Has yours flooded?

[Fiona]

I think Jules might be on holiday, hopefully she won't have another flood to report

[whacky]

Originally Posted by Fiona

I think Jules might be on holiday, hopefully she won't have another flood to report

Guess i will have to wait then

[ChristianG]

A very experienced, and superlative, photographer that I have much respect for with many thousands of camera-toting dives to his name has often said something along the lines of:

"You can tell the photographer from the amateur by the smiles on their faces as they open up their housings and the water cascades out."

Bob's right, you know.

Have I done it? Of course. Pre electronics it basically lost you a roll of film, post electronics it got rather more expensive.

Electronics, once hit by water, are pretty much not repairable and if you're talking a plastic camera, as in a P&S for example but also many dSLRs, the repair costs will almost inevitably be more than a new camera.

Housings are a different kettle of fish. Provided that they do not also have electronics they can almost inevitably be repaired, provided that you have identified the original cause of the flood - often not an easy thing to do even though it can often (mostly?) be attributed to operator error and that last is almost inevitably the underlying cause, no matter how much "victims" might be in denial mode.

Like most other truisms in life, firstly take a good hard look at it from the perpective that it was your fault. If you can then discount that all well and good, you were 99.99% lucky, or unlucky, depending how you look at it.

The ultimate point, nevertheless, is:

HAVE YOU IDENTIFIED, PROPERLY, THE ROOT CAUSE OF THE DROWNING?

Whether the drowned item is repairable, or not? And if you haven't, why, it's going to happen, surprise, surprise, again.

[Daniel Taylor]

I've had leaks due to a salt caught under a control cutting into a gland, a crack in the housing, and a defective O ring between the macro base port and extension.

Not lost a camera or lens yet [touches wood].

[Helen F H]

Not flooded one yet, but then havent dived with one much either. Jules had the same camera as i have now and warned me of where they are most likely to flood so at least a little good came of her loss a while ago

[A. Berk]

I'm now on my 6th camcorder/housing combo and so far haven't flooded one, but I am, like Cussy, obsessive about 'O' ring management. Aviators use a 'tag-out' system to make sure they don't fly with or without stuff so I adopted that approach and the moment an 'O' ring is removed a big plastic tag is secured to the housing. Once the 'O' ring is safely back in place the tag is removed. Plus, I always do a leak test before a dive. I would be interested to know just how many folk have jumped-in without fitting a gasket

One of the housings I use was resurrected after 6 years rotting in a storeroom in the Middle East. The 'O'rings had been left in situ and were dry and deformed, however a bit of a scrub-up and a dab of grease and voila... its still good to 75m.

Berko

[whacky]

does anyone know when jules is back? ok so i am posting to keep this near the top so jules see's it

[alijtaylor]

Originally Posted by A. Berk

..I would be interested to know just how many folk have jumped-in without fitting a gasket ..Berko

If by gasket you mean O ring I did a couple of shore dives (probably max depth around 10m) with my sony cybershot in its housing with no O ring - got a tiny dribble of water in but no problem..

The Sony and housing was a p&S system I bought in Quito in a panic, the day before I left for the Galapagos, after my Canon camera had been stolen - I couldn't find a replacement Canon and I was desperate to have something to photograph the whaleshark with.. Once back at home I replaced the Canon and only used the Sony rarely - it has a black O ring look-alike that is fixed in place and a blue removable O ring. I assumed the black ring was the real thing, which for some reason I was having trouble removing to grease, and dived with it - twice.. Don't try this at home.

Alison

[A. Berk]

Originally Posted by alijtaylor

If by gasket you mean O ring I did a couple of shore dives (probably max depth around 10m) with my sony cybershot in its housing with no O ring - got a tiny dribble of water in but no problem..

Blimmey, one can only say, "bye-eck, that were lucky Alison". Me and a pal used to have a bit of a laugh at dive sites with - 'The 'O' ring routine' - I'd jump in and as he passed me my video he would ask, "did you fit the 'O' ring?" to which I'd say, "no, I thought you did" just as the thing got wet. I'd check it for leaks and say, "mmm, looks OK... we'll go without it this time". Childish I know but you should've seen some folks faces

Berko

[Peter M]

I flooded a sony compact a few years ago, totaly my fault grit on the o ring !