How often do you disassemble the entire housing on a multi day trip?

Hi Everyone,

I just finished setting up my entire housing after a bit of absence from shooting to be ready for tomorrow's daytrip on the boat. It took me 90 minutes to check all my o-rings, cables, and assemble the entire unit, strip down my camera to fit into the housing, including adjusting all presets, doing the testflashes, ttl adjustments, etc, etc. That's a fair bit of time and some of it may be just me getting a bit rusty between dives.

I'm not usually doing this for one day diving on a weekend only, because i have to obviously wash everything on Sunday, so I was wondering how often everyone disassembles their kit? On a single day of diving you obviously don't have much choice but do take everything apart after diving for washing, then storage.

On my last liveaboard in January, I remember doing at least partial disassembly every night to be able to take the camera out and download pictures at night, also to recharge the batteries. I didn't fully disassemble the housing (ports) until I left the boat four days later. What i mean by full disassembly is taking each and every o-ring out for cleaning, housing drying and o-ring greasing.

How many days do you guys dive with an assembled camera housing, without opening it, provided you can soak/wash the unit in fresh water after diving of course?

When is it "time" to take it apart for complete drying / reassembly on a multi day trip of diving?

Curious,

Simon

on a one week trip i may take the oring out once, maximum twice if there is a lot of black sand etc. There is no need to take it out and regrease it everytime you open it. Just make sure it is clean, i often actually just lick my finger and wipe off any crap that may be on the oring. Taking it out all the time and regreasing is asking for trouble if you ask me..

If it isn't broke, don't fix it. I check & clean as required main o-ring every day, since I have to change CF &/or camera battery. Check & clean port o-ring when changing ports. Otherwise leave it alone. Sync cords stay attached until I have to disassemble for packing. This applies to a short trip (2-3 days) or long trip (2-3 weeks). Full maintenance at end of trip of all accessible items. Factory overhaul every 1-2 yrs depending on use. This includes all o-rings. Also suggest using a type of marine grease on stainless fasteners so things disassemble easily. Silicone grease will work but I prefer something formulated for extended use in water. The stuff I use is like axle grease for boat trailers.

I do the same thing as mentioned by the others, and if something is sealed and working (ports, synch cords, etc.) I leave it be until the trip is done (subject to good soakings after the dives) and checking to make sure everything looks okay.

I check the O-Rings when removing the camera for batteries and compact flash cards, and do the licking finger method often as Mike mentioned, except I lick my finger and not Mike's

I will sometimes remove the handles and soak them and the housing to make sure there is no build up there, but it is external. This has worked well for me, but I usually do not have it set-up for more than a week at a time since I either move to another place where it has to be taken apart anyway, or I I am going home.

That would depend on the rig e.g. with the ikelite Ais or S50 connected to an Al body (Nikonos or Nexus), I would get what I will call a Galvanic reaction that left white chalky deposits on the housing bodies. Not so on the ike housing. This problem was alleviated by attaching a Zn scavenger plate. I would do a major take down and cleaning every night.

Now I use optical connectors. I push all the buttons and movable parts in the rinse tank. Every time I open a housing or strobe I use a piece of imitation chamois to clean the surfaces and o-rings and regrease with a foam swab. This could be once or several times a day. Granted this may be overly cautious, but (touch wood) I don't have floods.

Bob

I start from the premise that I don't even want to touch the rig during my entire trip accept to take pictures. If I can get away without opening the housing or removing a port during the day, then that is what I do. I don't remove any o-rings or grease anything after the initial setup.

My attitude for the main body o-rings is the same with regulator o-rings. If I remove it, it gets replaced.

I only open the housing to swap memory cards (get more than one card so you can swap instead of having to open/close it twice per download). I only disassemble the housing at the end of the trip, or perhaps, in the middle of the trip if it's a 2-week trip or longer. I make exceptions if I've just dragged my housing through sand. In Lembeh, we had several housings leak a bit when that fine, black sand made it into o-ring grooves.

thanks for all the replies guys! I feel much better about leaving it in one piece at the end of the day now.

Also Eric, interesting on the sand issue, I had never heard about fine enough sand actually creeping into a housing. Did this happen to closed housings, or do you mean it got into the o-ring groove when you opened for memory card change?

thanks for all the replies guys! I feel much better about leaving it in one piece at the end of the day now.

 

Also Eric, interesting on the sand issue, I had never heard about fine enough sand actually creeping into a housing. Did this happen to closed housings, or do you mean it got into the o-ring groove when you opened for memory card change?

I leave mine assembled all week too. One thing however; I take my camera out every night and bring it into the room. Once a couple of years ago I had a D70 that just quit working 3 days into my week. Checked the housing, no flood, no leaks. Replaced it with my backup D70 body and put the one that didn't work in the room. 24 hours later it worked again - I can't be certain, but it was an extraordinarily humid week so I think humidity inside the housing was causing it to misbehave. It only happened that one time, never had a problem again. I just figure it's good to get the body into the cabin where the air conditioner helps dry everything out.

Anybody else experience something similar?

I leave mine assembled all week too. One thing however; I take my camera out every night and bring it into the room. Once a couple of years ago I had a D70 that just quit working 3 days into my week. Checked the housing, no flood, no leaks. Replaced it with my backup D70 body and put the one that didn't work in the room. 24 hours later it worked again - I can't be certain, but it was an extraordinarily humid week so I think humidity inside the case was causing it to misbehave. It only happened that one time, never had a problem again. I just figure it's good to get the body into the cabin where the air conditioner helps dry everything out.

 

Anybody else experience something similar?

Humidity can be a real killer and not just cameras. I had a blood glucose meter stop working in costa rica (on the way to Cocos) and it stayed stopped for 2 weeks. A week after we got home it suddenly started up again.

Bill

Humidity can be a real killer and not just cameras. I had a blood glucose meter stop working in costa rica (on the way to Cocos) and it stayed stopped for 2 weeks. A week after we got home it suddenly started up again.

Bill

Ohmigosh! Having a camera stop working is annoying, but a blood glucose meter is serious business. Apparently you did alright without it, but man that's a scary one.

I sure agree with the if-it-ain't-broke approach. I've just gone 10 weeks in Lembeh without taking all my gear apart - and just changing batteries and cards as necessary. At the end of that period there was some build-up on the sync cord connector threads - and a little verdigris on the housing. But all this cleaned up pretty easily.

One scary moment though with a sync cord cable coming undone seemingly on its own - and only becoming apparent as the boat captain was handing it down to me in the water. You probably heard the scream STOP in the US....... God knows how a Sea & Sea cord with its screw-down locking thread can come undone. But I do now check all the screw threads more often and make sure they are finger-tight.

I used to do mine daily, then I went to do it every other day. I do take my camera out daily and close the back housing panel. I do this immediately and then in the AM I return my camera to the housing and do a check of the oring. If there is any sand or anything else of concern, I go ahead and re-do it. This was just something that I have done with no real guidance.

Kirk

Two CF cards & two batteries, then you only have to open the housing once to change stuff. This should be a non-issue because we all have at least two of everything - right? I agree that working on system in AM is best, after a good nights sleep vs late evening with too much merlot.

I try to remember to check whether connectors are tight and can be undone easily every day or so, I did have a bulkhead fastener lockup once so I like to keep an eye on them, and I too have had one undo itself a bit, enough so not to trust them to always stay done up.

Otara

I think I'm going away from daily to weekly after reading all of your posts.

One other thing. When storing gear during longer periods of not shooting, do you take the o-rings out of housings and ports? So far I took mine out, but I have discovered something new when assembling on Friday.

I was under the assumption, the stress (constant sealing pressure) of having them in a closed housing is not good for them, so I removed them for storage and put them in a little plastic zip bag that is lubricated with some grease on the inside. Some o-rings, like the one between my Sea&Sea macro port base and the macro port extension 50 are pressed together very tightly when assembled.

Thing is when you store them outside of the housing, they start having other deformations. They obviously will have deformations when kept in the housing, but at least it is the very deformation that will make the ring fit into the groove.

Now this got me wondering if it's better to keep them in the housing or outside? I suppose either way it's time for a complete change here, it's been 9 months on one set.

What does everyone do with theirs?

Cheers,

Simon

P.S: am i paranoid to the core about a flood? You bet!

Removing o-rings for storage is very over rated I believe. I only time I remove a seal is for cleaning & greasing, which is minimal. (I can usually remove small debris without removing the o-ring.) Housing & strobes are stored in a closed condition. I prefer buna o-rings (the black ones) vs the pretty little colored ones. They perform extremely well in underwater housings. They conform well to the grooves & are happy to stay in that configuration. All the blue seals in my S&S stuff have been replaced with buna. This way all I need is plain silicone grease for everything. Pretty colored o-rings & "special grease" just makes life more difficult, & they do not provide a better seal.

If you feel that o-rings must be removed for storage, why just remove the main seal? What about the other couple of dozen o-rings in a DSLR housing? No one mentions them. Won't they also suffer the same deformation if left in place a long time? Any o-ring can be the cause of a leak, not just the main ones. Something to think about.

P.S. You do need to remove main o-rings if you seal your system at altitude & need to open it at sea level.

Depending on o-ring compound & use, o-rings should last more than 9 months. I usually get 1-2 yrs from the bunas with 200+ dives/yr. If all your o-rings are S&S blue YMMV.

If you feel that o-rings must be removed for storage, why just remove the main seal? What about the other couple of dozen o-rings in a DSLR housing? No one mentions them. Won't they also suffer from full time compression? Something to think about.

A good point indeed. I removed everything I could get my hands on without prying the case open, but not the plexiglass seal of the rear window, etc. Never thought of it this way.

Anyone else in favour of leaving them in the housing assembled?

The stuff I use is like axle grease for boat trailers.

What is it actually?

Thanks

What is it actually?

 

Thanks

Caution: If it contains hydrocarbons it will dissolve neoprene O-rings.