Floods

This is a theoretical question as no member of this board would ever be so dumb as to do this.

Suppose someone was using a Subal housing with two synch ports. Say he used only one of the ports and did not put the water tight cap on the other synch port. Then went diving. Of course the strobes would not work as the salt water shorts out the signal in the open synch port.

At the surface there is no water found inside the housing. When thoroughly dried out and using just the other synch port the housing and electronics work fine and has made two subsequent dive trips without a problem.

Maintenance was as follows. Immediately rinsed with freshwater then dried thoroughly with a blow dryer. Contacts scrubbed with electrosove contact cleaner, dried, then tented (put on top of a box with just the open synch socket pointing straight down into the box with a hair dryer at the bottom of the box on low pointing at the open socket) for six hours. No sign of corrosion is noted on the synch contacts.

This synch socket has not been used since the accident. My question is do you think it is safe to use??

I know that you should not use a synch cord that has been submerged unprotected. The

salt water will migrate up the cord wires and can short out the camera's electronics if

try to use it.

I normally only use one synch cord and have the second cord attached to Ike's remote

sensor. The second synch socket it a backup so if something happens to the first one on

an important trip I have another that I can use.

The dive was a short one to about only 35 ft.

The subal synch sockets appear to sealed against water entry.

If you ask subal they will of course say to replace it. I'm not against this but wonder if it

really necessary. I'm not even total sure the socket was left open. The cap might have

the first thing removed and was forgotten about.

Just curious what people think about this and what their experiences have been.

Remember; there are two types of UW photographers. Those who have flooded a housing and those that will.

All the above is purely hypothetical. I would never do anything so dumb.

Further question. If you advocate replacing the synch socket. Would it be because you think salt water could have migrated up the wires and attempting to use it will potentially damage the camera, or is it because you think that the synch contacts will inevitably rust and the synch socket will not work when I really need it?

Do you think it is safe to hook up the camera and a strobe to see if it works?

I personally would have removed the bulkheads completely from the housing and worked from there - Saves all that puffing & blowing, maybe 1/2 hour to sort it.

Even tho' you've done some correctives I would still remove as above.

Refit with HD silicon such as Moly 111

Hypothetically of course

Cheers,

Bob

I'd probably remove and replace the bulkhead to be safe. It may be functional, but do you really want to chance frying a $1500 camera and possibly a $500-900 strobe?

Just my $0.02 of course.

Worst case scenario is a bulkhead that will not operate properly electrically. You may be able to compare the two bulkheads with an ohm meter to see if resultant corrosion has affected.

A friend of mine (cough cough heh) flooded a bulkhead on his Aquatica housing. There was a sync cord connected but not properly.

The socket was dried with compressed air, then alcohol, then capped and stored.

It was not replaced and was later bench tested and worked fine. It now works just fine and has been used on many trips.

Cheers

James

Hi Dave,

My Subal D100 housing has also been on the ocean without its plugs in the synch sockets! Only for a couple of minutes while snorkelling at the surface. Doh! So i didn't give it as long or as pressured a dip as you hypothetical "friend".

There was no water inside the housing, so I rinsed and dried the sockets and it has been fine ever since. There has never been any sign of corrosion on the contacts. I normally use both sockets and they have been fine with both paired manual guns or with my SB80DX plugged in. My misdemeanor was in April 2003 and I have been using my camera without problems ever since.

The great thing about digital is that you see the results after every shot and you know that everything is working. On a film camera I would change the synch plug, but I wouldn't bother on a digital camera, since you will see immediately in your results if you have a problem.

Alex

There are two spring-loaded pins in the Subal bulkhead ports which are very vulnerable to water damage. I had one bulkhead fail on me early in my housing days, due to corrosion at the base of one of the pins, presumably resulting from poor technique when removing/changing the synch cord.

Since then, I've religiously carried a spare bulkhead in my u/w camera tool kit, even though I have twin bulkheads on both my housings (now), and usually use a double synch cord. The bulkhead port itself is not terribly expensive, and is not that difficult to change.

Robert Delfs

Thanks to all. I tested the socket and it works. I've learned the hard way about the spring loaded contacts in the socket in the past. I keep checking them. I didn't want to work on the socket myself; but looking at it it appears to be just screwed in with an O ring. Correct?? I think I will get an extra synch socket.

They used to glue the bulkheads in with epoxy. Not sure if the still do.

I personally would have it replaced at the first opportunity.