flooded two casings in one dive

Yesterday Montreal had record high temperatures. I called a friend and we headed for the Seaway.

He has a g12 in a canon casing. I have a g10 in a canon casing.

Our gear was in the trunk of the car and may have been exposed to somewhat high temperatures.

We got in the water at the same time.

Five minutes later, we are both out of the water with flooded casings!

I got my camera out without damage. He was not so lucky.

I took the casing without the camera and went back in the water to see where the leak was. It did not leak. So I put the camera back in the casing and it flooded again after a few minutes. I got the camera out and tried the casing without the camera. Again, the casing was not leaking. I put the camera back in the casing and soon I had the tell tale fog and got the camera out of the water again.

Why would the casing flood only when the camera is in it? Is it because the camera is too hot?

Rene

Does the LCD have a removable protective screen on it?

nope

ReneP,

do a search in Scubaboard about that phenomena.

There was a tread regarding this problem in (as i remember) Underwater Photography - Canon forum.

For example those:

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/canon-cor...-canon-s95.html

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/canon-cor...g-flooding.html

Chris

Camera in housing could be slightly misaligned, causing a control shaft or button to be pushed off axis enough to cause a minor leak. Camera in housing or not shouldn't make a difference. Is it condensation or did the housing actually flood due to leak? Polycarbonate is not a good conductor of heat, so temperature difference might also be the cause.

It was quite a show. Two separate divers simultaneously flooding two different cameras. I'd be looking for answers that could explain why the two casings decided to flood at the same time.

I've used that casing hundreds of times before this synchronized flooding. He has been using his for a few months. I'm thinking hot weather related.

Probably it was related to the heat inside the car and so the housing.

I have a Hugyfot housing and it has the Hugycheck leak check system what consist of a slight vacuum inside the housing

created by a pump and a pressure sensor constantly monitoring the pressure inside and beeping if the pressure rises.

When i first got the housing i thought that it would be better to have a overpressure inside the housing to create bubbles

in case of a leak, but thinking twice about this i realized that the overpressure will push the o-rings out of their seats in the opposite

direction leading to leaks than a vacuum inside the housing, sucking the o-rings in position.

This was probably the situation what happened to your housing and another example that housings should be stored at ambient or better water temperature

to avoid fogging and may avoid that orings get pushed out of their position by the pressure build-up due heat.

But still, as the housing leaks only with the camera inside means that the camera is pushing the housing or a dial/knob open.

Chris

Hi Rene, can you clarify was it just fogging or was there an actual flood ie water ingress?

Sounds like a rapid decrease in temp has caused condensation/fogging. Having the camera in the housing and firing the flash will heat up the air inside then it drops again in between

shots further exacerbating the problem. If dramatic changes in temp are expected it's crucial to prepare and house the camera in a dry air situation, eg air conditioned space. Very common issue with the camera manufacturers own plastic housings.

If it was a flood then the flash firing off would heat the water droplets up then they would rapidly cool again causing fogging. Until everything is completely dried off including the air

within the housing the fogging should continue with the camera in.

The Canon housings also have a known issue with occasional mould imperfections in the O-Ring groove causing floods.

Cheers,

Jim.

The condensation was only the first sign, seconds later I had a few onces of water in the casing.

Since the casing is so old and never leaked before and it happened to the other guy in the same conditions. I don't think it was a defect or a user issue unless we consider an impossibly unlikely scenario of synchronized errors.

On that day, my casing flooded three times in a row when the hot camera was inside (it never leaked without the camera inside). I checked everything with hysterical minutiae. Now that the camera and casing are cold. No leak. Nothing. Nada. I was using the same o ring, same camera, same lube, same guy, same everything. I did not even clean it just to be sure that I would not change anything except for the temperature of the casing and camera. I bet my friends casing would not leak today either.

I will now check for camera and casing temperature. Not that I understand how it could affect the seal.