Flooded new DS51 strobe

Disaster strikes on the third day of my first trip with my new D70s Ikelite setup - my DS51 strobe has flooded in the battery compartment. Sadly the biggest loss is this is right before I'm about to head over to the Lembeh portion of my Manado trip, where I was looking forward to shooting with my new 60mm macro lens.

Is there any way to use the internal flash so I can use the camera somewhat? There is enough room in the housing for it to pop up a little. My alternative is to finish the trip with a small compact backup camera.

On to later issues, can the legendary Ikelite service provide some sort of refurbishment service at a reasonable cost for what is presumably user error, or is my 3 week old strobe toast? I assume it was user error, though I'm not sure if I screwed the door on too tight or maybe not enough. It was definitely a small leak, as I saw no trace of bubbles, but as the batteries disgorged themselves during that dive, my only warning was brown staining that slowly appeared like thin algae growth around the outside of the door. The strobe continued to fire valiantly during the dive, and even now seems like the circuitry powers up - unfortunately it also powers up to ready even when the switch is in the off position. I'm afraid to hook it up to the camera for fear of damaging my camera. At the very least the battery contacts have lots of acid corrosion that needs to be refurbished.

The o-ring looked fine after I cleaned up all the battery gunk. I couldn't see anything physically defective; all I noticed is that the one corner of the door that is cut to show how to orient it is cut so close to the o-ring channel that the plastic is translucent there (about thick as a sheet of paper), which I noticed when removing the o-ring afterwards, and I think when the batteries were melting the heat or outgassing frayed this thin plastic edge.

You may want to try and revive your strobe. Try cleaning the inside with freshwater (presumably already done?), and pour in some lime juice or vinegar to clean the contacts free of corrosion. Clean in freshwater again, then put in fresh batteries and give it a go. I salvaged a flooded old MV (ancestor to the DS51) this way a few years back...

Yes, the above may work, most battery compartments are sealed on Ikelite strobes. But by all means submerge it in freshwater before taking it for a real dive again, maybe there is some damage to the oring or the case that you can't see.

I've done this on older Ai/n and 50s, but the strobe was only in the water for a few minutes. A good rinse with fresh water, and isopropanol on the contacts. Make sure it's completely dry (place in the sun?) before trying with fresh batteries. If the contacts are corroded use sandpaper (> 150 grit) to lightly clean them. Be careful not the damage the contacts, so don't scrape with a tool. The electronics are well sealed so you might be OK. Good luck and have fun in Manado.

I don't think there is any way to use the internal flash. In the Ikelite housing you can get the flash to pop up a little but if the flash is not completely up it won't fire.

Don't dispair though. There is a lot you can do without strobes. I would try filters if you can. The magic filters work wonders esp on wide angle if you have one. If not try to get a red color filter like the Kodak CC40R Here SEt your manual white balance and you'll be surprised what you can get. If you are diving shallow you may not even need the filter. Shoot RAW and set manual white balance on the sand. Then fine tune it later. This is much better than nothing particularly if the light is good.

Good Luck!

I've been shooting half the time here in Lembeh with my backup P&S camera, and that's been giving me some good shots when I can manage the backscatter. The other half of the time I've been experimenting with the D70s with a dive light and the ISO set really high. First I tried a regular dive light but the spot was too concentrated and hot, and hard to position anyway. Then the only other divers at the Kasawari resort lent me their HID focus light, and that gave a good diffuse beam; however, at ISO 800 and shutter set to 1/100 to avoid hand shake, I was only getting F4.5 to F5, not enough depth of field for me to get most things fully in focus. Tomorrow I might try ISO 1600, shutter 1/60, and exposure comp -0.7 (correct later in Photoshop) to get more aperture and depth of field.

Thanks for all the tips. I tried testing the strobe today after letting it sit for a few days, and tomorrow is my last day anyway so what the heck. It still powers on even in off, however, it gives the ready light and TTL to the camera, and no flash goes off when I press the shutter. Seems like most of the damage is in the battery compartment. About giving it a good rinsing and cleaning - I did rinse it out with fresh water a bit, but not too long since I wasn't sure the electronics were fully sealed off, but is it OK to give it a good long saoking with the battery compartment completely open? Also I'm finding it hard to reach down to the bottom where most of the remaining gunk is around the springs. I noticed there are two screws down there, perhaps to hold down the metal contacts and springs - do those screws allow me to remove the contacts? Is there a way to remove the metal pole in the middle that the door screws into?

By sheer coincidence the other divers here at the Kasawari live only 10 miles from us back home in northern California; their trip is comped since one of them won a dive photo contest in Monterey. Small world to find neighbors more than 8000 miles from home!

I had the same problem!!! Was given the DS-51 for my birthday and was using it for the first time in La Paz, Mexico. On the first of 20 dives!! Flooded the battery compartment, then when I tried to open the compartment all got worse when the cover didn't come off - instead the post into which it screwed came out. Had to go without the strobe the entire trip - what a disappointment. But the good news, I sent it to Ikelite with my receipt and they repaired it at no charge. (Interestingly, there was another on the trip with an Ikelite strobe who also had a flood, but was able to dry it out and use it a few days later - wonder if there is a bug in their design)

I had so many technical problems on the trip. I have a Canon S80 with a Canon underwater case that leaked, luckly I didn't loose the camera! I shipped that back to Canon with the receipt showing it was only about 5 month old. I have not received the replacement but have been told it was a "manufacturers defect" and the case will be replaced at no cost to me.

Contact Ikelite about your strobe, they will help I'm sure.

Sorry to hear about your strobe issues. I'm glad you were able to get some shots on a dream trip.

I don't expect that bumping the ISO and using a dive light would work very well. What you are trying to accomplish is to improve the quality of the light not the overall light level. Assuming that there is lots of light down there (i.e. its not a dark lagoon or cave), then the problem is the overwhelming ratio of blue light to red light. The dive light isn't very capable of swinging the balance in your favor as compared to the brief intensity of a flash. Bumping the ISO doesn't do anything to change the ratio. All it will help is to give you faster shutter speeds at your aperture choice to stop motion.

What would help is to use a filter. This way you can skew the ratio of red to blue light in your favor by cutting some of the blue light back. Unfortunately that cuts the overall light level so bumping the ISO might help here if needed. I don't find its needed in 10-12ft of water where I use filters. Even without filters you can simulate this effect in post-processing by adjusting the levels. The HID light might help a little esp if its close to the subject. The best results are where the natural light is good and you are not too deep.

I hope all goes well!