# 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


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## Garbz (Oct 24, 2010)

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


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## chiyeung (Oct 24, 2010)

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


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## 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/




.


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## chiyeung (Oct 24, 2010)

it has worked for me!


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## 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.


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## 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


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## 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.
> ...



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)


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## 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:
> ...


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


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## 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.
> ...


 
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...


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## 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.


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## 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.


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## 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.


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## 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).


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## fokker (Oct 28, 2010)

Try washing it thoroughly with clean water and drying it real good. Sounds like you have nothing to lose now by trying.


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## benjyman345 (Oct 29, 2010)

Hello All,

So I am going to do the Camera Rinse ASAP.
I will have to order some distilled water in, as the supermarket and shops where I live don't have any.

Anyway...  I just want to clarify a few things first.

* Firstly when rinsing the camera should I remove the lens and let the water soak insides of the camera or should I leave the lens on?

* Secondly, How long should I let it rinse? 
I.e - quick dunk in and out and repeat with fresh water or say few minutes, hours, a day????

* Finally, Approx how long should I leave it to dry?
I'm reluctant to place it in the oven despite some people having success.

I will also order a stack of silica packets and place the camera in some rice too.

Thanks Heaps!


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## benjyman345 (Oct 30, 2010)

benjyman345 said:


> Hello All,
> 
> So I am going to do the Camera Rinse ASAP.
> I will have to order some distilled water in, as the supermarket and shops where I live don't have any.
> ...



P.S - I have found some distilled water.

I hope someone can respond to my queries before I go ahead!


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## benjyman345 (Oct 30, 2010)

benjyman345 said:


> benjyman345 said:
> 
> 
> > Hello All,
> ...



Too late. I've gone ahead and given the camera a quick dunk and then another dunk and splash around with fresh distilled water...

hope it did some good...

I touch dried the body of the camera and lens with paper towels and gave a very quick blow dry over the back of the body. I have now placed wrapped lens and camera separately in paper towels and taped up and put them in zip lock bags full of rice. I have also order a stack of sillica packets. I know it sounds over-kill and probably too late... but I really hope I can recover it!


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## benjyman345 (Nov 2, 2010)

benjyman345 said:


> benjyman345 said:
> 
> 
> > benjyman345 said:
> ...



Just had a look at the lens and noticed there is some sort of mould or mess on the inside of the lens glass. I probably should have taken it easy rinsing the lens as there ended up being a lot of water inside the lens that was not there when it went in the saltwater!

Is it best to give the lens another good soaking in distilled water to try and get rid of the mould/markings and then try and dry it quicker!?

Thanks


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## j-dogg (Nov 2, 2010)

GooniesNeverSayDie11 said:


> 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.



No, you have a Nextel phone. Those things are bulletproof, try that with a Blackberry.


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## darkchild (Nov 2, 2010)

what you should of done, is taken it to a professional as soon as possible.


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## cjbecker (Nov 3, 2010)

darkchild said:


> what you should of done, is taken it to a professional as soon as possible.




or rubbed some dirt on it.


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## JerrfyLube (Nov 5, 2010)

darkchild said:


> what you should of done, is taken it to a professional as soon as possible.



Wouldnt have even bothered with a E-410.  You would probably spend twice what its worth to get it fixed.  If the lens is still good, scour craigslist...you can find E-410 bodies on there, lightly used for dirt cheap.

Salt water is nasty stuff and even if you did manage to get all the moisture out, any of these tricks do nothing to remove the salt that is now embedded into the inner workings and connections of your camera.  Dunking your camera in water is only going to push that highly corrosive salt deeper into the works.

The majority that hit salt water dont survive.  The ones that do almost always have problems later down the road.


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## benjyman345 (Nov 5, 2010)

JerrfyLube said:


> darkchild said:
> 
> 
> > what you should of done, is taken it to a professional as soon as possible.
> ...



I know it is very unlikely that it will work etc etc and it was probably waste time even trying, but I am away on holiday at the moment and very disappointed that I don't have a camera to use and no where to buy another one at present. I know that professional repair is not worthwhile and will cost more anyway. Plus I don't have money spilling out of the bank for new camera, lenses, filters etc...

It was just a final attempt to recover anything...


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