DSLR Got Wet - Saltwater!

benjyman345 · Oct 24, 2010

hello,

My DSLR (Olympus E-410) was around the neck when I slipped on some rocks at the beach and it got splashed/dunked in shallow salt water. I removed battery, cards and lens as soon as I could get to a safe location. There was water around the lens mount and lens and a few small splashes on the mirror I think or maybe they were dust marks.

I used my shirt to dry it as best as I could but what now!! :S

I don't think the water got into the electronics.... atleast I really hope not! :S
The battery and cards were dry but slight water around the opening compartments.

Thanks

Garbz · Oct 24, 2010

Wipe the body down with a wet cloth and stop worrying.

chiyeung · Oct 24, 2010

Put the camera in rice. Whatever amount you need to fill the entire camera. it should absorb the water

Arkanjel Imaging · Oct 24, 2010

chiyeung said:
Put the camera in rice. Whatever amount you need to fill the entire camera. it should absorb the water

:er: Yeah, about that. NO!

If youre still worried about moisture, get yourself some silica packets. And put your camera and the packets into a ziploc bag for a day or two. Very effective (and it wont contaminate your gear.)

Here: http://www.silicagelpackets.com/silica-gel-packets/

.

chiyeung · Oct 24, 2010

it has worked for me!

Garbz · Oct 25, 2010

Contaminate the gear? With what? The goal here is to exclusively remove moisture and prevent corrosion, which rice does just fine.

Honestly the way some people coddle cameras is incredible. You act like it won't be obsolete in 10 years.

michaelleggero · Oct 25, 2010

it's not the water you have to worry about so much as the SALT water the salt is what is going to kill your camera...it's too late now, but for future people with problems:

first leave all the stuff on, lens, filters,etc. Whatever went in the water leave on the camera in one piece. now comes the scary part. you have to rinse the water off the camera.. the best way to get rid of the salt is to dunk it in a bucket of clean normal water.. scary i know... not sure i recommend that one, but that is the best way....
i personally would get a spray bottle and some paper towels, spray the camera and immediately wipe off the water.. doing sections of the camera at a time.
the rice and silica gel plans to dry it work good, go with those to dry it, but you really have to get that salt out of there

Mike Leggero

http://www.michaelleggero.com

benjyman345 · Oct 25, 2010

michaelleggero said:
it's not the water you have to worry about so much as the SALT water the salt is what is going to kill your camera...it's too late now, but for future people with problems:

first leave all the stuff on, lens, filters,etc. Whatever went in the water leave on the camera in one piece. now comes the scary part. you have to rinse the water off the camera.. the best way to get rid of the salt is to dunk it in a bucket of clean normal water.. scary i know... not sure i recommend that one, but that is the best way....
i personally would get a spray bottle and some paper towels, spray the camera and immediately wipe off the water.. doing sections of the camera at a time.
the rice and silica gel plans to dry it work good, go with those to dry it, but you really have to get that salt out of there

Mike Leggero

http://www.michaelleggero.com

I could not bring myself to do that. I know it is what should be done to remove salt... but it feels a bit like killing your best mate. (well what I would imagine)

Village Idiot · Oct 25, 2010

benjyman345 said:
michaelleggero said:

it's not the water you have to worry about so much as the SALT water the salt is what is going to kill your camera...it's too late now, but for future people with problems:

first leave all the stuff on, lens, filters,etc. Whatever went in the water leave on the camera in one piece. now comes the scary part. you have to rinse the water off the camera.. the best way to get rid of the salt is to dunk it in a bucket of clean normal water.. scary i know... not sure i recommend that one, but that is the best way....
i personally would get a spray bottle and some paper towels, spray the camera and immediately wipe off the water.. doing sections of the camera at a time.
the rice and silica gel plans to dry it work good, go with those to dry it, but you really have to get that salt out of there

Mike Leggero

http://www.michaelleggero.com

Click to expand...

I could not bring myself to do that. I know it is what should be done to remove salt... but it feels a bit like killing your best mate. (well what I would imagine)

I'd view it more as hitting him with the paddles to shock him back to life after having his heart stop.

pez · Oct 25, 2010

michaelleggero said:
it's not the water you have to worry about so much as the SALT water the salt is what is going to kill your camera...it's too late now, but for future people with problems:

first leave all the stuff on, lens, filters,etc. Whatever went in the water leave on the camera in one piece. now comes the scary part. you have to rinse the water off the camera.. the best way to get rid of the salt is to dunk it in a bucket of clean normal water.. scary i know... not sure i recommend that one, but that is the best way....
i personally would get a spray bottle and some paper towels, spray the camera and immediately wipe off the water.. doing sections of the camera at a time.
the rice and silica gel plans to dry it work good, go with those to dry it, but you really have to get that salt out of there

Mike Leggero

http://www.michaelleggero.com

Absolutely right! I worked for Minolta back in the day, as a repair tech. One day, a guy walked in who had dunked his brand new XD11 with 50mm 1.4 lens into the Atlantic ocean. He had filled a tupperware container with fresh water, and submerged the camera for transport! We disassembled everything, and soaked all the parts in the lavatory for a few hours. After carefully drying everything, it was re-assembled, all electronics replaced, and I don't recall what all else- mostly as an amusing project for the techs. Everything worked just fine, as I recall, lol. We gave the guy a "special deal" for the repair- normal rates would have cost him a fortune...

Arkanjel Imaging · Oct 26, 2010

Garbz said:
Contaminate the gear? With what? The goal here is to exclusively remove moisture and prevent corrosion, which rice does just fine.

Honestly the way some people coddle cameras is incredible. You act like it won't be obsolete in 10 years.

With rice particles, sir. Not the kind of thing you want floating around in your camera and mucking up the shutter or sensor. Thats not much better than sand.

Garbz · Oct 27, 2010

Actually I misread the original. Covering the camera with rice is not such a good idea. Putting the camera in a sealed bag with rice? Nothing wrong with that. No one said anything about shaking the result. In the grand scheme of things, rice particles are the least of your worries though. Just because a camera isn't 100% weather sealed doesn't mean it will instantly keel over and die at the first sign of a bit of dirt.

GooniesNeverSayDie11 · Oct 27, 2010

Salt water may cause a problem down the road if not removed but the biggest thing is getting it dry. I work in a mining lab. While out in the mine working on equipment, I dropped my Nextel phone into a 2ft deep water hole with about 1 foot worth of mud mush on the bottom. After trying to find it with a shovel we ended up digging a trench to drain the hole. After a solid 45 minutes under water, gave it a quick rinse, threw it in my lab oven at 100 degrees, and presto, worked like new ever since. Electronicw arent as brittle as you think, but the longer that water sits in there you run the risk of corrosion.

benjyman345 · Oct 28, 2010

Just put the battery in and turned it on.....

and its practically dead.

The shutter fires twice when you turn it on and no screen, cannot adjust settings such as aperture and shutter speed and when you turn the camera off the eye piece still shows the LED (text showing shutter speed/aperture).