Water Damaged Equipment?

Pax6 · Jul 10, 2013

Hi, this may be a silly question but here goes..

Last week my camera & lens were submerged in water for 30-60 seconds. The camera is inoperable now & has been replaced. The lens is just a cheap nifty fifty but I am still curious if it survived. Surprisingly there is no obvious water staining on the glass but I was wondering if putting the lens on my new camera would harm it (the camera) in any way? Like cause a short or something? Is it not even worth testing? Thanks.

DorkSterr · Jul 10, 2013

I'd be hesitant to try it on my stuff it might damage the contacts, go to best buy it try it out on their models lol.

Pax6 · Jul 10, 2013

Haha that is a good idea! I think you are right, not worth the risk for such an affordable lens.

bratkinson · Jul 11, 2013

I'd relegate the nifty fifty to paper-weight duty. I wouldn't want to risk putting a dubious-condition lens on my brand new camera. It's like a flood-damaged car that had a new engine put in. The rest of the car still has problems, permanently.

I'd rather have a EF 50 f1.4, anyway.

Mike_E · Jul 11, 2013

You could use it on a manual film camera, or sell it for the same use.

It may be fine but I wouldn't test it on mine, as mentioned.

Probably best to sell it (after making sure that it's dried out -wrap it up in some nylon stocking or something similar and put it in a large sealed bag of dried rice for a week or so) with a description of what happened and what you did about it.

Do make sure that you get it dry or you'll have fungus all in it.

KmH · Jul 11, 2013

Was the lens in fresh or salt water?

I don't think a nylon stocking is needed with the rice. Just set the lens on top of the rice and seal the bag. Also, I think 72 hours would be enough time.

Assuming it was in fresh water, after the rice treatment I wouldn't hesitate to try the lens on my new camera.

Pax6 · Jul 11, 2013

Thank you for all the responses! It was a fresh water drop but I do believe I've decided to not try it out, I think I would always have a nagging feeling that maybe it wasn't a good idea. And avoiding that feeling is worth the replacement cost lol.

Hannah

sm4him · Jul 11, 2013

Suit yourself; turn it into a paperweight if it seems that risky to you. Personally, I'd give the bag of rice a try.

Well over a year ago, I had a lens take a roll into the water at a local quarry. I shook all the water out of it I could and then when I got home, I put it in a bag of rice--no nylon stocking, as I didn't think of that--just carefully placed on the rice so that I wouldn't compound the problem by getting rice dust into the lens.
Left it there for about three days, took it out and tried it on my camera--it took a couple of times for it to decide to make connection and not give an error message, but then it started working and has worked flawlessly ever since.
A few months later, I upgraded to a better lens and gave that lens to a friend's daughter who is a talented young photographer, but also a broke college student. She has been thrilled with it and had no problems whatsoever. That lens has traveled with her to Africa, Belgium and England and performed flawlessly.

So, if you're not gonna fix it for yourself you might at least consider drying it out and testing it (maybe you could find an old camera somewhere to test it on?) and then donate it to someone who could use it.

Pax6 · Jul 12, 2013

I called my repair shop and according to them, the worst case scenario is that minerals from the water could corrode the electrical parts & cause the lens to blow but they were not concerned about damage to the camera (though perhaps it is in their better interest if I have a broken camera? Lol) . So given that, plus I still have a few weeks to purchase damage insurance on the camera I decided to try it & it does work, still focuses fast & accurate and the minimal water staining does not appear to affect the image! Though it could still blow in the future, I am surprised and happy that it still works!

Pax6 · Jul 18, 2013

Update- today I got an error 01 on my camera (lens to body communication error) which I figure means the lens has blown. I probably got around 50 photos before the error. Oh well.

Tailgunner · Jul 18, 2013

I wonder how much it would cost to fix it?

Gavjenks · Jul 18, 2013

The only danger is a possible short circuit or something electrical.

You can guarantee nothing electrical will happen though by just taping over the contacts with electrical tape before putting it on the camera. Then it will function as a manual focus fixed aperture f/1.8 50mm lens.

Though I guess if you give up on all the electrics, then it wouldn't have mattered if there was a short circuit... assuming the guys at the shop are right that the lens only would be in danger. They could be wrong.