Causes of flooding (of camera)

[toasty]

BTW I did not notice any bubbles coming out of the housing when water enters. 2 points to note, 1) housing can still flood without the 'telltale' sign of bubbles, 2) the air inside the housing can be compressed to higher pressure and may be pop the C-clip :dunno: . But as mentioned if flooding in kept less than 10%, pressure should be minimal build up thus C-clip should be ok.

I never have witnessed bubbles exiting a leaking housing either. In all the cases, I've just found water inside the device (housing, strobe, light) later. I've never actually witnessed the water leaking in.

It would make sense though, that no bubbles exit (up to a point), because outside the housing, the pressure is high. Inside the housing, the pressure is low (atmospheric pressure). The housing is under stress to hold this pressure off. If a small gap appears, water is going to be forcing its way in, not air forcing its way out. Therefore it seems logical that no bubbles will be observed. When pressure inside and outside is similar, then water going in will force some air out and bubbles will be observed. The only way air-pressure inside can increase (without leaking) is, as lovells mentioned, if gas is being produced by the batteries. But don't think can become as much as the surrounding water pressure.

 

[toasty]

An addenum to my last post. If water gets into your battery comparment of your strobe, then chemical reaction can produce a lots of gas. Therefore, if you've flooded your strobe, don't open the battery comparment towards your face. the top can come flying off quite fast.

 

[lovells19]

mine got bubble when it flooded leh...

 

[toasty]

mine got bubble when it flooded leh...

Eventually, as enough water goes inside, the pressure inside and outside your housing becomes equal. Then the air can come out. If the pressure outside is hi, and the pressure inside is low, then air/water will tend to travel from regions of hi-pressure (outside) to regions of low-pressure (inside). As water enters the housing, the pressure difference equalizes, and then air/water can come from inside to out. Air/water will not spontaneously flow from regions of low pressure to regions of hi-pressure.

How much water needs to go in to equalize pressure inside and outside your housing depends on how deep you are. If you are shallow, not too much water needs to go in before air can come out.

 

[fastshot]

Question: Canon housing's o-rings are yellow in colour. and u think it's a NBR type o-ring.

So what if i use sea&sea grease on it - fluorosilicone grease on NBR, any adverse reaction?

thanks.

Canon's main yellow o-ring for the back of the housing is NBR type and hence uses regular silicon grease. There should be no harm to use SeaNSea type fluorosilicone grease on the NBR o-rings.

There are probably two main causes for leaks.
a) Via the main o-ring on the cover. Carefully check if there are any burrs on the plastic grooves and contact surfaces with the o-ring. Use the edge of the finger to feel for this. If there are burrs, carefully scrape it away using a sharp knife tip or folded sandpaper.

b) Via any of the numerous little o-rings behind the buttons and wheels. I suspect this is the usual cuprit for leaks because users seldom do any maintenance here. The o-rings sits around a round shaft and has very little sealing pressure exerted on it (unlike the o-ring back cover). The sealing pressure comes from the sea-water itself when the u/w housing is submerged. Over a period of time, the lubrication in these areas dry out and the poor little NBR o-rings are now left exposed to weathering, aging and hardening from ozone attack. And the leaks start.

It is important to dissemable all the little buttons annually, clean all the parts and cavities and change the o-rings if necessary. These can be bought from o-rings and seals shops around Lavender street area. Lubricate the parts, reassemble and carefully pack the shaft cavity with silicon grease. Be careful about any dirt, fibres or hair getting trapped in it.

 

[div3r]

Weird that i cant vote on this poll.

My camera died on the third day in service, on its 5th dive. I was taking pictures of a pygmy seahorse when suddenly I noticed condensation on the inside of the casing. After checking, saw a strand of hair on the O-ring...haizzzz. Gone case liao....

When i surfaced 40 mins later the camera cannot be switched on anymore and even after drying it just wouldnt work. :cry: I really noob leh. Dunno the SOPs for leaking housing resulting in the death of my new (5 day old) coolpix.

The worst thing is that on the following days, saw lotsa critters that just stood their ground still posing for the other divers in the group... Decorater crabs, ghost pipefishes, frogfishes..... Good for them though, at least they are sharing the photos

 

[fastshot]

Weird that i cant vote on this poll.

My camera died on the third day in service, on its 5th dive. I was taking pictures of a pygmy seahorse when suddenly I noticed condensation on the inside of the casing. After checking, saw a strand of hair on the O-ring...haizzzz. Gone case liao....

When i surfaced 40 mins later the camera cannot be switched on anymore and even after drying it just wouldnt work. :cry: I really noob leh. Dunno the SOPs for leaking housing resulting in the death of my new (5 day old) coolpix.

The worst thing is that on the following days, saw lotsa critters that just stood their ground still posing for the other divers in the group... Decorater crabs, ghost pipefishes, frogfishes..... Good for them though, at least they are sharing the photos

Waah lau... such a tragic story :cry:

3 tips for you:
- try not to open the housing after every dive. Unless you need to change bty or memory card.

- it may be possible to fold some tissue paper inside the housing that you can use to soak up a few drops of water in case of small leak, then

- when leak looks threatening, quickly bring out your safety sausage, tie the camera to it, inflate the sausage and let it pop up to the surface. Hopefully your string is long enough. You then do your normal ascent (2 or 3 meters a minute), and safety stop, and recover the camera on the surface. Hopefully there is not enough water in the cam to cause problem.

Once electronic cameras are flooded, it's as good as gone case. Not worth repairing. Maybe can claim from insurance.

 

[beivied]

hi div, you cant poll because the minimum requirement for a member to be able to poll is a minimum of 50 posts And being member for at least 30 days

 

[seewhy]

Weird that i cant vote on this poll.

My camera died on the third day in service, on its 5th dive. I was taking pictures of a pygmy seahorse when suddenly I noticed condensation on the inside of the casing. After checking, saw a strand of hair on the O-ring...haizzzz. Gone case liao....

When i surfaced 40 mins later the camera cannot be switched on anymore and even after drying it just wouldnt work. :cry: I really noob leh. Dunno the SOPs for leaking housing resulting in the death of my new (5 day old) coolpix.

The worst thing is that on the following days, saw lotsa critters that just stood their ground still posing for the other divers in the group... Decorater crabs, ghost pipefishes, frogfishes..... Good for them though, at least they are sharing the photos

You will need >50 posts to vote in poll. So post up some of your photos to share and get more post. Hopefully you manage to salvage the memory card and battery.

Wah! you still continue diving for 40min after you notice leakage in the housing ah. How deep was you when housing starts to leak? Did more water goes in as you dive longer or deeper?

Suggestion is not to switch on camera before you throughly dry it and if possible opening it up to clean it first. Switching on camera when it is wet surely will 'fried' the circuit. Now you probably left with claiming insurance.

If you are sure that the piece of hair is the culprit, do a through clean of the O-ring and grease it well, then test the empty housing during your next dive. Make sure it is ok before buying another camera to replace your drown one. Do note that empty housing is buoyant, so you will have to attach a weight or put a piece of well cushioned weight in (I used a towel to wrapped up a 1kg weight) to bring it down.

 

[div3r]

Waah lau... such a tragic story :cry:

3 tips for you:
- try not to open the housing after every dive. Unless you need to change bty or memory card.

- it may be possible to fold some tissue paper inside the housing that you can use to soak up a few drops of water in case of small leak, then

- when leak looks threatening, quickly bring out your safety sausage, tie the camera to it, inflate the sausage and let it pop up to the surface. Hopefully your string is long enough. You then do your normal ascent (2 or 3 meters a minute), and safety stop, and recover the camera on the surface. Hopefully there is not enough water in the cam to cause problem.

Once electronic cameras are flooded, it's as good as gone case. Not worth repairing. Maybe can claim from insurance.

Thanks for your tips. Actually I do have a pack of desiccant in the casing and when i got up, the whole thing was soaked.

I did not get insurance and now I really feel like banging my head against the wall. I tried going to Nikon but they said its "beyond economical repair" due to water damage and now I really don't know how. Should I bring it for repair / claim that the Nikon WP-CP4 leaked, causing my camera to spoil and therefore its Nikon's obligation to replace a camera for me?

 

[div3r]

You will need >50 posts to vote in poll. So post up some of your photos to share and get more post. Hopefully you manage to salvage the memory card and battery.

Wah! you still continue diving for 40min after you notice leakage in the housing ah. How deep was you when housing starts to leak? Did more water goes in as you dive longer or deeper?

Suggestion is not to switch on camera before you throughly dry it and if possible opening it up to clean it first. Switching on camera when it is wet surely will 'fried' the circuit. Now you probably left with claiming insurance.

If you are sure that the piece of hair is the culprit, do a through clean of the O-ring and grease it well, then test the empty housing during your next dive. Make sure it is ok before buying another camera to replace your drown one. Do note that empty housing is buoyant, so you will have to attach a weight or put a piece of well cushioned weight in (I used a towel to wrapped up a 1kg weight) to bring it down.

Firstly, I was at around 25m when i noticed that it was leaking, from then, I did not go any deeper. I did not notice if more water entered the casing the longer i stayed but the end came when suddenly the camera flashed "Warning, Battery exhuasted". It was a new battery and it was only the first dive of the day loh.

At first, it didn't look so serious to me, thats why i continued to dive mah. But I didn't know it was so deadly to the camera loh. I managed to salvage the SD card and the batt but its the camera I rather save man.....

 

[beivied]

flooding is mainly due to negligence, insurance is for events caused by accident. if you want to claim insurance, it should be based on accidental cause.

to claim against nikon is quite impossible, in my opinion, unless you can prove that there is a manufacturing defect with the housing, which as of now you have said that it is due to hair trapped in o ring.

not saying that you should not/cannot claim for a flood... there are different ways to one purpose, if you understand what i mean

sorry about your loss...

 

[seewhy]

Firstly, I was at around 25m when i noticed that it was leaking, from then, I did not go any deeper. I did not notice if more water entered the casing the longer i stayed but the end came when suddenly the camera flashed "Warning, Battery exhuasted". It was a new battery and it was only the first dive of the day loh.

At first, it didn't look so serious to me, thats why i continued to dive mah. But I didn't know it was so deadly to the camera loh. I managed to salvage the SD card and the batt but its the camera I rather save man.....

Well, now you have learn that water and any electronic don't mix. When you notice leakage in the housing, switch off camera, try to tilt housing where water collect at non-essential part (away from camera electronic eg lens port), abort dive immediately. When back on boat, open housing carefully to avoid getting any water on camera, make sure camera is totally dry before switching it on. This is the theory anyway, mine died when water got to 1/4 full in the housing and my camera was on before I notice the flood. S$600 worth of experience.

It really depend on how comfortable you are with a once flooded housing. Have to test it out to make sure it is OK and air-tight.

As for insurance, some buy some don't. No point regrading. It is like buying 4D, follow 1 number for weeks and when you stopped buying, it just come out.

 

[lovells19]

- when leak looks threatening, quickly bring out your safety sausage, tie the camera to it, inflate the sausage and let it pop up to the surface. Hopefully your string is long enough. You then do your normal ascent (2 or 3 meters a minute), and safety stop, and recover the camera on the surface. Hopefully there is not enough water in the cam to cause problem.

don't do this.. the fast expansion might cause the housing to pop.
some say its not possible as the air is only within the housing thus would not pop.. but it happened before. so i think its worst if ur housing pop and ur camera dropped into the water.

in case of flood
off ur camera, keep it faced down. then acsent slowly. if housing is seriously flooded, open up and remove batteries and memory card. try to keep the camera moist and bring it asap to the service center, once the water dries up and salt crystalized.. the camera is beyond repair.

but best is to check before every dive.. and pray hard

 

[miko]

Firstly, I was at around 25m when i noticed that it was leaking, from then, I did not go any deeper. I did not notice if more water entered the casing the longer i stayed but the end came when suddenly the camera flashed "Warning, Battery exhuasted". It was a new battery and it was only the first dive of the day loh.

At first, it didn't look so serious to me, thats why i continued to dive mah. But I didn't know it was so deadly to the camera loh. I managed to salvage the SD card and the batt but its the camera I rather save man.....

"didn't look so serious".... u really something leh.. any leakage CAN and i'm sure it WILL become serious if you continue the dive.. once leakage detected sure have to abort the dive mah... anyway, sorry about your lost.
Ever since I read in Fins which talked about flooding , something like - "the anxiety of flooding can be so severe that a diver might just dive without the camera", and I've been having nightmare abt this;p I've dreamt 3 times, 3 times! tat my housing flooded... scary man...

 

[fastshot]

don't do this.. the fast expansion might cause the housing to pop.
some say its not possible as the air is only within the housing thus would not pop.. but it happened before. so i think its worst if ur housing pop and ur camera dropped into the water.

in case of flood
off ur camera, keep it faced down. then acsent slowly. if housing is seriously flooded, open up and remove batteries and memory card. try to keep the camera moist and bring it asap to the service center, once the water dries up and salt crystalized.. the camera is beyond repair.

but best is to check before every dive.. and pray hard

I'm sorry, but I have a different view to yours.
There is no way for the camera to "pop". The pressure in the housing can never be greater than the surroundings, unless of course you load the camera while in a submarine or some pressure chamber. It is true that the pressure on the housing cover will ease off quickly and the O-rings will be less compressed if the sausage is used to lift the camera to the surface. But this should not cause more leaks unless the housing has defective seals in the first place. If the leak is minor, I agree it is best to abort dive and ascend gradually with the camera.

If the camera is purely mechanical and gets flooded, then I agree there is high chance to save the cam if it is soaked in fresh water and brought back to service centre for strip down and clean out. For an electronic camera, there are too many components that will start to deteriorate once it is soaked. These include switches, flex circuits, chips, capacitors, connectors, etc which will suffer corrosion and/or leakages. If you are very skilled, it may be possible to immediately strip the camera partially and use contact cleaners, isopropyl alcohol, hair dryers, etc to remove as much moisture as possible to try and bring the camera back to life. But corrosion will go on eating away some unreachable components thereby causing erratic camera behaviour later.

One useful option is to keep the damaged cam in a dry cabinet and use it for "spare parts" someday if you did go out an buy an identical replacement cam.

 

[stonefish35]

"didn't look so serious".... u really something leh.. any leakage CAN and i'm sure it WILL become serious if you continue the dive.. once leakage detected sure have to abort the dive mah... anyway, sorry about your lost.
Ever since I read in Fins which talked about flooding , something like - "the anxiety of flooding can be so severe that a diver might just dive without the camera", and I've been having nightmare abt this;p I've dreamt 3 times, 3 times! tat my housing flooded... scary man...

They say that in reality is opposite of dreams.... I hope so..

 

[lovells19]

I'm sorry, but I have a different view to yours.
There is no way for the camera to "pop". The pressure in the housing can never be greater than the surroundings, unless of course you load the camera while in a submarine or some pressure chamber. It is true that the pressure on the housing cover will ease off quickly and the O-rings will be less compressed if the sausage is used to lift the camera to the surface. But this should not cause more leaks unless the housing has defective seals in the first place. If the leak is minor, I agree it is best to abort dive and ascend gradually with the camera.

make sense.. but u forget that batteries off gas when u use them.
i think it only applies to camera who use recharageble AA, those with lithum batteries might not have this problem.

infact most flood occurs at shallower depths, cos its mainly due to user fault.

well so far.. everyone i know whom's camera flooded, has never successfully salvage the camera. including mine.

bring a backup just in case.

 

[davidlkh]

http://www.canon.com.sg/digitalcamera/brochures/photoshop.pdf

Above is a guide to O-ring, housing... maintenance. Preparation before entering the sea.

 

[Swakoo]

hi guys... its real informative to read abt wha tyou guys have here

i am new to UW photography.. hoping to get my 2nd hand housing for my G2 this weekend...

so when flooding occurs.. what do we really do?

Also.. in between dive.. what should we do with the housing.. how to maintain.. how to take care?

I even read someof you used a wrong kind of gel and pop, there it goes.. scary...


hope you guys can enlighten...