Droped my Camera in River during shoot.... :(

[ryan_milton]

<p>Does anyone know if there is a way to save my camera from water damage? Yesterday, during a shoot in a River. I lost my balance on some underwater rocks and l fell. I dropped my camera in the river and couldn't find it for about 5 minutes. My heart was pounding severly for the whole 5 minutes and when I found it, it was dead. So was I. I was able to use a backup to finish the shoot, but my Canon 60d was done. When I got home, I tried to blow out the body and lens with light air and then let it set for the noght. I'm going to give it another two days or so before I try to see if it works, but just in case, I want to know if it can be fixed in light of the water. </p>

[howard_m]

<p>you can try putting it in a VERY LOW 'warm' oven to try to force the moisture to evaporate while putting it in a Ziploc full of rice.</p>

<p>But most likely, it's a writeoff.</p>

[Marcus Ian]

<p>Once you've removed the battery, I wouldn't expect any further damage to be done, however, you'll need to dry it COMPLETELY before trying to see if it's still salvageable (else putting a battery back in is only going to cause more harm). Remove the time/date battery as well immediately.</p>

<p>For complete submersion, I'd do a partial disassembly, removing as many of the covers and pieces as possible, before putting it in a <em>sealed</em> container with a fair amount of a strong desiccant (preferrably with the camera in a cloth or paper bag to keep the desicant out of the camera body and components) such as Damp-rid (they sell it at Home depot and the like). The desiccant will suck the moisture out of the Camera pieces but it might take a few days. (personally, I'd leave it for up to a week)</p>

<p>Once that's done, you should be able to reassemble and test it with a fresh battery. If it functions (which is a big IF - given it was in operation at the time of submersion), you can go about cleaning any hard water/residue of the sensor stack and mirror and such. This may be the hardest part depending on the river water.</p>

<p>I, too, wouldn't hold your hopes to high, but you may get lucky - it depends on where the water got first, and what shutdown the camera's electronics did. Doing it right is certainly worth a shot (and may payoff), because right now you have a soggy paperweight.</p>

[ed_avis2]

<p>Agreed about removing both batteries first of all. But then shouldn't you first leave it to soak in pure (deionized) water to remove any deposits left by the river water? Change the pure water once or twice. Then dry it out as above.</p>

[sarah_fox]

<p>Ed is correct: First try to flush out the river water with distilled water. Try to fill the camera with fresh distilled, drain and discard, fill again with fresh distilled, drain again, repeating a few times. Shake the camera gently to help the distilled water reach all the internal parts. (The seal between the sensor and AA/IR filter is air/water-tight in most of our cameras, BTW.)</p>

<p>Then partially disassemble the camera and dry it for quite a long time. The attic is a bountiful source of hot, dry air this time of year. (We dry our herbs up there.) I'd put the camera in a very thin, loosely sealed paper bag to protect it from dust, while allowing moisture to escape through the walls. Then I'd leave the camera in the attic for as many as several weeks.</p>

<p>Personally I wouldn't hold out much hope. The battery probably had ample time to destroy the fine traces on the circuitry boards. However, you've got a backup camera to carry on. After several weeks, pull your camera out of the attic, power it up, and you might get a pleasant surprise. Not likely, though.</p>

[Marcus Ian]

<blockquote>

<p>Agreed about removing both batteries first of all. But then shouldn't you first leave it to soak in pure (deionized) water to remove any deposits left by the river water? Change the pure water once or twice. Then dry it out as above</p>

</blockquote>

<p>That is an excellent idea! I hadn't even thought of doing so. I mean, it's not like it's going to do any <em>more</em> harm than has already been done, hypothetically it could cause some leeching of the plastics, but that is <em>highly unlikely</em> to do any harm (I just wouldn't drink the used water ;) ) to the camera's functionality, and is probably going to do a <em>lot</em> of good... </p>

[peter_simpson1]

<p>You want that oven to be as low as you can get it, and the door open.</p>

[howard_m]

<p>all of the above. the rice works because it draws out the moisture.</p>

[ryan_milton]

<p>Thank you all so much! I really appreciate it!</p>

[ryan_milton]

<p>One question though...I can't locate the Date/time battery. Where would I look for that?</p>

[phule]

<p>The 60D does not appear to have a user replaceable date/time battery.</p>

[savagesax]

Often it can take several days to dry. I'd give it a week. Whatever you you do DON'T put the batteries back into the

camera for about a week. I worked in a repair shop for a couple of years. There's a small chance that it may

survive. Also check the batteries before putting them back into the camera. Often they short out when hitting water.

[Didier Lamy]

<p>Don't leave it drying for too long, all kind of molds might start to grow, even after soaking in distilled water (still a small amount of salts in car battery-grade water). Vacuum drying might help and would keep the camera cold. Just find a chemical laboratory, they know how to do it....</p>

[Marcus Ian]

<blockquote>

<p>The 60D does not appear to have a user replaceable date/time battery.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Who knew! I simply assumed it had one (like all my digital EOS cameras have had)</p>

[nathancraver]

When I was in the Navy, I had to perform a few emergency reclaimations (EREC) where aircraft avionics components had

been soaked in sea water, which is obviously much worse than river water. The first thing you do is immerse the

component in deionized water and flush several times to get contaminants out. After the flushing with water, the next

step is to soak the unit in 90% pure isopropyl alcohol. The alcohol will help get any remaining water out. After about a

few days of drying, we would reinstall the component and op check it. The alcohol shouldn't affect the seals or any glue

in the camera, but you may want to ask a camera repair person or the manufacturer first.

[michael_linn]

<p>In ten years of camera repair, I had to deal with a few "swimmers".</p>

<p>There is no shortcut to immediate disassembly. The "rice" thing is an urban legend. Letting a camera "dry out" over several days simply means that you have left it "wet" for that time period. If it went in for five minutes while turned on, get it ready for a Viking Funeral. It will probably need a whole new flex at this point, for starters.</p>

<p>If the lens is other than the kit lens, it might be worth professional repair. It's less likely to have suffered permanent electronic damage, Left to dry out on it's own over several days it will likely be toast by then also.</p>

[Sabin]

<p>Hi Ryan, I’m sorry to hear about your accident.<br>

Something very similar has happened to me a few years back, I fell in a river while holding my Nikon D300 with a Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 lens attached to it, I was fully submerged for only 10 to 15 seconds but was enough for a lot of water to get into both camera and lens.<br>

I’ve sent the camera to Nikon for repairs however they could not guaranty that either camera or lens could be repaired or offer any warranty on the work they were performing.<br>

I chose not to spend hundreds of dollars without a guaranty that the repairs would work.<br>

Several days later when I received the camera back from the workshop I could still see droplets of water in the camera and lens so I’ve tried the bag of rice method but as others have pointed out the rice is not absorbent enough to make any difference for the amount of water that has entered the camera.<br>

I would be reluctant to put the camera in the oven to dry because it is very easy to cause heat damage to the plastic, rubber and other camera parts.<br>

I took a chance and placed the camera and lens (not connected to each other) on the dashboard of my car and left it in the sun for several days. After a week or so I put in a new battery and turned the camera on, to my surprise the camera came back to life and has worked ever since.<br>

The only permanent damage that I am aware of is the on-camera flash which no longer works other than that no problems.<br>

The lens on the other hand has not been as lucky, I’m no expert but I suspect that because I left it in the full sun the rubber seals in the lens have softened and got damaged because it is very hard to manually zoom in and out and there are several spots left on the glass inside the lens from the dried water droplets.<br>

Strange enough the auto focusing still works great. I no longer use this lens and have since replaced it.<br>

Best option would be to have the camera checked by a qualified repairer then decide if it is worth the cost to fix it.<br>

You can attempt to take the camera apart let it dry then put it back together and hope it still works, otherwise I suggest you leave it in a sunny well ventilated area to dry for a week or two and then try it.<br>

The chances of it working again are slim but you never know. I wish you the best of luck and I sincerely hope you can get it working again.</p>

[orly_andico]

<p>Rice may not work but a sealed box with a couple jars of silica gel might. +1 on rinsing with deionized water though.<br>

I used to have an old Pentax K10D and K20D and they could withstand submersion. These are bodies in the same class as the 60D. I know some Canon lenses have a rubber gasket on the mount and that, in combination with a front filter and a weatherproof body, should have provided some protection.</p>

[matthias_meixner2]

<p>Better than rinsing it with distilled water would be to use some alcohol since that absorbs remaining water and dries much more quickly than water. So drying the camera would be dramatically sped up which reduces the time water can damage the camera. However, you will have to find some alcohol that does not damage the plastic used for making the camera. Ethanol or isopropyl alcohol might be candidates, they are commonly used for cleaning the sensor. But before applying them to the whole camera research the web whether someone else already did this.<br>

<br />I know that this process has successfully been applied to mobile phones that have been dropped into water. So maybe it would also work for cameras.</p>

[james_elwing]

<p>Don't know how a vacuum chamber would affect other components. Just have to get it to a temperature where water boils off at the degree of vacuum chosen, but then, some components might explode at low pressure. Don't think I would like to drop it in alcohol</p>

[Didier Lamy]

<p>Gasoline...I saw once an old land rover drowned under a tropical rain ressucitate when a local filled his mouth with gasoline and spat everything on the (then very basic) electric system ..</p>