Flooded D300 and nikkor 1224 1 minute silence please

To start it was a very very bad day with a big swell and the vis was <1 meter and why we jumped in I will never know? I guess we love diving and the chance to meet humpbacks. As background our planned 50 meter wreck dive was cancelled and we were all so keen we agreed to do a shallow bay dive. It was our clubs deep diving weekend away at terrigal NSW. The other guys had twins and it looked over equipped.

Has anyone flooded a D300 yet ? I am getting my salt encrusted DEAD DEAD DEAD D300 and 1224 back from Nikon. I may to sell them on ebay so watchout for any salty bargains!

Maybe I got to 50cm deep and in 50 seconds or was it 30cm deep and only 30 seconds. It was under 1 minute according to the captain.

As soon as I submerged the housing, I waited for the bubbles to clear. Only they did not this time. I have a recurring nightmare of a stream of small bubbles coming from across the top joint formed where the back plate meets the main body of the housing. At this point time slowed down real slow. I immediately cursed numerous profanities underwater. Maybe I took 0.00001 seconds to turn the dome face down and then spent < 1 second to raise the housing dome down ( FULL FULL FULL ) out of the water.

More background. The housing just had a full service and front aperture wheel replaced. One test dive no camera no leak. Presumed all ok, but ?

The captain a diver and photographer pulled apart camera housing with me. LATCHES LOCKED. NO HAIRS OR ANY CRAP ON MAIN ORING. Later back at dive shop, got statement for insurance from captain. Gazed at housing and camera and most importantly got drunk that night.

The housing has been shipped back to the subal dealer and so far no fault found, which is a big worry!!!

I have some ideas and am interested if anyones seen that STREAM of bubbles ACROSS THE TOP of the entire backplate crack before on a subal or any housing ???

My condolences and I am sorry for your loss and presumably an aborted picture taking vacation.

So, you had your Subal housing handed to you while you were in the water, you submerged it, and you saw bubbles coming out of the top of the backplate?

What bubbles do you normally see that you were waiting to clear? I would think no bubbles should come out of the housing at all, just from the handles.

When you say you were waiting for the bubbles to clear as you usually do, I have a vision in mind where you backrolled into the water with your camera, and waited for the bubbles to clear...

Who are you insured with, and keep us posted on the claim handling.

Ouch!

My condolences

But as the D700 is out now, it might drive down the price a little on a new D300:s. And there will probably be people selling their D300:s now just to get the newest, so you can pick up a hardly used second hand. I bet Subal will get the UW housing in shape again.

cheers

I'm so sorry for your loss. BTDT on my very first dive, with the camera, on my trip to Australia. In my case, it was human error. I took the housing first without the camera and everything was fine. Put the camera in, tested it in the rinse tank before my dive, had it handed to me after splashing, catastrophic flood. Camera is toast even though we rinse in fresh water and let it dry out in the engine room for a few days. For the heck of it, I brought the housing down without the camera again, and everything was fine.

A friend of mine recently flooded her D70 and replaced it with a D300

With such a catastrophic / rapid flood that's unrepeatable, it's hard to think of anything except a pinched o-ring which snapped back into the slot when you opened the housing, though it's hard to work out how that could happen either. Sorry to hear about that. I have never seen the stream of bubbles you speak of across the top of the backplate, I will certainly look for them in the future.

Ouch!!!!! #$&^!!!

I feel your pain but thankfully have never experienced it first hand (touching wood now).

To start it was a very very bad day with a big swell and the vis was <1 meter and why we jumped in I will never know? I guess we love diving and the chance to meet humpbacks. As background our planned 50 meter wreck dive was cancelled and we were all so keen we agreed to do a shallow bay dive. It was our clubs deep diving weekend away at terrigal NSW. The other guys had twins and it looked over equipped.

 

Has anyone flooded a D300 yet ? I am getting my salt encrusted DEAD DEAD DEAD D300 and 1224 back from Nikon. I may to sell them on ebay so watchout for any salty bargains!

 

Maybe I got to 50cm deep and in 50 seconds or was it 30cm deep and only 30 seconds. It was under 1 minute according to the captain.

 

As soon as I submerged the housing, I waited for the bubbles to clear. Only they did not this time. I have a recurring nightmare of a stream of small bubbles coming from across the top joint formed where the back plate meets the main body of the housing. At this point time slowed down real slow. I immediately cursed numerous profanities underwater. Maybe I took 0.00001 seconds to turn the dome face down and then spent < 1 second to raise the housing dome down ( FULL FULL FULL ) out of the water.

 

More background. The housing just had a full service and front aperture wheel replaced. One test dive no camera no leak. Presumed all ok, but ?

 

The captain a diver and photographer pulled apart camera housing with me. LATCHES LOCKED. NO HAIRS OR ANY CRAP ON MAIN ORING. Later back at dive shop, got statement for insurance from captain. Gazed at housing and camera and most importantly got drunk that night.

 

The housing has been shipped back to the subal dealer and so far no fault found, which is a big worry!!!

I have some ideas and am interested if anyones seen that STREAM of bubbles ACROSS THE TOP of the entire backplate crack before on a subal or any housing ???

Sorry for you loss. One of my friends flooded her Subal Canon setup because she left the little rubber eyepiece guide on the camera before putting it together. Same thing happened, back top leaked

Bill

May they (camera and lens) rest in peace.

I have some ideas and am interested if anyones seen that STREAM of bubbles ACROSS THE TOP of the entire backplate crack before on a subal or any housing ???

That is really the pits! It sounds like you did everything right, other than perhaps choosing to dive in such lousy conditions, and had absolutely no reason whatsoever to think that the housing would flood so soon after submerging it. And, yes, you did a test dive without the camera in it to make sure all was OK after the service.

I own a Subal and have not seen that stream of bubbles across the top of the backplate that you are talking about.

Assuming you get another D300 and Subal ships the same housing back to you, I'll bet you'll test dive it several times without the camera inside before daring to do a dive with your expensive camera inside the housing.

I hope you insurance coverage is good and that you don't have to incur too much expense on your own nickel (or whatever is equivalent to the nickel in Oz!).

Most importantly, I hope you eventually can figure out the reason for the flood so that it won't happen again.

All the best,

Ellen

i flooded my 350D in a sea and sea housing and could find no foriegn objects anywhere, the only thing that could have caused it, is that i did leave the view finder diopter on the camera. RIP. luckily for me i noticed it pretty quickly and by turning the camera to face down avoided losing the camera and lens. both the camera and lens live to fight another battle.

Hi everyone and thanks for the condolences.

I have found the best therapy is to look at a few of my favourite shots and get on with working out which replacement D300/D700 and d3. I am also camping and diving on Lady Musgrave Island 1-18August, 2 weeks of great diving with no mains power and no generators on this tropical island means I am setting a solar power for charging cameras, strobes and laptop.

The subal dealer seaoptics has sofar done thorough of testing of housing without camera and tray, now the dead d300 and 1224 and base plate are being shipped back from Nikon Australia to do a final round of testing. Just to be clear my d200subal had minor modification to accomodate the d300. These mods are very minor and I don't believe the cause.

At the time of the flooding the seas were rough, lots of swell and wash. Normally I would see a few bubbles when taking the housing in the first 10 seconds or so I think.

Its worth mentioning this flood MAY have been prevented by soak testing first. WHICH I DID NOT DO. On livaboards I have done this regularly, in small boats not practical.

The insurer GIO, seaoptics and nikon have been very supportive and I will post an update if further testing determines a cause.

I HOPE THE ONLY BUBBLES YOU SEE are from champagne NOT OUT OF YOUR HOUSING!

It would be nice to have non-repairable camera's were returned to the owner.

With as much time and care as many people send on the camera, it would seem reasonable to have a decent wake and burial. Perhaps doing it New Orleans style with music and adult beverages.

Sorry for you loss. One of my friends flooded her Subal Canon setup because she left the little rubber eyepiece guide on the camera before putting it together. Same thing happened, back top leaked

I had a minor bathtub flood a while back (checking everything in the tub before I took it out on a charter) with a new camera body I bought so I'd have a backup - forgot to take the rubber eyepiece off the camera, and GLUG GLUG GLUG - bubbles from the top of the housing.... Fortunately, I saw it immediately and got everything out and dried off, nothing damaged. This time.

ozmarlin, I am truly sorry for your loss... it is, after all, the circle of life....here's hoping your cam and lens are living in a water-free world of perfectly exposed and composed shots....

I had a minor bathtub flood a while back (checking everything in the tub before I took it out on a charter) with a new camera body I bought so I'd have a backup - forgot to take the rubber eyepiece off the camera, and GLUG GLUG GLUG - bubbles from the top of the housing.... Fortunately, I saw it immediately and got everything out and dried off, nothing damaged. This time.

 

ozmarlin, I am truly sorry for your loss... it is, after all, the circle of life....here's hoping your cam and lens are living in a water-free world of perfectly exposed and composed shots....

Whoa, I have the same instruction, i.e. remove the eye piece from the D80 before inserting into the Nexus housing. I have been ignoring that caveat because I hate to keep up with little bits and pieces. I guess I have been lucky so far. There is a very close fit between the camera and the housing back plate. Toshi's boxes seem to be very rugged. vow: I will not be lazy setting up rig! /vow: RIP Nikon

With so many people here mentioning that forgetting the rubber eyepiece caused a flood, I am off to write myself a note and stick it to the inside of my housing right now! I must say that I have come close to forgetting before and wondering why my back would not close properly..... I don't dive as often as I would like and would probably forget if I don't do this!

Hmmm...while I am at it, I should also remind myself to take off the lens cap! I actually forgot twice in my hurry to change out the lens from WA to Macro! Funny thing was I was actually quite relieved when I found out why everything was so "dark" through the viewfinder..... a lens cap left on is anytime better than a flood!

I am such a noob! lol

bugger

I share your pain . . . so sorry to hear this.

I had a leak (not flooded) on my MDX-D300 housing on a recent trip. It surprized me as i have been quite meticulous with my o-ring maintenance. The cause was due to depressed o-ring on the left side of the housing. It must have happened when I was closing the cover. Lesson learnt = wiser the next time.

Thanks for the kind thoughts and suggestions.

I suspect the cause of my flood maybe the 1-2 mm piece of perspex covering the lcd. I have had feedback on this post from my dealer that similar floods have happened in the past, we are trying to recreate the flood just to be sure.

Just before the dive the oring and grove are cleaned per normal. The cover locked down normal. The oring gap looked even and normal. But looking back and thinking hard maybe it was 0.01 mm wider.

One clue, the rear speed control was not working properly, it was spinning but contacting the camera wheel. I thought I'll check it out later. Now that was a mistake looking back.

Maybe this is human error, but I was not even aware the cover was on the d300. My housing was getting fixed for 6 weeks, so the d300 was used above ground and the cover put on at some point.

For such a great housing, maybe they could engineer it so its IDIOT proof. I have posted this so anybody with plastic covers can throw them in the bin they can be deadly to d300's in subal d200 housings. Maybe the d300 subal housing has warnings on it. My d200 didn't.

The warning could be "REMOVE LCD PLASTIC COVER OR A VERY NASTY FLOOD MAY RESULT"

As the lcd covers serve a valuable purpose, possibly housing manufactures could allow for use without flooding. Just a few thoughts for design suggestion for SUBAL and all the others manufactures.

No point anyone else learning this particular lesson the hard way. Maybe this post or a similar FLOODING post could be pinned to remind us all how eager sea water is to get inside and kill our cameras.

My new improved predive checklist is below

1) test shot camera check battery and card and remove plastic covers if attached

2) orings locked housing and double check gap

3) test shot with strobes and check all controls are working properly and DON'T TAKE CAMERA Down

4) PRAYER

5) SOAK TEST

6) PRAYER

If you are not religious replace prayer with positive thoughts. On a more jovial note, some of my camera buddies and I will take my DEAD D300 and 1224 for a wreck dive when I get it back for some fun shots of the d300 with 1224 in the water no housing. This will kind of be the wake.

If you are not religious replace prayer with positive thoughts.

An insurance policy is also a good substitute for prayer!