Hi all!

what routine do you follow for drying your ports and water contact optics in between dives?

One of my old macro ports is hammered with water stains / glass corosion, I nowdays try to avoid water from drying on to my ports. However, I wonder how other photograghers handle this issue, if they dry their ports and if so, with what (towell, paper, micro fiber etc)

like to hear!

greetings Robin

Yeah , I’m now very wary of letting water dry on my ports. Once out of the rinse tank I use a micro fibre towel to dry them.

Hi Robin,

My routine is the following:

1- rinse-submerge the gear in clear tap water

2- rinse the gear with de-mineralized water, specially ports (glass), viewfinder and levers/buttons (plastic water bottle with a tiny hole in the cap, squeeze the bottle and you have a jet of pressurized water)

3- inmediately, dry glass and viewfinder with microfiber towel

4- remove excess water from the gear with remaining air in my dive thank, using an Air pistol attached to my lpi hose

5- final drying of the gear with a microfiber towel.

My key steps are de-mineralized water in the glass and drying It with microfiber towel.

Since I follow this routine, no more water stains in housing or ports.

Cheers.

I keep a couple of microfiber cloths in a baggie or dry pocket in the bag. I will pat the water compact optic down after a dunk in the rinse tank. I try to keep my camera in a Sam's Club bag between dives. I usually bring a bag of microfiber cloths with me on each trip and use them up over the duration.

I have not really had any problems with permeant water spots but what peeves me is a Nauticam housing getting all of the white spots. I try to pat it dry after rinsing. But I am there to dive, not maintain photo equipment so to some extent my water contact optics, ports and cameras must be capable of living in the real world of hard knocks. But still, I like my stuff to look new.

The above pertains to between dives when transported by boat, Jeep, camel or Isuzu or flip flops. Rinse tanks for between dive dunks are not even available at some or many locations. Once back to base, I soak the camera and run water over all of the controls exercising them and the optics. Then wipe it down with micro cloths and gently blow dry with an electric rechargeable blow gun.

Edited April 19Apr 19 by Nemrod

The better solution is to keep the ports wet, until you get back from the dive. For a dome, install the wet dome cover, for a flat port keep it under a damp towel or source a neoprene cover of some sort. If you have the option a dunk in a fresh water rinse tank is a good option, then continue to keep it wet using an old towel to cover everything. After soaking blow off excess water and use a microfibre towel to dry everything off. You can use an air pistol on your tank or at home I use a large blower bulb to get water out of grooves etc where it tends to accumulate.

Between dives, I try to keep it as wet as possible.

In a rinse tank if shore diving, or in the shade on the boat under a damp towel.

At the resort I use air to blow water. If the dive center does not have a blower, I have a small portable one.

On 4/20/2025 at 6:16 AM, hedonist222 said:

If the dive center does not have a blower, I have a small portable one.

I got an air nozzle attachment for a low pressure inflator hose. It works great.

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