Fell in the Ocean - Repair Possibilities?

[rob_strong1]

Bidding starts at 95 cents per item!

 

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZdasviper

 

Rob

[sarah_fox]

OOooooooohhhhh, Rob.... You left the salt inside!

 

If you'd only rinsed the things with fresh water, I might have been a bidder.

 

Good luck!

[dave_thomas8]

Having personally seen circuit board traces eaten off a PC board in minutes when it was dunked in soda while powered up (this was a test!), I'm in the camp that says the stuff is toast. If it went into salt water without any batteries in it, a couple of distilled water soaks/flushes followed by long slow drying might restore things. Dunked while batteries are installed, I would expect metal was being eaten away electrolytically from the moment of immersion.

 

Sorry; indeed your's is a sobering story.

 

DaveT

[abzphotoz]

You are one happy camper. Go out and have yourself a big ole steak.

[richard_oleson]

Glad you had the insurance! That's the only really good answer.

 

I have recovered electronics (thermal imaging cameras) after power-up salt water immersion by running down to the store and buying 2 gallon jugs of distilled water... cutting the top end off of each, immersing the imager in one for a couple of hours and then pulling it out, letting it drain and immersing it in the other one for a couple more. Then took it out and let it dry thoroughly before powering up again. It was not very pretty inside but it worked. I did this more than once, to recover expensive units after the housings had failed an IP67 salt water immersion test.

 

You do need to do this quickly after pulling it out of the salt water, though, as the corrosion begins right away.

[j_smith6]

If I were you I'd repair them and sell them as repaired (lenses).

[sarah_fox]

Wow, I'm impressed! $127.50 so far for the 70-200L -- and with a zoom ring that is frozen (corroded?) in place!

 

I'm wondering whether any of the aluminum retaining rings would even unscrew to allow access to the lens elements. I somehow doubt it. Maybe on the 50/1.8, since that's a mostly plastic lens.

 

The most salvagable item would be the battery grip, but it's only got a $0.95 bid.

 

I love Ebay! :-)

[rob_strong1]

Yeah, Ebay's the best! The assembled parts have absolutely no usefulness to me, but obviously someone out there wants them. Strangely, the 16-35 is only at $12.50, but I have a feeling it's much closer to being workable than the 70-200 (there are 53 people "watching" it, according to Ebay, though, so I'm looking forward to a price spike when the auction completes on Friday.) Even the 50mm (at $15) is bid up higher than the 16-35! And I can't see anything visually wrong with the two batteries, but not one bid on them yet.

 

Rob

[hjoseph7]

Some photographers might shy away from you unfortunately.

[rob_strong1]

I was very specific in describing and photographing the state of the gear, so I'm not worried that anyone's been mislead. I think people are interested in the residual value of the glass as spare parts for lenses whose electronics are fine but whose optics have suffered a collision or something.

[andrew_gale]

Only use distilled water. H2O does not conduct electricity so make sure that whatever you stick it in, that it is very, very, very pure and clean.

[tracy_miller]

What brand of camera bag did you have?

[rob_strong1]

Kinesis Photo Gear belt; the lens cases weren't zipped shut, though, just velcroed, so the seawater marched right in unopposed. Now that I mention it, I think I'm changing my lens setup a bit, and I won't need the Kinesis E280 Large Lens pouch (fits 70-200 f/2.8) anymore. Anyone interested?

[sarah_fox]

Rob, WOW! I am totally impressed! I never would have thought you would get THAT MUCH money for utterly worthless and unserviceable gear! I honestly wouldn't have given you $20 for the whole outfit. You got over a thousand for a lens whose mechanicals (including retaining rings?) are corroded solid! You got new value (aftermarket prices) for the batteries! You even got half of new value for your thrifty fifty disposable. I'm utterly flabbergasted! So the insurance company replaced your gear, and you have almost a cool $2k for all of your aquarium ornaments.

 

If the insurance company had been smart, they'd have demanded the soaked gear and wholesaled it out to be ebayed themselves. ;-)

[rob_strong1]

I completely agree with you! I was surprised myself that they didn't want to see the gear, at least to make sure it was really broken to begin with. I guess they have bigger fish to fry, as far as insurance claims go.

 

The whole experience was like being on antiques road show, sort of. I had no idea what the stuff was worth, but some people out there seem to have a pretty good idea; after all, at the end of any auction, at least _two_ people had to be willing to bid at least as much as the final price.

 

I came real close to turning all that salty gear into a brand new 5D last night, but was just able to restrain myself.

 

Rob

[kelly_flanigan1]

With salt soaked gear it really doesnt matter whether one uses dumb tab water or distilled water; until one has

all the salt out; which maybe never unless you get the items apart. Just a tad of salt will make water

conductive. <BR><BR>With cast aluminum or even plain aluminum one can salt sheding off of salt soaked items years

later; the salt gets into the pores; it gets into the greases; ie gets into the plastic items' it gets into the

cracks of chips/ic's.<BR><BR> Once the salt gets to the lens diaphram; even a hint causes the petals/blades of

the iris to lock together. Items that are high stength materials such as springs in a lens often fail later after

a salt dunking. In lenses that I specfically rebuilt for usage around salt water here I regreased them with

Texaco outboard motor gear grease that was waterproof. These lenses that went underwater in Katrina still rotate;

while others are locked solid; but the irises are welded on most all of them. <BR><BR>With a 1950's Nikkor thats

all brass the they are much more robust around some salt spray; since the helix is brass; more robust around

salt. <BR><BR>With salt dunked lenses the coatings often are removed; and thus even if rebuilt one has an

uncoated lens. <BR><BR>Small screws many times on salt soaked items are a total devil to remove; or have to be

bored out. One can try WD40; PB nut blaster; KROIL from a HVAC supply store; try a zillion ultrasonic baths and

the items are still often locked shut; and one has to use a dremel tool. Even if rebuilt a salt soaked lens often

will outgass crap with time; and the contast drops as the "crud" gets deposited back on the internal glass

elements. With one optical gizmo I place the item in a vacuum chamber; and used my HVAC service vacuum pump to

help drive off the crap. All that WD40; PB nutblaster is not evaporating; its being wicked into the castings;

micro cracks in machined parts; even the plastics. <BR><BR>The time bomb of a repair not lasting is worse for

modern circuit boards; IC's etc with a tight pitch; one salt "growth" ; ie "micro worm" can emerge and short out

a trace; or pins on a dinky surface mount item. With an electric motor with permanent magnets; the salt soak or

spray I have seen have the DC motor fail because the magnets debonded on the stator; and thus hit the armature;

making a weird noise for awhile! <BR><BR>With items still having batteries inside; or the AC still on a salt dunk

often causes massive problems; the electric current gooses the corrosion. <BR><BR>With salt dunked lenses often

they cannot ever be taken apart; one has a locked up lens with salt water still inside; even a year or two later.

The saltwater gets thru grease in the helix; then it corrodes and one has a nice paper weight; with cloud of

saltwater still inside. <BR><BR>With a salt dunked Nikon F, F2, etc one often can salvage the focus screen;

sometimes the unmetered prism if it gets to fresh water quickly. <BR><BR> With the mixes of materials in a camera

such as aluminum, brass, steel the salt helps accelerate the new battery you have now made with your camera.

Fresh water reduces the acceleration; the soup is less conductive. Even with distilled water there is alot of

salt being flushed out. Thus distilled water is great if the items are all apart; but thats basically impossible.

Re changing the wash water is important; some old timers use to use a zinc sacrifical anode attached to the

tripod socket while the camera is in the pail of fresh water too. <BR><BR>If you get the items apart; separate

the removed items by materials; brass in one pail; aluminum in another; steel in another.<BR><BR>Lets say the

salt causes a 1 thousands of an inch "eating" up on a screw; ite not much on a 1/4-20 bolt on the lawn mower; its

a far bigger deal on a watch or camera. Its easier to booger up (ruin) a screw on camera than a lawn mower.

<BR><BR>In salt sprayed non dunked Nikkors I have some that focus great; and have super clear optics; but the

diaphram is locked at its last postion. With a 35mm F2.8 PC nikkor I have; its stuck at F32 and at 2.5 feet; it

shifts and its basically like welded together; even with the bottom screws bored out; optics are perfect; no

fungus either!

[sarah_fox]

Thanks, Kelly! There's a lot of good advice in that thread!

 

Yeah, metals are pretty porous. I didn't know salt outgrowth was that big a problem. Post-Isabel, I did clean out a lot of salt-soaked equipment here. My approach was to soak, soak, soak, making sure to keep changing out the distilled water as it accumulated salt. Some equipment was beyond saving (particularly if it was powered up when the water entered it), but that which I did save is still in service almost 5 years later -- mostly motors, relays, and controller boards. I've never had the "pleasure" of de-salting a camera or lens and hopefully never will.

 

I LOVE the idea of the zinc anode! Makes perfect sense. Drawing from that idea, I wonder whether a galvanized bucket is the ideal de-salting container, since parts resting on the bottom would be in direct contact with zinc. Separating parts by metal is also a great idea, as conductances can get kinda weird, even when parts are no longer directly connected.

 

Anyway, there are a lot of interesting adventures ahead for the folks who purchased Rob's gear. If any of my higher-end camera gear ever takes a dunk in seawater, I think I won't even bother dropping it into distilled water. Rob did it just right. Get the insurance money, and sell the ruined equipment on Ebay. Amazing!