Taking your equipment on shore dives

On many of the shore dives I’ve been on you have to drive for a while before getting to the desired location. This also means that after the dive you have to drive back. On these shore dives what do you do about rinsing your camera equipment? There is usually no rinse tank? Sometimes there’s an hour surface interval between two dives?

Just don't,

I have a cooling bag that seves as a transportbag, after the dive I put in the camera with a wet towel and I just leave the housing wet.

Which sort of cooling bag do you use?

Wrap the housing in a very wet towel. If in a car, put the whole thing in a big plastic bag. On a boat, just keep dumping more water on the towel. Then do a good rinse in fresh water when you're back at base or the mother ship.

The primary objective is to keep salt water from drying on the camera (especially through connectors) and block the formation of salt crystals. As long as the housing stays wet, that won't happen.

Frogfish

look at:

http://polarbearcoolers.com/

Extremely well made. I use the 24 pack size....S&S dSLR housing w/dome fits great. Can fill with rinse water, its padded, etc

I don't use strobes, so the 48 pack may be the size with arms and strobes attached

bfdc

I bring a jug of water to rinse off the camera. I also have a a soft cooler that can double as a rinse tank. I bring it if I don't have access to rinse facilities in a reasonable period of time.

I dont rinse my camera till I get home. Then I fill the sink with slightly warm water wash all the surfaces and leave it there for an hour or two. then I let it drip dry.

PS and if I'm not using the housing for say a week I take out the main o-ring and keep it in a sealed bag.

When I open the strobe battery compartment the strobe is always pointing up. If there is some water in the gap between the cover and the strobe it does not go into the battery compartment and corode the terminals. The battery cover is also stored in a sealed bag.

All rechargable batterys are kept fully charged (strobe spotting light camera)

I always take great care that silicone grease is only on the o-rig and use as little as possible. grease is not for sealing its to stop the o-ring bonding to the housing surface.

That my Opinion and it works for me.

I use a big soft cooler bag too - about $20 from an outdoors shop. Fill it up with water, slosh it around for a while then pour the water away - then, yep, stick a damp towel over it all to drive home. Seems to work just fine.

I agree, soft sided coolers are great. They are easy to travel with and the top help prevents water from sloshing around while in the car when returning from the dive. Bob, at Southern Nikonos, wrote an excellent article about preventative maintenance at this link: http://www.southern-nikonos.com/WorkShop/N...p03.htm#anchor2

Althought the article is specific to the Nikonos V, much of the information presented by Bob can be applied to any underwater rig.

I agree, soft sided coolers are great. They are easy to travel with and the top help prevents water from sloshing around while in the car when returning from the dive. Bob, at Southern Nikonos, wrote an excellent article about preventative maintenance at this link: http://www.southern-nikonos.com/WorkShop/N...p03.htm#anchor2

 

Althought the article is specific to the Nikonos V, much of the information presented by Bob can be applied to any underwater rig.

I am a disaster, I just sit her on the back seat over a towel and go home (she also has the right to enjoy the views )

I dont think you should treat your wife or girlfriend this way, at least dont put the towel on her eyes :-)

Do it like Ding suggests and on hot days wrap your camera in your wet suit (drysuit or wetsuit) to keep it from drying out on the way home.

Well, actually i always do bring a rinsing tank when i do diving. It is white bucket with a screw lid that is water tight when closed. They are in the Netherlands also used for keeping sauerkraut and outdoor shops sell them to canoe-ers for keeping their stuff dry, but then in general in smaller size. But you need to have room for it in your car off course..

cheers, Udo

Afther the dive, I rinse the camera with water i brought in some old 1,5 - 2 l bottles. After that i put in in the cooler. I use a cheap soft cooler as some others do. It has a zip, so it wont dry out that fast.

I am now wondering about your tank Udo (I have a larger one I use as a dive bag, but also smaller ones of about 35 litres). Do you fill it with water totally?