bryan_lardizabal Posted July 9, 2008 Share Posted July 9, 2008 I disagree with all posts about soaking in fresh water. Being experienced with underwater photography and camera leaks, and UW shooters would probably agree with me on this, the damage is already done from the initial salt water immersion. Bottom line is to send the camera/ lenses to a repair facility ASAP!.....the sooner the better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buster douglas Posted July 9, 2008 Share Posted July 9, 2008 I'm really sorry for your loss. I would be in very deep depression if I loss my $225.00 Kodak Z740 I suggest go but the new D700 by Nikon and let me know how well it works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricardo_tomasi Posted July 9, 2008 Share Posted July 9, 2008 As strange as it sounds, rinsing electronics with water is a good measure if it has been submerged into any impure liquid, and you don't have gallons of isopropyl alcohol hanging around. I've washed my MP3 player successfully after it was left a full day sitting on spilled coke, and I've heard stories of digital P&S recovered after a machine wash. My own GX-10 is fully functional after bein ran over by a car, so I believe this stuff :D Just make sure it's all thoroughly dry before turning it back on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtipton Posted July 9, 2008 Share Posted July 9, 2008 This looked so familiar, kind of. So there I was with my brand new xsi, sitting on some rocks on the Sea of Cortez. I decided I needed to change the lens and set my camera down on my back pack. The pack was on a slight incline. I went to get up, bumped the damn pack and it was all over but the wailing. The camera dislodge and took a short trip into a very small, yet very receptive tidal pool, submerging half the camera and lens. After I sent it back to Canon, I waited a week and was told it was beyond repair. The happy ending is I love my new 40D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill_force Posted July 9, 2008 Share Posted July 9, 2008 One year ago in a Caribbean Lagoon our large canoe capsized in brackish sea water. My camera, accessories, watch, cellphone were ALL toast. I immediately flushed the camera with fresh water and then dried very slowly in a 120 Deg F. oven but it was for naught, all died even the batteries. Once "hot dipped" they are usually history. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_beaver1 Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 I''ve had some experiences with oceans and gear too. The water / alcohol treatment is the best bet, but don't count on any success. With insured professional equipment it's best to let it go and take the loss as lost gear rather then trying to salvage it and have the insurance company pay for a repair. Not sure how your homeowners treats it, but think about the options before you call them. Trust me, with today's electronics it will never be the same, and even if it works for a while, I can guarantee that there is some salt water in there corroding something that you can't see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iancoxleigh Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 I dropped one of my lenses in fresh water about two weeks ago. It had about 1/2 cup of water inside and it has now dried and works flawlessly. There are some spots on the second element in, but they have not seemed to effect image quality noticeably. I do plan to have the lens cleaned though. I also immersed a computerized Nikon cable release/intervolometre in salt-water and have had it return to normal functioning after a brief period of odd behaviour (it was randomly triggering). So, have hope! Best of luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
savagesax Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 Well if you shoot weddings I'd have a really hard time trusting the camera. Saltwater just is not a nice thing! Collect on your insurance and try to find an old time repair shop that may take a gamble and was everything out. This repair shop is decent. We were actually partnersmany years ago. He replaces parts that are needed and often a lot less then Canon. Frankly I don't think Canon will repair these. You can give him my name if you wish. http://www.local.com/details/1324552/glendale-ca/erics-camera-repair.aspx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helenclement Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 Oh Rob, I did laugh at the story, BUT I know its not funny. I would be devestated. I hope you get all your gear sorted. I have fallen twice into fresh water and both cameras survived, but salt water..not so sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abzphotoz Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 WOW! That is truly a sad day for a photographer. The 2 lenses are the part that made my jaw drop. Those are worth (as u know) almost 3k! sorry about that. They are also 2 of the best. I feel really, really, really............really bad for u. I guess if I were you I would focus on repairing the 2 L lenses. I think I would call Canon and see what they say but maybe bring them in for repair to a local/reputable shop as it will be less expensive-and even if they repair them and they're working, how long will they continue working and would you feel confident in an important shooting situation? Probably not, so you're going to get new lenses anyway. Hey-from what I hear wedding photographers make pretty good $$. 2 or 3 weddings and you should be cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arthur_young1 Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 Hi, I flipped my kayak in the rapids and got sucked to the bottom of a river. I had my Rebel XTi donned with 24-105 L IS hanging around my neck with power on. As soon as I managed to fight the current and find the surface I pulled the battery and flashcard. When we returned home several hours later I put a lamp in the oven with a hundred watt light bulb in it. Left camera and lens ( detached ) for all day. I had just spent a couple hundred on the Xti for a new shutter assy. I wasn't sure I wanted to put any more $$$ into it. So far it is working fine. There were alot of water spots inside the lens after it dried. Canon has it at this time and is cleaning it for about $200.00. It was fresh water and no sand. I normally stick to flat water but some friend invited me to the river and I got in a bad spot. Just glad I'm here to shoot some more and that I left my new 1d Mark III at home. I have attached a photo that I took after drying the Xti in the oven. Sorry about your luck and hope your insurance covers!<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marcsharp Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 I once left a digital Elph on the roof of my car. The strap caught on to the luggage rack, and the camera was there for almost two weeks before I found it. It had been through lots of rain, a car wash, and hot Texas sun. When I found it, I poured all the water out through the battery compartment, let it sit, and a few day later it worked as good as new. About four months later the camera died, and I gave it a proper funeral, but the memory card and the battery still live in my newer Elph. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelly_flanigan1 Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 Here in hte salt flooded summer home the dryer motor was placed in under freshn water; relubed and has worked ever since. With pure manual lenses many I have that just ogt a tad of salt spray; or went under water almost ALL have diaphrams that are corroded shut; ie welded at the fstop they were at pre Katrina. many of these focus; but then if the fstop ring is moved the diaphram pivots shear off. With electronics modern stuff with tight pin spacings may work for awhile; then the salt bridges over and the unit fails. With a 1965 magnivox stereo thats solid state; it works after goingh under water; with NO repairs at all. Even if a salt flooded camera is made to work you probably are on borrowed time; these repairs are not really reliable; its impossible to remove all salt. Think doorstop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarah_fox Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 Regarding the fresh water soaking, which I recommended above... This is the exact same general method used by a colleague of mine to rescue sensitive scientific equipment that occasionally went overboard into the Atlantic. He was the resident electronics technician for a marine biology research facility. He knew even more about electronics than I do, which is a fair amount. His general method did include a final rinse with denatured alcohol, by the way, but I am uncertain of the consequences of long-term exposure to alcohol for the internal components of your lenses, particularly the coatings, since they will obviously be difficult to dry out without disassembly. Therefore I didn't recommend that step. I live at a few feet of elevation above sea level in Coastal Virginia and have assisted with the cleaning and dry-out of a numerous items that fell victim to salt water flooding here, particularly in the wake of Hurricane Isabel and Tropical Storm Ernesto. The general theme is that if it had power, it was usually (but not always) toast. If it had no power and was soaked/rinsed/dried expeditiously, it was usually fine. The more delicate the circuitry, usually the more likely to die. In my few years here, I've rescued many thousands of dollars worth of small electronics and appliances for friends and neighbors -- and a few for myself. I've lost count of how many air conditioner and furnace controler circuit boards I've washed out with a garden hose. To my knowledge, none of the devices I rescued as far back as 2003 have failed. I also rescued the laptop computer I am typing on at this very minute, when it suffered a massive wine spill several years ago. I IMMEDIATELY yanked the power and pulled the battery. Every component of the computer except the display and hard drive (which were not affected) was soaked in distilled water for about a day, followed by alcohol, followed by paper towel drying and then a day of air drying. The fact that you are reading this message is testament to the fact that water does not destroy electronics; only corrosion and stray conductances through water with ionic content (e.g. salt water) destroy electronics. Notions to the contrary are courtesy of Hollywood (where any mixture of electronics with water results in dramatic sparks and explosions). What WILL hurt most components of your camera, lenses, and flash, are corrosion from the salt water. Get the salt out, or there will be no rescuing anything! This I guarantee! Don't dry it before flushing it thoroughly and completely! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e.s._shiew Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 Leave in the salt water, so they won't get corrode.....Bring the whole outfit to repair shop.....sometimes they can still rescue the lenses. The camera and battery is definetly gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtk Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 OBVIOUSLY metals corrode while submerged in salt water. Sunken ships. Keeping submerged in salt water is absurd advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarah_fox Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 If the camera were instead a cannon from some Spanish galleon that had been sunken off of Cape Hatteras for the past several hundred years, I'd agree that it should be left in salt water, until such time as the correct voltages could be applied in the correct solutions to slooooowly leach out the salt and reduce the rust to iron. However, this is an otherwise uncorroded camera outfit. Salt water rusts and corrodes. Leaving the salt inside is utter lunacy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elmroc Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 >>>>OBVIOUSLY metals corrode while submerged in salt water. Sunken ships. Keeping submerged in salt water is absurd advice. Actually John, This is not too far fetched. In order for corrosion to take place, air must be present. That is why corrosion is also called OXIDATION. When relics are recovered from the deep, they are preserved in the same water from which they were recovered. So this is not too far fetched. But i digress....I would have to say, based on my past experience with my lost Nikon F3hp, that your camera is toast also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_wilson10 Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 It's not true that air must be present for corrosion to take place. Oxidation and corrosion are NOT the same thing. Running a current through salt water is super corrosive to the anodes and cathodes of the circuits in question (depending on the chemical makeup of the electrodes. Goes without saying that the chips in your camera are not meant to be electrodes, and any current running through a modern electronic camera when it's immersed in salt water means bye bye camera. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j_smith6 Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 Ouch! OUCH! Lenses should be fine. I think you should keep them in water till they get repaired. Camera probably won't work, unless you were lucky and not much of water went inside. Send eveything to canon and good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leandro_dutra1 Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 The professional line of Olympus, for example � E-1 and E-3, professional lenses like the 7�14mm, 12�60mm, 50�200, 50mm 1:2 � are sealed. Not sure it would have survived, but chances would have been much better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j_smith6 Posted July 10, 2008 Share Posted July 10, 2008 They are sealed against dust and rain only. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob_strong1 Posted July 11, 2008 Author Share Posted July 11, 2008 Hooray for insurance! The big-ticket items (20D and 2 L-series) have been 100% replaced by my Valuable Personal Property insurance floater with USAA. The other things, since they weren't itemized, weren't covered by my renter's insurance (falling in the ocean is not a "Named Peril", evidently), but the Valuable Personal Items has got my back for basically anything short of an Act of War ("Discharge of a nuclear weapon shall be deemed a warlike act even if accidental." -- good to know). The lesson is this: while regular renter's insurance covers theft and fire and a few other sundries, only the Valuable Personal Property covers boneheadedness worldwide. And it was only like $20 per thousand dollars of coverage per year! So if you travel a lot or clamber around near the ocean with your gear, I implore you to ask your homeowners/renters insurance people about getting a floater for your camera. I think I'm going to list the salt-damaged stuff as-is on Ebay; I'll post a link here when/if I do (is that allowed, posting a link to Ebay?). thanks all for the advice and commiseration, Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjacksonphoto Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 Rob My experience with insurance, exactly. A presonal property policy is the way to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjacksonphoto Posted July 11, 2008 Share Posted July 11, 2008 Oh, and glad it worked out for you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now