How to drown your camera and then revive it

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How to drown your camera and then revive it

Postby Teresa » Jul 29, 2007 4:23 pm

Just thought some of you with more ingenuity than dollars might want to read this.

Several weeks ago, I stepped out of a canoe (over a divable karst spring). I had my new for Christmas Olympus FE-180 on its wrist strap after a full day of shooting on the river. Someone thought I would inadvertently dunk it, so they said to set it on the bank. Once out of the canoe, this helpful person tried to hand it back to me and...glug...glug...glug-- bonk! Into about a foot and a half of water, where it hit a rock. The batteries flew out. I retrieved both the batteries (NiMH rechargeables) and the camera, which drained water as I pulled it out. Oh #!)*$)*!

I immediately pulled the xD card, and wiped it down. Shook out the camera.
Put it in the hot-hot car. After about a half hour I wiped everything dry I could, then inserted the batteries. The lens came out, and it was fogged, but the other mechanisms were acting very strange. Lens went in and out like a piston. The flash (which I didn't fire) had water inside. Dang it! Took out batts and went home. Used a card reader and retrieved the photos, so at least that wasn't a loss. Opened up the battery door, and set it on the air-conditioner register over night.

The next morning, the camera started up just like it was brand new--asking for a date, etc. Lens looked dry. Batts in again-- and tried a photo. The photo looked like it was behind blinds--every other horizontal line or so was blank. Oh, well, it's broke now. Took out the tiny screws, and pulled the faceplate off, set it under an oscillating fan, and went for margaritas to drown my sorrow.

Came back, reassembled, and voila! camera was good as new. I just took over 300 photos with it at convention and no ill effects.

Yeah, I probably voided the warranty, but the warranty doesn't hold against moisture in the camera anyway, esp. not due to operator error. Some people have said they've put wet cameras in polyethylene sealed containers with silica gel, and revived them that way.

So, hey, if you drown your digicam (and it is off when you drown it, so nothing can short) try this. No guarantees, but it beats a dead camera.
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Postby Realms » Jul 29, 2007 10:00 pm

I know how ya feel. I had to tear down my DSLR to remove all the moisture. I thought it was a lost cause but it came back on and slowly but surely all the functions came online with the exception of the date stamp.
Lucky I guess. I know the day will come that I will lose it forever. As a cave photographer that is inevitable. Thats a price im willing to pay though to bring back the places I experience.

Glad she came back on for ya :-) Im all about fix it before you nix it.

Nathan
never stop imagining what could someday come to pass...
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Postby George Dasher » Jul 30, 2007 7:58 am

I've used that hot-car-drying method for several camera flashes I dropped into cave streams.

When it works, it works well. But it doesn't always work, and that's where the word "several" comes in. I had to buy new flashes.
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Postby Bobatnathrop » Jul 30, 2007 5:04 pm

I dropped a Canon 10D in some water acouple of years ago and it never came back on. I opened it up and set it in front of a hot drying fan for about 2 days then tried to turn it on and it never came back. The lens sorta worked after it dried out, but it really wasnt the same.
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Postby wendy » Jul 30, 2007 7:30 pm

we do this when bad guys steal cameras and then we recover them in outside homeless campsites, etc, in the rain. Often when folks teal cameras they will take photos of themselves and play withthe camera. I know when i film card is wet you can submerge it in rubbing alcohol and then let it dry, the alcohol dries out any water inside and then we are able to recover the images on the card. This might work for the entire camera, in theroy it should.
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Postby Mike Cato » Jul 31, 2007 10:29 am

Some manufacturers use paper capacitors and usually it's all over if they get wet.
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Postby Kevin Bruff » Nov 20, 2007 2:41 am

I dunked myself and my kodak dx3900 camera while at TAG in the back of gourdneck sink and after drying it out in the car for a day it works like nothing ever happened to it. i couldnt believe it, of course the camera was off when it happened and that might be why it still works.

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Postby David Grimes » Dec 20, 2007 1:25 am

I have found that a big majority of personal electronics cameras, mp3 players, etc. tend to come back to life after being dunked. I have had great luck reviving them by removing all batteries and not trying to power up the item until it has dried for several days and I would say in my experience about 70% of the time they come back. As for memory cards most of them are practically indestructible I have dropped them in antifreeze and motor oil dried them off and they worked great my brother-in-law lost one once and found it frozen solid in a puddle the next day got it out of the ice and it worked fine and still had all his pictures on it.
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Re: How to drown your camera and then revive it

Postby Teresa » Jan 5, 2008 8:50 pm

My brother just revived my niece's IPOD Nano after it had not just been dunked, but gone through an entire washer cycle, and had been declared dead. Opened it up with the metal wire from a cheap ruler, and put a fan on it for several hours and voila! music. Niece now thinks he is an instant hero. :banana:
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Re: How to drown your camera and then revive it

Postby Ralph E. Powers » Jan 19, 2008 9:55 am

Found this on Yahoo today... mebbe one doesn't have to tear their camera apart anymore... http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/raskin/17377 water-proof bag that still lets you take pictures.
Without the possibility of death, adventure is not possible. ~ Reinhold Messner


http://ralph.rigidtech.com/albums.php
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Re: How to drown your camera and then revive it

Postby alx2000 » Feb 11, 2008 1:41 am

I just revived a palm tungsten that had been dropped in a puddle of nasty steel mill water and mud. :yikes: It was completely covered in mud inside. I sprayed it down with contact cleaner spray, and wiped it off completely with a small paintbrush. This was all after leaving it in front of a heater for the night. It came back pretty much 100%.If you dry and clean it out well enough (pretty hard to do with a camera), I think it would come down to how much power was applied while it was shorting out, and whether or not it had paper film capacitors as mentioned earlier. The alcohol and contact cleaner thing works though sometimes.
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