you?
Rob

[whacky]

As I said the D70 is sat on the side waitig for lens and port just have to gocamera less for a few weeks hopefully just weeks. Just a bummer it was this weekend and not next

[whacky]

Well a new day has dawned and i have to say I am a little perplexed.

It's always said that if its going to leak it will leak in the bucket bfore the dive aswell as it wil at 30m. Well this morning i have got up closed the housing plunged it elbow deep in water and you've guessed it no signs of leak.

Which is confusing I was toying with the idea of getting a seconhand a520 to go in the housing so i'd have something for my trip this weekend. if i could determine where the leak originated from and pin it on user error. But it's not leaking. It started to leak about 10minutes into the dive so I am assuming it's safe to rule out something in the oring.


Is it possible that it was leaking through one of the controls and i just cant recreate that in arm deep water?

[Annie S]

You have my every sympathy. I never did track down the reason for one of my floods - I even took the housing back in without the camera to try to track down the cause but with no luck at all. My answer was to move on to an Ikelite housing. I do feel much more secure with it, but I'm still waiting to take some decent pictures with the new camera. One day I'll have the money and the courage to take in my DSLR....

Don't forget any time you fancy coming down to west Wales just give me a shout! I don't need much of an excuse to go diving with the camera these days, even if it means just sitting on a rock until I get one decent picture.

[KenByrne]

I've always thought that a leak is more likely in shallow water as the pressure helps the o-ring seal, at least until the point where the pressure causes something to fail. I guess though if it is an o-ring on a shaft that's the problem that won't really get compressed against a seat with depth. It maybe that with a little more pressure it's enough to force water past the o-ring along the shaft. All theory and don't know if this is possible. I'd be tempted to take the housing in the pool or on a dive without the camera and operate all the controls to see if that causes a leak.

[whacky]

I am only trying to work out the why because i have a trip planned next weekend with no chance of getting all i need for the DSLR by then. If i narrowed it down to being user error then i would get a secondhand a520 to go in the housing for £40ish and be able to take pics. Worst timing ever

[whacky]

Originally Posted by KenByrne

I've always thought that a leak is more likely in shallow water as the pressure helps the o-ring seal, at least until the point where the pressure causes something to fail. I guess though if it is an o-ring on a shaft that's the problem that won't really get compressed against a seat with depth. It maybe that with a little more pressure it's enough to force water past the o-ring along the shaft. All theory and don't know if this is possible. I'd be tempted to take the housing in the pool or on a dive without the camera and operate all the controls to see if that causes a leak.

That was kind of what i was thinking, i guess i will sneak it into the pool on tuesday and press some buttons when no one is looking.