Yesterday I was working on a bicycle in extremely pleasant weather, using my small digital camera as a digital notetaker while disassembling a complex hub. I went inside to send an email about it to my son, and whoosh! an Illinois downpour struck. Water thundered down out of the sky, soaking everything in sight, including my camera.
This is the same camera that once fell off a ladder – I was using it to document an installation and climbed down to speak to someone. Then I went to move the ladder, and it fell 8 feet to carpet, undamaged.
I used to repair cameras and knew the prognosis for a soaked camera was not good. That the liquid was rainwater was a point in favor, because rainwater is usually not corrosive (depending on the proximity of coal-burning power-plants). I once opened up a camera that had been dunked in seawater and suffice to say, sorry, no way.
I dried it off best I could, but the inner mechanism was full of water. I needed some way to dry it out fast before the internal parts began to corrode. What’s a steady source of heat? I turned on my Rotel amplifier – it has a high bias voltage so it runs rather hot. Left the camera on top of it overnight.
Put the battery back in this morning and darned if it didn’t fire right up! But since I am apparently the kind of doofus who would pull a stunt like this, my next camera is going to be an Olympus Stylus 720SW. It’s waterproof down to 10 feet. And like my Dimage Xg (which is no longer manufactured but is a steal on eBay at around $100) is exceptionally shock-resistant.
Have you heard of Eaves Magic camera?
Here’s more pictures.
I’ve managed to send my Bluetooth phone headset through the laundry more than once. Tumbling it through the drier (and then letting it set a while longer) has usually been pretty successful.
Those pictures from the magic camera are pretty damn cool!
When I get an electronic device wet, I find it’s best to let it sit as open as possible for three days and just let gravity pull the water out. If you have to take it apart a little further. Usually just letting it sit will do the trick. But I would imagine cameras are little trickier.
Most electronic components can get wet and will work as long as they dry off first.
I used the Olympus Camera for almost 1 year before it got stolen from my office…
The results of that camera are pretty grainy and not very clear as you zoom in….
Even at the highest resolution, the image is very very grainy.
Read the reviews at amazon before you purchase….
A little heat helps because the vapor pressure rises while the relative humidity of the airstream falls. (This is the whole idea behind pan evaporation climatic studies) The result is faster vaporization so less time for corrosion or mold growth.
Abhilasha, missed your comment. I’m not too concerned about the Oly – the graininess happens from one of, or a combination of, four common reasons. 1) if you zoom out far enough, you get “digital zoom” and that’s pixelated. 2) the lens is very small and must be kept optical-bench clean or contrast suffers. Not a huge trick for an old camera repairman but for many users it can be a problem. 3) the menus are so extensive the Oly (not alone among digital cameras) suffers from “featuritis” and it’s really easy to have it stuck in a mode that is inappropriate for common shooting situations. The solution is to turn off all the “modes” and use simple exposure compensation without flash. 4) a camera that small can be a challenge to hold steady, but suffice to say I have had a lot of practice.
I wish camera manufacturers would concentrate on simple controls. But the only really simple, high-quality digital cameras are waaaaay out of my price range.
Here’s the review of the Oly at Steve’s Digicam’s. It’s several pages long including sample photos.
More thoughts on camera design on my Blog: Link
http://weedram.blogspot.com/2007/06/internal-audience.html