What to do in case of flooding?

Taking inspiration from the thread "Camera flooding anonymous" I was wondering what are the right steps for try to resuscitate our equipment?

Andrea

Insurance and a Backup camera.

Flooded cameras/lenses make nice paper weights.

It really is rare to resurrect a digital camera after a saltwater flood.

The only thing to try is remove all cards and batteries and IMMEDIATELY soak the camera in distilled water.

Of course, in almost all cases I have heard about, this has failed...

Check with the rig upside down first thing when you hit the water. If you see drops, keep it upside down (so that the water can accumulate in the port) get it out of the water and maybe the camera and lens will be ok. (Alternatively, if you have reason to believe that the body is already a loss, holding the rig port-side up might save a lens.)

If the camera and/or llens get more than a few drops of salt water on them, they are likely to be unrecoverable.

The housing needs an immediate good soak in clean fresh water, inside and out, to get the salt out, then careful drying. The strobe connection ports and wiring will probably need to be replaced, and a general cleaning and servicing (replacing all o-rings on controls etc.) is probably a good idea as well. That's what I'm doing.

Frogfish

I would imagine that there has been a lot of " LOST or STOLEN " flooded camera's over the years.

I know a guy who has cast his flooded nikonus 5 in clear resin, it sits on his office desk - he says it makes a great conversation piece.

If my D2X floods, assuming that I survive the heart attack that would surely follow, I would curse the day I heard about u/w photography, curse everybody else who still has a functioning camera then go and sulk in my room under my favourite blankie for the rest of the day and most likely the rest of the trip!

When I get home, call DEPP and hopefully my new D2X will arrive in the near future.

Nov 30 2005, 09:21 PM [ Post #4 ]

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The housing needs an immediate good soak in clean fresh water, inside and out, to get the salt out, then careful drying. The strobe connection ports and wiring will probably need to be replaced, and a general cleaning and servicing (replacing all o-rings on controls etc.) is probably a good idea as well. That's what I'm doing.

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Frogfish, I hope you haven't flooded your new camera!?? Sympathies if so.

Thanks. No, it was the old one. That was bad enough. Very silly of me - I should have left the rig in the room and just done a fun dive that morning. I had two S2 bodies (one now), and the housing should be ok for its next owner after a good servicing.

Frogfish

A flood? What's that? All I can say is "tears and beers" if you don't have insurance and a redundant system.

Joe