Olympus PT-010

The interior of my PT-010 Olympus housing fogged on a dive last week. I disassembled and cleaned, lubed and reassembled it, then took it down to about 70 feet without the camera. No leaks.

I am still leary about putting the camera back in it. I need some feedback on whether or not I did the right thing.

First I removed the outer blue lens ring. cleaned and lint free dried. BTW the edge of a putty knife works well for removing the threaded blue ring.

Then I removed in order: the glass lens with black o-ring around the lens followed by an inner flat black gasket, one side of which has a raised bead.

In my haste to remove the salt water, I can't remember which way the gasket came out. Bead up or down?

Inside of the housing is a fixed black gasket that looks like the removable gasket. It is bead side up.

Upon reassembling everything, I guessed and placed the removable gasket on top of the fixed gasket, bead side up so the fixed gasket was in contact with the smooth side of the removable gasket.

I then lubed the oring that goes around the lens, placed it around the lens and then into the groove of the lens housing. It is not a snug fit and kind of sits there. This is the part that makes me nervous. Did I do this right?

I then replaced the blue threaded ring, said a prayer and took it on the dive without the camera.

BTW I saw a great white shark on that dive and really was not paying attention to the housing at the time. It was dry when I got on the boat and I didn't notice any leaks, but I would like some pointers from anyone who can help me out.

I'm going on a 3 week Papua New Guinea trip next week...please help.

I tried to attach some photos of the disassembled housing but can't seem to get it to work. I'll post them on my website at www.descentline.com. Go to the dive links page and choose the olympus pt-010 page. The photos will be up in a few minutes.

Any pointers? (Not the shark kind)

Thank very much.

It is most likely that the fog in your housing was condensation rather than an acutal leak. I can't say for sure without looking at it, but it happens quite frequently. Tragically, many people follow a similar path to yours, disassemble their housings, put too much grease on an o-ring (thinking the grease makes the seal), lose track of how things go together (did this one myself, I'll be watching the replies to make sure I put the port back together correctly) and cause a real flood.

Condensation fog inside a housing happens when a housing has warm moist are inside the housing, and then is plunged into colder water. I have read suggestions on this and other boards to avoid air conditioning when sealing housings. I have had better luck taking advantage of air conditioning. If your housing is sealed with cool de-humidified air, then kept cool until it is submerged into cool water, you should have little trouble. On a recent trip to Cozumel, our air only worked in fits and spurts and I had some fogging. Since then, I have been rather strict about including a couple of dessicant packs in my housing on every dive. This appears to be working, as I haven't seen any fog since.

Get some dessicants before your trip, diligently find the correct assembly for the front port (and drop me an e-mail when you find it), recheck the port after or during your first dive (the front o-ring seats a bit with pressure), go and have a good time.

One more suggestion. Get DEPP insurance. It covers you whether the flood is faulty equipment, malfunction or simply human error.

One more, really. I would find something more substantial than a putty knife for the port removal. When you get the replacement front ring for an INON lens, it has a rather hefty bit of steel for the job. You want something thick enough to just barely fit in the slots of the ring. Too loose, and it could slip with disastrous consequences.

In addition to Sharpdiver's advice, including his key advice regarding air conditioning and dissicant packets, keep your camera out of the sun when your not diving. Try to keep your camera in a bucket of rinse water between dives. Better yet, if you're on a live-aboard, keep it in an air conditioned room between dives, and especially when loading the camera.

I agree with Meister's comment, except...

Keeping the housing cool is an issue that I mentioned, but didn't dwell on. Meister has brought up an excellent point. Even if the air inside the housing was air conditioned, if the housing sits in the sun for even a brief period it can become heated, making a fog even more likely. The exception is his advise to keep your camera in the rinse tank. In a perfect world, this would be a great idea. In the real world, nasty things can happen. Specifically, I have seen rinse buckets that would have been wonderful hot tubs (100 to 108 degree water temperature). Dark colored tubs sitting in the sun are something to avoid. Also, the more photographers on the boat, the greater chance for your equipment to be damaged in the tank. One thoughtless drop by an over-excited diver returning to the boat and you've got a strobe arm crashing through your glass port.

My first solution for this was my own portable insulated rinse bucket. It works great, but it is an enormous pain in the butt and will earn you the derision of every boat captain you meet. Nick Buckley, the owner of Red Baron Dive Charters in Grand Cayman taught me my currently preferred method for camera surface intervals and boat rides. Wrap it in a wet beach towel and keep it out of the sun. The water in the towel will act like a "swamp cooler" and keep the camera much cooler than the open air. Also, salt crystallization on your camera happens as salt water evaporates. If the water doesn't evaporate, there are no crystals. The water in the towel can even be salt water (in an area where freshwater is scarce or expensive), just keep it wet until you get back to shore, then give it a proper fresh water bath.

HTH

Thanks so much for your reply. I think I should have been clearer in my post.

Upon getting out of the water I noticed a drop of water inside the housing. I guess this could have been due to condensation by itself, but I always put several dessicator packs inside of the housing.

It was a pretty warm day in so cal. around 70 with water temp ranging 60-66. Maybe this is a big enough differential to cause condensation?

Thanks for the other suggestions too. I carry DEPP insurance on all of my gear. They have been very helpful in the past when the strobe to my husbands old sea and sea mx-10 wouldn't work they arranged a quick turn around time repair, with the strobe back in time for our next trip 2 weeks later.

Thank you for the suggestion on the putty knife too. point taken (no pun intended). I know that there is an x shaped tool for this job but can't find out where to purchase it. Does anyone know?

Once I find out the right assembly order, I will email you and post.

Thanks for all of your help!

Thanks for all of the further replies.

On liveaboards I do keep the housing and camera in the air conditioned areas, if not it is in the water bucket as long as it is not in the sun.

This is sometimes difficult on tiny 6 pack boats and I usually resort to a towel dipped in fresh water as suggested.

The whole condensation discussion sounds like it was moot. Did you have fog, or just the water drops?

The lens port was fogged completely and upon opening the housing there was a drop of water in this area. Whether it was from the heavy condensation "pooling" into a drop, I don't know.

Well, after not having much luck finding out the correct assembly order for the lens port and thinking that even if I did I would still want to pressure test the housing, my husband drove it down to San Diego to Marine Camera (www.marinecamera.com) to check it out, assemble and pressure test...$15 well spent. Tom at Marine Camera got it back to us in less than a day turn around.

By the way, we also purchased the Inon macro lens and Epoque wide angle lens and new Ikelite try and arm for the p-010. The tray and arm are a lot more stable than the old one I had...we'll let you know how we like it after we get back from Papua New Guinea and the Bahamas.

Thanks to everyone who offered their help!