Flooded GATES EX1 housing

..

 

Remind me never to lend you my Ex1 ...

 

DeanB

LOL.... yeah although what's the chances of it happening a third time....

Do they let you keep the broken units? It would be great for spares... as Canon just charged me $20 AUD for 6 replacement screws!!!! I'm sure you could sell bits from your old cam to recoup some cash.

On a side note I've heard that the Ex1 has now stopped production... any news on the updated model?

Wonder why they stopped production as it has been a very popular model. Maybe Sony is replacing it with a Canon 5D

Steve

[quote name='jonny shaw' date='Oct 16 2009, 08:08 AM' post='228092'

On a side note I've heard that the Ex1 has now stopped production... any news on the updated model?

If your on about BH photo discontinuing the EX1 that was apparently a website error ... It would be cool to see the next model tho ... I'm considering the EX3 at the mo as my next film is mostly topside and the Inter-lens option is a big draw ...

Dive safe

DeanB

This is a bit weird. How do you know it was the iris gland that it flooded through? Was it loose in the same way as the other gland had been?

 

Did you do any test dives with the repaired housing before you dived with a camera in it?

 

Which insurer did you use?

Yep the after allot of looking i found the IRIS gland loose, same way? loose is loose!

Yep i did't a 15 min dive even without the camera, after that i put the camera in and dive in fresh water with it :-)

divemaster.net is the insurance i used

This thread is a sad and sober reminder.. that what goes into an underwater housing.. and then put into water.. no matter how hard everyone tries .. it still may end up getting wet. Tis the nature of the beast. Something made by humans, assembled by humans.. and used by humans is still subject to human error somewhere along the fault tree.

And now I'm off to "test" the tightness on all my housings glands....

Brump ...

 

Remind me never to lend you my Ex1 ...

 

Dive safe

 

DeanB

Is your camera not insured :-)

This happening twice is unbelieble and to crazy for words so 3 times is like unpossible (thats the way i think now)

Something made by humans, assembled by humans.. and used by humans is still subject to human error somewhere along the fault tree.

I agree on that! but the fact we do not find the human error, let me think ALIENS are invalved or similar :-)

LOL.... yeah although what's the chances of it happening a third time....

 

Do they let you keep the broken units? It would be great for spares... as Canon just charged me $20 AUD for 6 replacement screws!!!! I'm sure you could sell bits from your old cam to recoup some cash.

 

On a side note I've heard that the Ex1 has now stopped production... any news on the updated model?

Are you intrested to buy 2 flooded EX1's ? make me a offer i cant refuse :-)

The EX1 stopping production? are you joking? where do you find that?

Are you intrested to buy 2 flooded EX1's ? make me a offer i cant refuse :-)

 

The EX1 stopping production? are you joking? where do you find that?

It was from another forum.... it could have been from the B&H web thingy.

I am back from my meeting with GATES!

 

First i will tell what happend.

 

After buying a brand new EX1 and getting a insurance on the new camera and housing i left to Bali with the toys!

To make a long storry short, the housing flooded again!

This time true the gland of the IRIS!

I can tell that i cheked and recheked the housing like crazy! my buddy who is a photagrapher and travel years with me asked if i was getting a little crazy!

The housing flooded on the 3th dive of the day on the end of the dive!

 

I went completly crazy having a flood again! The brand new EX1 not even had filmed 1 hour of footage!

There was less water in the housing then last time so i had hoped that the camera was not damaged to bad but it was only hope it is more expensive to fix him then buy a new one :-(

 

So this was enough and i contacted GATES and send the housing back to them and then i travelled myself also to there office.

 

I was recieved verry well and got a nice tour etc.....

The owners told me that somthing like this never happend before and i started to trust them more and more, then i witnessed myself how they tested everthing on the housing and where not able to find somthing that explains the gland comming loose, i even tried getting the gland lose on purpose when the housing was under vacuum and you have to do like hell your best to open the gland enough to let water comming inside i could not believe my eyes!

They did't not find eny fault on the housing from me or them.

i am not a believer but when sombody used the words "this have to be a act of GOD" i could only agree!

 

Conclusion!

 

GATES is a nice company with really nice people there and they made me a offer that i agreed on, the details of the agreement i am not going to trow on the internet but i left with a good feeling trusting this people and that is what counts.

 

Now i am waiting for the insurance to pay me or send me a new camera and then i start diving so fast if possible again.

 

GATES also prommised to make it their quest to find out what happend and is going deeper and deeper testing the housing.

 

Bruno

WOW! That is reassuring!

After blowing a trip to Sipadan with the first flood and loosing the first EX1, you go out buying a new camera, go to Bali, flood the second EX1 on the third dive (meaning another wasted trip) and then you go from Belgium to California to Gates to get a tour and "act of God" as an explanation. WOW! That is reassuring! You have wasted more than 20 000 € (an estimate for the first EX1, Sipadan, Bali and California) and precious time to get no explanation to this recurrent problem !!! This is lame.

Since there is no explanation for the flooding, how confident are you to go back in the water with EX1 number 3? Oh, I was forgetting that you are now insured but for how long?

Also not revealing the details of the agreement after using this forum for leverage in your legitimate claim is rather bad.

Pedro

Looks like there is an update to the EX1 it's the EX1R major changes below

Major New Functions:

* SD Recording

* HDMI Output

* New View Finder

* Cache Rec

* One Push Auto Iris

Major Improvements

* Camera holding improvement

* One push mode change for S&Q

* Quicker Start

* Switches and Jog Dial improvements

* Firmware version up by users

Jon

Looks like there is an update to the EX1 it's the EX1R major changes below

 

Major New Functions:

 

* SD Recording

* HDMI Output

* New View Finder

* Cache Rec

* One Push Auto Iris

 

Major Improvements

 

* Camera holding improvement

* One push mode change for S&Q

* Quicker Start

* Switches and Jog Dial improvements

* Firmware version up by users

 

 

Jon

Sounds cool ... Although the Cache rec was meant to be on the Ex1 ...

Dive safe

DeanB

WOW! That is reassuring!

 

After blowing a trip to Sipadan with the first flood and loosing the first EX1, you go out buying a new camera, go to Bali, flood the second EX1 on the third dive (meaning another wasted trip) and then you go from Belgium to California to Gates to get a tour and "act of God" as an explanation. WOW! That is reassuring! You have wasted more than 20 000 € (an estimate for the first EX1, Sipadan, Bali and California) and precious time to get no explanation to this recurrent problem !!! This is lame.

 

Since there is no explanation for the flooding, how confident are you to go back in the water with EX1 number 3? Oh, I was forgetting that you are now insured but for how long?

 

Also not revealing the details of the agreement after using this forum for leverage in your legitimate claim is rather bad.

 

Pedro

Using this forum as "leverage" that is not the way i see it!

I am allready for years on this forum and i learned allot here, and i used this forum to tell my storry and trying to find out what happend, and if you see to all the people against me in the beginning of the treath i do not think GATES had big problems with this treath.

But you are right i lost allot of time and money but the big question is is this GATES or my mistake?

And till now there is no answer on that, and that is what is BAD! i really like to know what is happend end why! and i can tell you GATES is thinking just the same and is looking like crazy to find a answer and i trust them if they find somthing no matter what they will tell the truth.

Even today i got a mail from John about new test's he is trying on the moment.

The details about the agreement are not important, the fact that i can tell everybody i left GATES with a good feeling is the only thing that counts.

And offcourse i will not feeling 100% going in the water with my 3th EX1, but John told me there is no way that i will have a flood again and the only thing i can do is believe this!

O yeah, and i can tell everybody that i recieved my money today from the insurance from the second EX1, divemaster whas really correct!

And also today i recieved my EX1 back the camera not even filmed 1 hour and looks like brand new but is worth nothing verry strange!

I am thinking to buy a fishtank with some fishes and put it on the bottom :-)

Bruno

Bruno -- have you considered using the Gates Seal Check system? Everyone I know who has a vacuum seal check on their housing (Gates or otherwise) stops worrying about flooding from user error / failures on the surface. If a housing does flood after a vacuum seal check passes, you know that it was a problem during the dive...

Bruno -- have you considered using the Gates Seal Check system? Everyone I know who has a vacuum seal check on their housing (Gates or otherwise) stops worrying about flooding from user error / failures on the surface. If a housing does flood after a vacuum seal check passes, you know that it was a problem during the dive...

Eric, i have the Seal Check System now! but knowing what happend in the 2 floodes that the housing only started leaking after a long time in the water, i am almost sure that even in those 2 cases the Seal Check did't not make a diffrence! The glands came loose in the dive using the controls! OK the Glands will probely be a little loose before the dive but i witnessed with my own eyes that even with a almost loose gland the Seal Check saw no problem.

Enyway i will use the Seal Check in the future and when testing i will manuel try to losen the glands while i watch the pressure i hope this is enough but i feel confident about it now!

Bruno