Flooding - cause and remedy!

On Friday I went diving with friends and set up my housing as usual (Seacam 5D2 c/w 100mm usm macro). I went through my pre-dive checks on the camera and everything appeared ok. Fortunately I'm the sort of person who still checks the housing as I descend and on this dive it was just as well, as by 4m the water detection alarm was flashing and beeping (I hold the housing horizontal whilst descending). Needless to say I bailed out and headed to the surface with the housing held with the port downwards (on the basis that a replacement lens would be cheaper that the camera body) but by the time I'd surfaced the water had reached the front element of the lens. I inflated everything and held the housing as far out of the water with the port downwards as I could until I reached shore. As soon as possible (I was still fully kitted) the housing was undone and water poured out.

As I took everything to pieces I carefully checked to see what might have been wrong and realised that the port did not need much rotation to remove it - it had quite simply not been rotated right down until it reached its normal stop, and as a consequence had not seated the 'O' ring properly. I have only myself to blame - stupidity on the part of the user! It is of course possible that I had rotated it fully and that it had become undone between assembly and diving, but this is in all honesty very unlikely as considerable force would have been required for this to happen. After I got home I stripped out the housing's electrics and washed it and the port thoroughly before drying everything with the aid of Silica gel and a dehumidifier. Fortunately both camera and lens, whilst damp seem to have suffered no ill effects and are happily working again after very careful cleaning and drying (tissues, cotton buds, etc.), with no sign of actual water ingress into either. After rebuilding the housing I tested it in fresh water to ~20m and it is fine - no leaks - so I'm confident that my conclusion of user error was correct.

So the moral of this tale is that as in the vast majority of flooding cases that I have ever seen, it was the user who was to blame. I now have another pre-dive camera check to build into my routine and hope that my floods occur at the 15 year intervals that this (my second - the last was a Nikon F801 which was totaled) indicates. I already knew that absolute methodical assembly of a housing is essential for every time it is used and this has been thoroughly reinforced.

Yes, I did the same with my S2000 last week, I have closed INON strobes so many times now, I didn't even think to look at the o-ring which was pinched and half hanging out! Easy to become lackadaisical I think when it has worked so many times before!

"Hello, my name is Jim and I'm an underwater photographer."

Chorus: "Hello, Jim."

I'm now a member of the "F" club, user-error-section. Similar story, forgot to listen for the "click" on my Ikelite port locks when preparing the housing. My Fl**d was catastrophic, completely filled the housing when it was passed to me. My camera, lens and housing electronics were all fried.

BTW, some useful information from Ikelite - you can open the electronics in a flooded housing, cut all the wires except for the black & white and still have manual strobe control! I had a backup camera with me on vacation and was able to continue shooting with my other lenses.

Sorry to hear it gang. Jim, great tip on the Ike electronics...

With larger rigs and strobes, it's hard to do the test tank test, but really an important step to catch those immediate "holy F**k" floods before they get bad. I had one of those the second time I used my Nauticam D300; pinched an main oring. dive brief was interrupted by the alarm going off! Poured the fresh water out, dried stuff off (over the wood burning little fireplace on the boat!) and kept shooting. Luckily the camera was ok.

After a rinse with fresh, remember that 91% rubbing alcohol is your friend, as it will chase water and dry things out very quickly without much harm. I've resuscitated many strobe connectors that way.

Jack

It;'s never good to hear these stories because but for the grace of God, go I.

I had a housing that tended to allow the big dome port to rotate during boat journeys. After the second flood (camera saved the second time) I lost confidence in it and went over to a housing that had a port lock. Even so I get scared and have only housed my FX camera in a housing that gives me a leak test using a vacuum pump and non-destructive air.

We all feel your pain, Paul. Glad you got away with it that time.

Paul: watch out (tho' maybe this is a Nikon problem): I flooded an Anthis housing in the Spring, but my lens seemed to have survived. It was even "serviced" by Nikon. It failed catastrophically in the Bahamas last month, when all the lens electronics suddenly gave up. Looking through the rear element I then saw a droplet within the lens assembly: fried electronics four months after flooding! Is this a record?

Tim

Tim

I checked for water ingress and am satisfied that there was none into the interior of lens or camera - when I last flooded a camera housing the 60mm micro-Nikkor was rebuilt by Nikon and then rebuilt again after a further three months when severe corrosion started - I suspect that the second warranty 'repair' actually was a new lens with the old exterior sections fitted. After that Nikon stopped repairing water damaged lenses (mine spent a day in a bucket of fresh water as it had filled with sea water). So I am well aware of the potential for a later failure especially as salt water is difficult to fully remove - if any had entered the camera or lens they would have been shipped off for repair/write off notification and my insurers informed!

... repair/write off notification and my insurers informed!

Hmmmnn: it was my insurers that sent the lens off to Nikon - I was expecting it to be written off as water had got into the rear of the lens - and was surprised to find it working when I received it back!

Tim

Hmmmnn: it was my insurers that sent the lens off to Nikon - I was expecting it to be written off as water had got into the rear of the lens - and was surprised to find it working when I received it back!

 

Tim

 

Tim

I expect that it depends on your insurers. I took the view that a seawater damaged lens needed to go to Nikon asap but I was on an island with no postal facilities (off North Wales - I'll leave you to guess which) so it stayed in a bucket of freshwater until I could get it off to Nikon and was sent as soon as I could mange to ship it. My insurers were informed and given Nikon's response (F801 totaled, lens rebuildable). No problem as they seemed impressed that I'd shipped stuff straight to Nikon and the F801 was replaced and lens repaired - both at their cost.

I'm very surprised that Nikon repaired your lens though - internal saltwater ingress is in my experience almost invariably terminal.

On Friday I went diving with friends and set up my housing as usual (Seacam 5D2 c/w 100mm usm macro). I went through my pre-dive checks on the camera and everything appeared ok. Fortunately I'm the sort of person who still checks the housing as I descend and on this dive it was just as well, as by 4m the water detection alarm was flashing and beeping (I hold the housing horizontal whilst descending). Needless to say I bailed out and headed to the surface with the housing held with the port downwards (on the basis that a replacement lens would be cheaper that the camera body) but by the time I'd surfaced the water had reached the front element of the lens. I inflated everything and held the housing as far out of the water with the port downwards as I could until I reached shore. As soon as possible (I was still fully kitted) the housing was undone and water poured out.

 

As I took everything to pieces I carefully checked to see what might have been wrong and realised that the port did not need much rotation to remove it - it had quite simply not been rotated right down until it reached its normal stop, and as a consequence had not seated the 'O' ring properly. I have only myself to blame - stupidity on the part of the user! It is of course possible that I had rotated it fully and that it had become undone between assembly and diving, but this is in all honesty very unlikely as considerable force would have been required for this to happen. After I got home I stripped out the housing's electrics and washed it and the port thoroughly before drying everything with the aid of Silica gel and a dehumidifier. Fortunately both camera and lens, whilst damp seem to have suffered no ill effects and are happily working again after very careful cleaning and drying (tissues, cotton buds, etc.), with no sign of actual water ingress into either. After rebuilding the housing I tested it in fresh water to ~20m and it is fine - no leaks - so I'm confident that my conclusion of user error was correct.

 

So the moral of this tale is that as in the vast majority of flooding cases that I have ever seen, it was the user who was to blame. I now have another pre-dive camera check to build into my routine and hope that my floods occur at the 15 year intervals that this (my second - the last was a Nikon F801 which was totaled) indicates. I already knew that absolute methodical assembly of a housing is essential for every time it is used and this has been thoroughly reinforced.

Dude, sorry to hear of your unfortunate flooding. Its just devastating on a dive trip when it happens.

Just recently, I flooded my Nauticam 7D housing and whilst I take full responsibility for the flooding, I can't help but feel the housing was also partly to blame. The story goes like this . . . . I am very methodical and careful when i put together my housing, use a white sheet under my housing to see any and all dirt, check all the o-rings etc before putting together and I always connect the housing in a horizontal way, with the bottom of the housing touching the table. However, on this occasion i put together the camera and tested taking a shot to then find that my Tokina 10-17 Af was not switched on - stuff like this can happen when putting together the camera so this is not unusual. Given I had all of the strobes etc attached I then tipped the housing into the front dome port so the back of the housing faced upwards, opened the housing, removed the camera, switched on the AF and then placed the camera back in the housing which I locked back together. The housing seem to close perfectly and with a quick latch inspection everything appeared to be fine.

So I jump in the water and as I'm removing the housing cover at approx 5 metres depth to find that the housing had half filled up with water. The root cause was quite ironic. . . . The two small metallic points on the end of the leak detector had gotten stuck in the bottom of the housing!

So you can argue that I should have noticed the leak light and that I should have checked the bottom of the housing as well before I jumped in the water which all fair enough. However, the fact that an internal part on the housing got jammed in the housing and that the housing was able to be closed with any noticeable difficulty is really unfortunate and is a tale that everyone should know be very careful of.

I sent the camera back to canon in the faint hope it could be fixed but it's completely totaled and I now have to buy a new 7D which totally sucks and I have definitely learnt the lesson of getting flood insurance next time around.

Really sorry about your flood! I also have a Nauticam housing, but on my housing the leak detector cables are firmly held in some plastic clips. Is your detector cable loose, or do you know what caused it to get loose!

Really sorry about your flood! I also have a Nauticam housing, but on my housing the leak detector cables are firmly held in some plastic clips. Is your detector cable loose, or do you know what caused it to get loose!

Plastic clips? Hmm, that sounds like a good idea but no, I dont seem to have any clips installed in my housing. The cable has always been loose

I think I must have 1st Gen housing so this might also be something that was fixed later on, only guessing.