Care and Cleaning of a DSLR housing and ports

Hello,

I’m new to the DSLR world, I just up graded from a DX5000G to a Nikon D200 and Sea & Sea DXD200. The care/cleaning of the housing and lens ports are a bit more difficult than my old point and shoot. Is there a how to guide or tips on the care/cleaning the housing and lens ports? What type of cleaning products can be used on the equipment or does water and lens cleaner suffice?

Thanks.

S/f,

Brian

I have the same rig, and find that just a good soak in fresh water is all I need as far as cleaning. I try to work it about a bit to make sure the water "swishes" into all the crevices and buttons, then I dry it out, working the buttons to get the excess water out.

Just use the Sea & Sea lub on the o-rings and a good micro-fiber cloth on the ports.

I avoid all cleaning products for fear of damaging the O rings and acrylic dome.

Have fun, it's a great rig!

John

For glass ports, I occasionally use lens cleaner and a photographer's chamois to clean haze and buildup off the inside of the glass.

The housing gets a rinse in fresh water after every dive and a loonger soak at the end of a trip, when I do the buttons thing several times.

Thanks for the advice, so far I have only been able to take it down once, but it was great to work with. After the dive I soaked it for a day in fresh water and then dried it out. I got some white chalky residue on the housing. (This never happened to the acrylic housing from my DX500G) I wiped it down with a chamois but I was just seeing if there was anything else I could do.

Thanks again.

S/f,

Brian

You should probably not leave your housing to soak for such a long time. A thorough clean as described by John above works best.

I do a brief (10 minute) freshwater soak after rinsing my housing in freshwater after every dive. I push/twiddle/pull every control twice, then dry off the outside before opening the housing. I clean out the o-ring track at the end of the day, and lubricate it. If I change the port, I do that, too. I use a blower to clean off lint and dust, and only use a microfibre cloth if marks are left after that.

At the end of a trip I will soak everything, assembled, for 12 hours and work all the controls several times. Then I dismantle everything for storage. I never use a proprietary cleaner, though once or twice I've used a very little detergent during a preliminary wash.

Taste the white powdery deposit: it's salt... bad! If I see it, I soak again. It tends to appear where there are screws or shafts that trap moisture, and it's the reason why I think that a LONG soak is a good idea.

I've used this routine since the days of the Nik V, and it seems to work.

Tim

B)

You can use white vinegar on the salt and any green corrosion, Scrub it off with a tooth brush. I also use microfiber cloths and eye glass cleaner on the ports, I also rain x the dome sometimes. I use a blower on the o ring tracks too. I have an $8.00 jewlers headset with magnification to look for stuff that could leak. I use that less and less as my camera's value decreases.