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s50 underwater leak

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SwanDiving

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After hundreds of dives and thousands of photos, I got a leak in my WP-DC300 housing -- a tiny leak. After a 37 minute dive, there was maybe a thimbleful of water inside the housing. Now my s50 will not function properly:

menus cannot be accessed
use of zoom creates 2 photos taken
camera will not move off AUTO
and many etc.s

If I work with it and allow the camera to take many useless shots, I can eventually get it to take the picture I want and the camera will save it to my memery chip and I can still process the photo on my computer. But this is a nearly useless endeavor.

Any experience out there with this? Is my camera dead? No warentee exists.

Thanks for any attention.
Bruce
new address: [email protected]

If you'd like to see what this camera & housing can produce in the hands of a novice, check out: http://www.swandiving.com/gallery .
 
Usualy water doesn't damage permanently electronic circuits like those in dig cameras. Leave it to dry for a day or two. Remove de battery of course...
SwanDiving said:
After hundreds of dives and thousands of photos, I got a leak in my
WP-DC300 housing -- a tiny leak. After a 37 minute dive, there was
maybe a thimbleful of water inside the housing. Now my s50 will
not function properly:

menus cannot be accessed
use of zoom creates 2 photos taken
camera will not move off AUTO
and many etc.s

If I work with it and allow the camera to take many useless shots,
I can eventually get it to take the picture I want and the camera
will save it to my memery chip and I can still process the photo on
my computer. But this is a nearly useless endeavor.

Any experience out there with this? Is my camera dead? No
warentee exists.

Thanks for any attention.
Bruce
new address: [email protected]

If you'd like to see what this camera & housing can produce in the
hands of a novice, check out: http://www.swandiving.com/gallery .
Click to expand...
 
I have removed the battery and memory card and I have dried and dried this camera and it doesn't help. Is it possible that dissolved salts or other minerals from the sea water could do this damage?

Thanks for responding,
Bruce
José Fuente said:
SwanDiving said:
After hundreds of dives and thousands of photos, I got a leak in my
WP-DC300 housing -- a tiny leak. After a 37 minute dive, there was
maybe a thimbleful of water inside the housing. Now my s50 will
not function properly:

menus cannot be accessed
use of zoom creates 2 photos taken
camera will not move off AUTO
and many etc.s

If I work with it and allow the camera to take many useless shots,
I can eventually get it to take the picture I want and the camera
will save it to my memery chip and I can still process the photo on
my computer. But this is a nearly useless endeavor.

Any experience out there with this? Is my camera dead? No
warentee exists.

Thanks for any attention.
Bruce
new address: [email protected]

If you'd like to see what this camera & housing can produce in the
hands of a novice, check out: http://www.swandiving.com/gallery .
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
SwanDiving said:
After hundreds of dives and thousands of photos, I got a leak in my
WP-DC300 housing -- a tiny leak. After a 37 minute dive, there was
maybe a thimbleful of water inside the housing. Now my s50 will
not function properly:
Click to expand...
Don't give up on that camera yet! As the other poster said, sometimes electronics can survive water damage. I have a friend whose Olympus C700 got blasted with water and quit working. She was devastated. A few days later, however, the camera was dried out and working fine!

--
God gave us an incredible world. Touch it, taste it, smell it, PHOTOGRAPH IT!
Oly C-750, Canon S230, Canon S400, Canon S500, Sony DCS-U60
 
Sorry I cannot offer any advice other than what has been already stated, but as a WP case user I am curious to know where the leak occued. Was is the 'O' ring or elsewhere?
I hope the camera restores itself for you soon.
Col.
...our world is but a hot pixel on the immeasurable CCD that is the universe.
 
You may be right that salt deposits are a possible cause. I have had sometimes had success submerging a camera in freshwater (no battery) and then drying it out. Sometimes it works and sometimes it makes it worse. Good luck.
SandyKHo said:
SwanDiving said:
After hundreds of dives and thousands of photos, I got a leak in my
WP-DC300 housing -- a tiny leak. After a 37 minute dive, there was
maybe a thimbleful of water inside the housing. Now my s50 will
not function properly:
Click to expand...
Don't give up on that camera yet! As the other poster said,
sometimes electronics can survive water damage. I have a friend
whose Olympus C700 got blasted with water and quit working. She
was devastated. A few days later, however, the camera was dried
out and working fine!

--
God gave us an incredible world. Touch it, taste it, smell it,
PHOTOGRAPH IT!
Oly C-750, Canon S230, Canon S400, Canon S500, Sony DCS-U60
Click to expand...
 
I've dropped my G2 in a lake, had it hit with a water balloon dead on, and fallen on it while skiing and had snow driven into every crack, but I just opened everything up, removed the battery and memory card, and let it sit and dry out for a while each time. It always started working again after a few hours.

Given, this was all with freshwater, so it might not mean anything when you're talking about saltwater.
 
I'm sorry that I don't know where the leak came from. I actually took the empty housing back underwater 2 more times today and still no leak. Neat as I can figure there was a hair or a small piece of dirt or something like that got onto the O-ring before I closed it up. As I said, after 37 minutes of diving, there was only a small thimble full of water in the housing.

I will always check my O-ring carefully -- everytime, now.

Bruce

My new email is: [email protected]
Col Winfield said:
Sorry I cannot offer any advice other than what has been already
stated, but as a WP case user I am curious to know where the leak
occued. Was is the 'O' ring or elsewhere?
I hope the camera restores itself for you soon.
Col.
...our world is but a hot pixel on the immeasurable CCD that is the
universe.
Click to expand...
 
I dropped my S10 in a toilet. I was ready to go and buy another one. Then 2 weeks later it worked perfectly. I mean PERFECTLY. I took it into Canon and they told me that they could see nothing wrong with the camera. Give it time.
 
It is most likely there are salt deposits somewhere in the electronics.

Salt attracts moisture and is very hard to dry off plus it will get moist again as soon there is enough moisture in the air.

Beside that the moist salt etches the metal wires and IC pins and can create shortings etc.
The longer you wait the worse.

The best thing is to take it to a service so they can open it up an possibly clean the salt and corroded areas. That is, if they want to do it and it is at acceptable cost.

The other way is to open it up your self... if you are handy with such things and if the camera can be opened at all (some of these gadgets are just not meant to be opened easily).
I'd prefer to clean it my self, if I could open the camera.

The third option comes to my mind: if you cannot open it up maybe the guys in the service want to open it up for you... The should know how to do it and they can put it back togeather if it involves special tools (ususally it does not). This is, of course, if they don't want to clean it or it is too expensive.

Oh, yes: if doing it your self, make sure you discharge static electricity by "grounding" your self! Static electricity can damage electronics beyond (simple) repair!

The best thing is to be grounded during the whole cleaning process by a wrist wire that plugs into the wall outlet (you can find these at the electronics store).

Good luck!

P.S. Allways put one or two of those silica bags that attract water ("desiccant ") in the UW housing. They will gobble up those few drops of water that might leak in. You most likely got one of them in your camera package :)
 
Thanks for your helpful hints. Right now I'm trying another option: that of sitting it inside my car in partial sun with a fan on it for a few hours. If that doesn't make a difference I will probably see if I can take it apart myself.

Bruce

My new email address is: [email protected]
Lesnag said:
It is most likely there are salt deposits somewhere in the
electronics.
Salt attracts moisture and is very hard to dry off plus it will get
moist again as soon there is enough moisture in the air.
Beside that the moist salt etches the metal wires and IC pins and
can create shortings etc.
The longer you wait the worse.

The best thing is to take it to a service so they can open it up an
possibly clean the salt and corroded areas. That is, if they want
to do it and it is at acceptable cost.

The other way is to open it up your self... if you are handy with
such things and if the camera can be opened at all (some of these
gadgets are just not meant to be opened easily).
I'd prefer to clean it my self, if I could open the camera.

The third option comes to my mind: if you cannot open it up maybe
the guys in the service want to open it up for you... The should
know how to do it and they can put it back togeather if it involves
special tools (ususally it does not). This is, of course, if they
don't want to clean it or it is too expensive.

Oh, yes: if doing it your self, make sure you discharge static
electricity by "grounding" your self! Static electricity can damage
electronics beyond (simple) repair!
The best thing is to be grounded during the whole cleaning process
by a wrist wire that plugs into the wall outlet (you can find these
at the electronics store).

Good luck!

P.S. Allways put one or two of those silica bags that attract water
("desiccant ") in the UW housing. They will gobble up those few
drops of water that might leak in. You most likely got one of them
in your camera package :)
Click to expand...
 
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