i regret to inform all of you...

... that my housing flooded at 20 meters. the sight of it filling up with sea water and the bubbles smoking out in a steam-like stream is firmly imprinted in my mind. i could not save my s30.

if you have read my previous threads, you'll discover that i have meticulously taken care of it. i sacrificed very much just to get the set-up, and i couldn't find a suitable insurance for it. everything that could've been done was done. thank you to all who shared their experiences and gave me tips.

in spite of dunking it in fresh water, the camera is thoroughly corroded inside. it was just 2 months old, and the housing even newer (1 month, 12 dives). it is really such a shame...

there will be others, i can assure you...

but in the meantime, i will take the housing back to canon for a pressure test. is there anything else that i can do?

Lisa,

I'm sorry to hear about your flooding. Perhaps, it's time to go with a different setup?

Allan

http://www.underwaterdigital.net

I'm very sorry to hear that your camera is

no longer with us.

I'm curious about where the air was coming out of the housing ?

Did you check the control glands?

They have very small o-rings or x type seals that might have a small crack in them.

These type of mechanical controls are

not to user friendly to the average

user, and should be sent back to the

manufacture for service at the very

moment you suspected any water intrusion.

This does't mean that you couldn't have

done it yourself.

Properly advised you could.

I think you should have a independent

source look at the housing to determine

the cause.

If the housing is defective you should be

reimbursed for the camera all or in part.

Let them know that all of us a wetpixel

are waiting for the answer to your

problem.

We at wetpixel could not support camera housing manufacture that don't

support their customers and get behind

there products.

Anyway, that's the way I feel.

Best of Luck,

Marc

I just read in the German powershot.de forum, that a product manager was pointing out that you loose your warranty if you do not use a Canon housing. In your case you might want to turn this statement against them.

Also I recently found another flooding experince when linking some photographer's site to http://www.digideep.com about the Olympus housing PT-003 (snuuba.com). The general impression stays that you run a higher risk with compact plastic housings. The main reason in my opinion is that they do not center the camera inside the housing. So that in case of a flooding you do not have space for the incoming water, which is usually not much if you discover it early enough.

Compact plastic for the Canons and Olys stay a cheap alternative and I know many people who are really happy with it; but I also know more flood/humidity storys than from others. Is this due to the large market share, or the above mentioned leaks in design? Interresting question, eh?

What would you think about a flood statistic, for each housing... The manufacturers might not like - but certainly the users would be interested in it?

keep on shooting! .oOo. Andi

Hi Lisa

I have 2 suggestions:

1. if you have apartment content insurance check is you can get some money back from them, In some cases its work.

2. Don't said to the Canon people that you suspected about leaking before the accident, they may say you shouldn’t get the camera to the water after the first suspicion.

Hope you'll get back to W/U shooting.

Andi,

In many cases it is not the housings fault that there is a flood.

In fact even the most expensive housing can flood. The primary method of keeping the water out is an o-ring in all housings and something as small as a hair across it can lead to a flood.

In lisa's case it seems that the case actually failed but I wager that in 99% of floodings it is bad user maintenance that has led to the floods.

I think it would be unfair on blaming the manufacturers for these sort of failures.

However what is interesting is the ability of a camera in a housing to survive a partial flood.

With the Olympus PT-010 the ring on the front of the lens can come loose, particularily when using add on lenses. When this happens a slow flood round the edges of the housing lens will occur.

This happened to me in the bath and I noticed it and the camera survived and there was some room around the camera to survive the flood. Now I always make sure that the ring on the front is tight and I have had no further problems. Bad design or user error ?

Part of the problem is though that consumers demand the smallest housings possible which means that manufacturers make them as tight as possible. This doesn't leave much room for water in the case of a flood.

I would advise good flood insurance as you can never be certain that your housing won't flood. In the UK Divemaster Insurance is one that I have found to be good.

Mark

Originally posted by markpriorAndi,

In many cases it is not the housings fault that there is a flood.  

I think it would be unfair on blaming the manufacturers for these sort of failures.

Hi Mark,... I reported about a flooding in another thread already and pointed out that it was probably my own fault. So I will not blame it on the housing. You might be right that this is the major case! But also I like to point out that this is actually just something which everyone (especially the manufactures) will tell you. In fact I do not know about any statistic or research on this yet. However my camera survived it, because I had several cm space for the incoming water. I think you can't deny that this is better then a few milimeters in a mass produced polycarbonate housing (please exclude Ikelite here, because they leave lot's of space inside for the same very good reason) ?

On the insurance? Has anyone experience with acutally claiming money from them after a flood. Discussing this with a German lawyer a few month ago revealed that there are really to many catches in the contract. But it might only aply to german law...

.oOo. Andi

Andi,

I take your point entirely.

It is not only the mass produced housings that fit like a glove though. Look at the Oceanhaus video camera housings, made of aluminium, - not much room in there.

The insurance I have is priced to include accidental flooding including user error. Reading the terms and conditions they'd better pay out for unexplained flooding or I will give them hell.

Americans seem to swear by DEPP which I have heard people say has paid out.

Anyway touch wood it doesn't happen.

Mark

Sorry to hear about the flood. I've lost a couple things this way and it can be heartbreaking. I'm now very careful about it and will leave the camera behind if I don't trust it for any reason. It was an expensive lesson that I don't hope to relearn. If it was a housing defect, check with Canon -- they should replace both articles if it was their fault.

As for insurance, some renter's or homeowner's policies will let you claim things like this, but normally that only works if you specifically list the items with them beforehand. I've got my cameras and housings listed under a "Personal Property Rider" on my homeowner's policy. Never had to file a claim before but I would expect it to be less straightforward than going through one of the specialty insurers. However, the good news is that I was able to insure about $8000 worth of gear for about $80 a year, and sicen I listed it and pay for it separately, there is no deductible.

Mike

[Edited on 5-31-2002 by MikeO]

Sorry to hear about the flood. People always ask me on boats if I have ever had a flood. I always say that you WILL have a flood sooner or later. The best you can hope that it happens in the rinse tank where you might save the camera.

I use the following procedure. If I have traveled I always try the housing in a hotel pool without the camera to see if any leak has occured in travel. Next I always put the housing and camera in the rinse tank. Look for bubbles as it is hard to see leaks, even in a clear housing. Last look for leaks as SOON as you submerge and then after 15 ft where most of the pressure change of the dive occurs. Note, it is very hard to see even a major leak in the ocean before it destroys the camera.

I have had 2 different home owners policies pay off on floods. One wanted to argue with me because the poicy didn't include flood insurance. But they paid off after a little talk with my agent.

You get what you pay for. I would get either an Ikelite housing which are top notch or a quality metal housing. The inexpensive housings may work fine but be prepared so you can throw away the camera without regret if it floods. Note that a poor quality metal housing may be the worst choice. Compare the Ike housings side by side with the inexpensive plastic housings if you doubt what I say above. With the Ike housing you will feel like you could dive the Titanic where with the others you start to sweat at 40 ft.

Get a leak detector if you can. I see where Aquatica lists one on their web site that might be adaptable to other housings.

Sorry to hear about your flood. Based on the age of your camera and housing, you might check with your credit card company (if you purchased the system on a card). Many cards, Am EX, and some Visa/Mastercards offer a 90d -no questions- insurance policy on all purchases. This is very valuable when you consider the cost of insuring through DEPP or a similar specialty insurer. Good luck.

thanks for all your advice and encouragement. i have not been able to get into a canon office yet (nearest being 1000 miles away). i really do suspect that there is something wrong with the housing. it was the first time i took it to that depth (20 meters).

i find it very sad that they managed to put a man on the moon in the 60s, but when it comes to reliable housings, there really isn't a satisfactory answer...

One other small tip for housing users that the photo pro at my dive shop showed me. When you drop in the water, and the camera is handed to you., hold the camera directly over your head and pointed straight down at you.

As you descend, look straight up into the lens port. If your camera is leaking, the water will run to the front of the lend port cap. I had this happen to me once. As soon as I started to go down, I noticed a couple of drops of water hit the inside front of the lens port. I immediately surfaced, told the deck help to hold the camera pointed down. and got out. Absolutely no damage.

The photo pro at my shop has been lucky three times with this method. Course with the new smaller housings, it might be a bit harder to do this, but its worth the try.

Sorry about your set up!

Lisa,

I disagree with your statement about housings not being

reliable. I think that floods are actually pretty

rare with proper maintenance, especially on the more

expensive housings that have two orings. My group of dive buddies

includes several people that *always* dive with cameras and

floods are quite rare. In my diving life I have never

flooded anything (knock on wood), not even a flashlight

or strobe. However, I also know that I've been lucky.

I think that there is a learning curve with respect to caring for

housings and orings, and you were a victim of that. If I had had

your earlier experiences with your housing, there is no

way (!!!) I would have trusted it with my expensive camera until it had

been fixed and tested. In fact, when it partially flooded on your

earlier dives I would have counted myself lucky the first time! You

clearly didn't know this, but you were playing

with fire by continuing to use the housing in that state. A flood

was more or less guaranteed to happen. My guess is that the oring was

damaged and a simple oring replacement (60 seconds) would have

fixed everything.

Anyway, I'm sorry to hear of your negative first experience and hope

you can get back in the game soon!

Anyone have a URL for DEPP?

Thanks Been looking for that for a while now..