o-ring help

Hello

Sorry for my first post being such a stupid question, but here goes nothing.

I've recently got a Canon Powershot s80 for my holidays. I usually just buy a disposable camera for when I'm snorkelling but this time I've gone for the underwater housing.

The manual describes the process of removing the o-ring, cleaning it, greasing it and putting it back in place but it doesn't mention when I should do this. Is it before every use? Every day while I'm using it? Only when it gets dirty?

Mainly I'll be sitting on beaches and snorkelling, some kayaking and the odd bit of diving. Just seems like a lot of hassle if I have to do it every day. I'm no pro at the old replacing o-ring thing.

thanks!

Scott

"officially" (of course there is no real rule) everytime you open the housing.

At least you have to remove the oring and clean it. This will always be the safest option. You may get away with not greasing it every time, the grease is not for sealing, but for lubrication. (dont use too much!)

Gerard

Personally I dont agree with this. On my last trip, which was 26 days of diving, I removed my main body o ring only twice. If you know your o ring is secure, why remove and clean it? It's already clean, else it would have leaked. Every time you remove it, you increase the chance of creating a problem imho. I check and see if there is debris on the o ring, if there is and I can remove it, I do. If its too much, then I remove and clean the o ring. Maybe once a day or so I put a bit of grease on my finger and run it along the top of the o ring. This goes for my camera and my strobes. YMMV, I only have experience with Subal housings.

Ofcourse before every dive I put it in a fresh water tank and watch my leak alarm.

Cor

That o-ring is a right bugger to get out! Better get some practice in.

Thanks for the replies. Will make sure I check for leaks. By the way, what's a leak alarm? Bubbles? A gadget?

Leak alarms are visual and auditory signals triggered by a water detector inside your housing. These normally come standard with high-end aluminium housing, but are generally too large to fit into generic polycarbonate housings for consumer compact cameras. For the latter, look out for a stream of bubbles coming out of the housing, or signs of moisture inside.

As for your initial question on o-rings, I tend to have a similar attitude as Cor. An exception is when I shoot a lot of macro in areaswith fine sand. In this case, I normally remove and clean the o-ring at the end of each day.

Now to remove your o-ring, there probably are as many ways as there are members here. I just make sure my fingers are clean, select the longest length of o-ring, apply downward pressure on either side with my thumbs, and bring my thumbs together. This works well for me...