Olympus TG4 overpressurisation

Barmaglot_07 wrote:

PHXAZCRAIG wrote:

Except this camera may have seen a lot more pressure than 15 meters if it warned about over pressurization. What happens to a TG-4 when you take it to 20 meters without a housing?

A former user reports here (sorry, it's in Russian, and a kind of slang that I don't think Google Translate will handle well) that he used his TG-4 down to 25m - below that it reported 'no SD card' but recovered around 15m. Taking it to 45m resulted in a cracked display and destroyed camera.

this is in the realm of your mileage can vary.   Manufacturing tolerances aside, how abruptly you exceed the pressure matters as well.   If the housing was leaking from the get go, the pressure buildup would be less dynamic than if it gave at depth.   And of course a dive bomb to the lower deck is different from a gradual descent along a slope.

I took the cheapie Ikelite A35 housing slightly past its 30m (?) rating and Ike's note was the buttons may not work until you ascend.   But that was just mechanical concerns.

If the on button is self actuating at times, that points to salt water intrusion in the button.   Not good.    The inability to select water mode - don't quite understand, not knowing how that it done.   But unfortunately, the window to recover from these salt water exposures is very narrow.   At this point, unlikely anything can be done about it.

Right as it occurs, there is the rice bag routine, or where suitable, rinsing/scrubbing in 90% alcohol.   I did that when I had a bad nikonos cord connection to a strobe, and a different time when a strobe's battery compartment took on water (the batteries may have offgassed or been too hot - pushed the oring out).   If you can arrest the corrosive effects and then let it dry out, you can sometimes save it.   Potentially this could work vs the on button, though I'd suggest contacting Backscatter.

Given the price of a replacement TG-6, paying someone to repair a 4 probably doesn't make sense.

PHXAZCRAIG wrote:

I've heard one way to try to save a camera immediately after a salt water exposure is to submerge it in fresh water and let it soak. (Preferably distilled water, but that's never available when you need it.) The idea being that the fresh water will essentially do the same thing as a dunk tank and wick away the salt before it starts corrosion.

Then you of course have to dry it out, but at least that's conceivable.

I wonder if there are any signs of salt exposure inside the areas of the camera you can easily view, like a battery compartment?

So this is the quandary you face, and the answer probably depends on the observed information.   Salt is the devil and washing it out is essential, but do you risk doing more damage with water?   As you note, you're not going to get pure water.   Rubbing alcohol will evaporate and is preferable if you can get sufficient amount.   Easy when shore diving near a drugstore, not so when off shore, and not the kind of item you can pack in your luggage for flight.

It was 13 years ago I had the YS-110 compartment flood, but that does seem to be independent of the rest of it.   I can't recall if they had alcohol or vinegar, or if I made due with water.  But I did rinse that, to get the battery corrosion out, and then toothbrush the metal contacts.   It looks ugly, but it works.   I'm going to try to sell the pair, but that one goes for a big discount.