Keeping Your Camera Waterproof

Filed Under Basics for Novices |

A good underwater camera will last for years, but only if you take the extra care required. Unlike land cameras, dive cameras must retain their watertight integrity. If you don’t maintain both camera and housing and check for leaks regularly, you may lose not just your camera, but all your stored images.

O-rings are an important component of waterproofing. They keep water from coming in through the closed openings in underwater components such as camera housings, strobes, watches, and other dive equipment. They’re the rubber rings you see around the edges of most all openings. O-rings come in many different types, sizes, and colors, and are vital to keeping water out of your equipment.

The one you will likely handle most is the one that seals your camera inside its housing. Because the case is opened often, it’s important to give this one extra attention, as it’s easy to contaminate it with things like sand or a stray hair, especially while cleaning it and re-applying silicone grease.

These small particles can cause slow leaks that will surely flood the housing given enough time.

Before you dive with a new camera for the first time, check for leaks by sealing the camera in the housing, dunking it under fresh water, and watching for bubbles or traces of water in the housing.

Ahead of every dive perform the same leak check before entering the water. Dive boats usually have a camera rinse bucket on board, so once you have prepared your camera for diving, put it in the bucket on the way out to the dive site to check for any leaks.

Keep the camera and sealed housing in water for a few minutes to ensure there’s no leakage, usually apparent if you see a stream of bubbles or you can see a small amount of water inside the housing. If this happens, remove the housing immediately, get the camera out, dry it off, and fix the leak.

And again be alert for slow leaks caused by hair, sand, or other small particles that stick to the o-ring. A tiny leak will fill the housing over time, and sometimes faster at depth.

After the dive, be sure to rinse your camera. Its preferable to soak it for a bit in fresh water before the salt water or heavily chlorinated water has a chance to dry. Be certain that your housing remains sealed before submersing it, and activate all buttons and controls while soaking. Don’t use any other chemicals or cleaning agents on your camera housing.

Before opening any housing or ports, be sure the unit is dry. And as an extra caution, always open any cover with the opening facing down. That way any unseen, trapped water will fall away from the opening, thus causing no damage to sensitive components.

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