Camera got wet, won't turn on, help, please!

[steve green]

Hi guys,
On a shoot in Canada and we put the Epic on a car mount.....flying snow and all.....The camera was bagged but still got snow on it, worked fine until it dried out a bit (it's cold) and now won't turn on. I get a flash of red light and then nothing.....need it for another day tomorrow, any help in what I might try would be appreciated. I'm getting the blow dryer out right now.
Thanks, Steve

 

[Matt Ryan]

Hi guys,
On a shoot in Canada and we put the Epic on a car mount.....flying snow and all.....The camera was bagged but still got snow on it, worked fine until it dried out a bit (it's cold) and now won't turn on. I get a flash of red light and then nothing.....need it for another day tomorrow, any help in what I might try would be appreciated. I'm getting the blow dryer out right now.
Thanks, Steve

not sure if it works for cameras but put it in a bag of rice. It works for cell phones... Good luck and hope you get it back up.

 

[Michael Dalton]

golden rule is when any electronics get's wet power down right away, disconnect all batteries and really dry it out 1-2 days. Rice could work to suck moisture or just put it in the hot sun. DO NOT try to power it on, as it will cause a short. I suspect this is what happened.

I had an HVX that got wet when some dropped a partial open 1.5 bottle of water into camera case. The camera when found was sitting in 2 inches of water, and it poured our of every hole. Baked it in the sun for 6 hours, and it worked.

Best of luck!

 

[steve green]

Thanks for the suggestions guys.....The hair dryer did the trick.....it's humming away right now!

 

[Michael Dalton]

glad to hear!! This a good thread for future problems.

 

[Russ Fill]

This is a good thread. Good to hear your cameras back Steve.
Rice is a good trick but good old silicon gel packs are probably best and all wrapped up in a air tight plastic bag. And then a combo of cooler temp and warmer temp over a few hours on each end. This kind of knocks the water particles out of the air in the bag and drys it out a lot more than just a medium temp over time.. Just think cold dense air not much room for water particles and hot expanded not so dense air with more room for water particles. I think thats right?

 

[steve green]

golden rule is when any electronics get's wet power down right away, disconnect all batteries and really dry it out 1-2 days. Rice could work to suck moisture or just put it in the hot sun. DO NOT try to power it on, as it will cause a short. I suspect this is what happened.

I had an HVX that got wet when some dropped a partial open 1.5 bottle of water into camera case. The camera when found was sitting in 2 inches of water, and it poured our of every hole. Baked it in the sun for 6 hours, and it worked.


Best of luck!

Yep, although the camera seems to be working fine, the red indicator light doesn't light up when a battery is connected. After the shoot it's off to Red to see what's going on inside.

 

[A. Clint Litton]

It might be good to locate a backup body just in case it goes down in the midst of shooting. Never a fun thing...hope it works out for the best.

 

[Jason Comparetto]

10 extra points goes to RED for including a circuit in the their camera that prevents accidental shorts due to water. It sounds like your camera might have gotten fried without it! I love the rice idea...

 

[Lliam Worthington]

Great thread. About to do a shoot in some pretty wet and wild conditions. Doing everything I can to protect the cam. But stories like these help ease the nerves

Cheers guys

 

[keith morton]

Perfect thread!

 

[Pawel Achtel]

... I love the rice idea...

Prevention is better than cure, or so they say....in case anyone is looking for a small, light weight (4.5kg) housing suitable for topside and underwater work... :smile5:

 

[Eric Oh]

While shooting underwater scenes on a feature I was dping (2 Red One MX and 1 Red Epic-X which I just had taken possession of) the gates underwater housing for the R1 MX leaked and flooded the housing (faulty seal at the tally light). By the time I surfaced, the camera was off and there was about 3 inches of water inside the housing. When my 1st AC opened up the housing and pulled the camera out, water was pouring out of the ventilation holes at the base of the R1.

We took off the batteries and all accessories (SSD module, monitor, etc.) and used a blow dryer to dry off everything as much as we could. We left the camera overnight in an air-conditioned room to dry further (shooting in the tropics with very high humidity). I was quite surprised the next day when we hit the power button and the R1 powered up as usual. As the cameras belonged to the production company and we had 10 more days to shoot and needed all 3 cameras, a decision was made to send the R1 back to Red only after we had wrapped. Re-calibrated the camera and black-balanced it. Shot some test footage and everything checked out fine.

After that experience, I was throughly impressed at the hardiness of the R1 considering that just a day prior we were pouring water out the ventilation vents, and the next day we were shooting with the camera again. That being said, I don't want to put my Epic through the same "test".

 

[Jonathan Pears]

I have had this happen to me, and got the camera back to full working order...

With electronics, it is when they dry that the corrosion happens and the circuits get damaged. When my camera got submerged for about 10seconds, i took it out and called Mike at Kiwi Camera in Orlando, FL. He told me to keep it moist, to put it in a bag and keep the humidity in the camera body. I did and he removed the water and moisture properly the next day and got the camera back to full working order.

Bag of rice things and such solutions like that will only harm the camera long term with relation to corrosion. Its been a common practice for salt water filmmakers to actually submerge their camera in fresh water should it get dunked in salt water, keep it wet and remove the water step by step.

Thats atleast what i have learned and what i witnessed from Mike at Kiwi Camera. Canon and Nikon send him stuff that they cant fix themselves and he always manages to get it back to working condition. However the first 48hrs are curtail, if the camera is already dryed out, then corrosion would have already set in. This can be removed, but it just depends how bad it is.

Hope my 2cents helps...

 

[Michael Hastings]

While shooting underwater scenes on a feature I was dping (2 Red One MX and 1 Red Epic-X which I just had taken possession of) the gates underwater housing for the R1 MX leaked and flooded the housing (faulty seal at the tally light). By the time I surfaced, the camera was off and there was about 3 inches of water inside the housing. When my 1st AC opened up the housing and pulled the camera out, water was pouring out of the ventilation holes at the base of the R1.

We took off the batteries and all accessories (SSD module, monitor, etc.) and used a blow dryer to dry off everything as much as we could. We left the camera overnight in an air-conditioned room to dry further (shooting in the tropics with very high humidity). I was quite surprised the next day when we hit the power button and the R1 powered up as usual. As the cameras belonged to the production company and we had 10 more days to shoot and needed all 3 cameras, a decision was made to send the R1 back to Red only after we had wrapped. Re-calibrated the camera and black-balanced it. Shot some test footage and everything checked out fine.

After that experience, I was throughly impressed at the hardiness of the R1 considering that just a day prior we were pouring water out the ventilation vents, and the next day we were shooting with the camera again. That being said, I don't want to put my Epic through the same "test".

I'm curious, did water get to the electronics or is the fan/vent system isolated like it is on Epic?

Prevention is better than cure, or so they say....in case anyone is looking for a small, light weight (4.5kg) housing suitable for topside and underwater work... :smile5:

Pawel:

Since you don't mind pointing out weaknesses of every other manufacturer's product, let me point out to potential users that since your housing uses the nikonos lenses and the housing basically becomes the lens mount on the epic (ie. you remove the epic lens mount and then bolt the epic to the inside of the frontplate with sealed screws) if the lens or lens mount leaks the water will go directly into the sensor area.

Besides the fact that I have always wondered if Red has ever approved your setup since it is in fact a lens mount for the camera, buyers should be aware that over the years hundreds if not thousands of nikonos lenses/cameras have flooded. Back in the day, there were half a dozen guys around the country that made their living fixing flooded Nikonos's which wasn't that hard in the days of fully manual film cameras, but got harder and harder with more electronics. And for the record, I was the one that in this forum first suggested using nikonos lenses back in 2007 - and would probably consider taking the risk if we had a true FULL FRAME sensor (i.e. 24x36mm) that the lenses were designed for - but the widest nikonos lens wasn't all that wide Full Frame (Aquatica/Nikon actually made an AquaLens adapter that allowed users to put a much wider land lens on the Nikonos), but it really isn't as wide on Epic 4, 5 or 6K as normally used on modern underwater systems (65 to 75 degrees diagonal Nikonos vs the 95 to 110 rectilinear or 130+ fisheye with land lenses behind dome ports). The Nikonos may be a bit sharper on the edges of the frame, but the others will tend to have both better overall clarity, contrast and color saturation due to shooting through less water (where even a foot or two makes a significant difference).

:smile5::smile5::smile5:

 

[Ketch Rossi]

IMPORTANT!!


Just in case some one falls in to a similar situation... NEVER... EVER... use the BLow Dryer in HOT mode, must be in COLD or WARM mode, so not to risk any damage on internal parts, or a melt down of some delicate circuitry's plastic.

 

[Vithya Sharma]

not sure if it works for cameras but put it in a bag of rice. It works for cell phones... Good luck and hope you get it back up.

yes... try...

I used this technique on my Electronics Equipment's ....
so Try..

 

[ericyoung]

I have had this happen to me, and got the camera back to full working order...

With electronics, it is when they dry that the corrosion happens and the circuits get damaged. When my camera got submerged for about 10seconds, i took it out and called Mike at Kiwi Camera in Orlando, FL. He told me to keep it moist, to put it in a bag and keep the humidity in the camera body. I did and he removed the water and moisture properly the next day and got the camera back to full working order.

Bag of rice things and such solutions like that will only harm the camera long term with relation to corrosion. Its been a common practice for salt water filmmakers to actually submerge their camera in fresh water should it get dunked in salt water, keep it wet and remove the water step by step.

Thats atleast what i have learned and what i witnessed from Mike at Kiwi Camera. Canon and Nikon send him stuff that they cant fix themselves and he always manages to get it back to working condition. However the first 48hrs are curtail, if the camera is already dryed out, then corrosion would have already set in. This can be removed, but it just depends how bad it is.

Hope my 2cents helps...

If the water that got in is fresh water, then the bag of rice et al solutions are fine. If the OP had mentioned salt water or very dirty/contaminated water, then the advice would have been different, as you've mentioned.
On a tangent, Coca cola is horrible to electronics!

 

[Pawel Achtel]

Since you don't mind pointing out weaknesses of every other manufacturer's product, let me point out to potential users that since your housing uses the nikonos lenses and the housing basically becomes the lens mount on the epic (ie. you remove the epic lens mount and then bolt the epic to the inside of the frontplate with sealed screws) if the lens or lens mount leaks the water will go directly into the sensor area.

Besides the fact that I have always wondered if Red has ever approved your setup since it is in fact a lens mount for the camera, buyers should be aware that over the years hundreds if not thousands of nikonos lenses/cameras have flooded. Back in the day, there were half a dozen guys around the country that made their living fixing flooded Nikonos's which wasn't that hard in the days of fully manual film cameras, but got harder and harder with more electronics. And for the record, I was the one that in this forum first suggested using nikonos lenses back in 2007 - and would probably consider taking the risk if we had a true FULL FRAME sensor (i.e. 24x36mm) that the lenses were designed for - but the widest nikonos lens wasn't all that wide Full Frame (Aquatica/Nikon actually made an AquaLens adapter that allowed users to put a much wider land lens on the Nikonos), but it really isn't as wide on Epic 4, 5 or 6K as normally used on modern underwater systems (65 to 75 degrees diagonal Nikonos vs the 95 to 110 rectilinear or 130+ fisheye with land lenses behind dome ports). The Nikonos may be a bit sharper on the edges of the frame, but the others will tend to have both better overall clarity, contrast and color saturation due to shooting through less water (where even a foot or two makes a significant difference).

:smile5::smile5::smile5:

Michael,

Those post from you appear from time to time on Reduser, so let me address this one again to avoid potential confusion.

Firstly, I haven't pointed any weaknes of your or any other manufacturer's product here. You did. I just suggested that, instead of getting camera wet, one should consider a small water proof housing.

I understand that you are deeply disappointed with the introduction of a competitive underwater housing. However, let me point out and clarify that our DeepX:

1. Is the first and only housing using optics that out-resolves Epic sensor for wide angle underwater cinematography, It is not possible with any other manufacturer's product;
2. Is the first housing that meets carry on luggage restrictions fully configured, with camera, batteries, lens and ready to dive;
3. Is the most compact housing for RED Epic in the World;
4. Is demonstrably the most reliable housing for RED Epic ever made;
5. Is the only housing meeting and exceeding ISO 9001 quality standard;
6. Is the only housing featuring precision titanium hardware for ultimate protection and reliability;
7. Has the biggest lens choices, including whole range of rectilinear and fisheye lenses, sealed land and sealed underwater lenses, which can be swapped in the field in a few seconds without openning the housing;
8. Utilises, among other choices, the fabulous Nikonos 15mm, which produces THE HIGHEST contrast wide angle images underwater;
9. Has the only underwater optics allowing wide angle underwater cinematography at high apertures;
10. Can use dome port and housed lens like all other traditional housings, if so desired.

We have never had any flooding incidents. On the other hand, You, my friend, had numerous complaints from disappointed users on this forum about your housings leaking and you not responding to their requests to rectify the problem. Perhaps the problem you are trying to point out is closer to home.

It is true that Nikonos cameras occassionaly leaked around their rear door sealing. However, we are not using Nikonos cameras. We use Nikonos lenses. There is no similar sealing mechanism in DeepX or 3Deep. Neither I nor any of our customers had any problems with the sealing around the lens or any other sealing in any of our housings. The lens sealing used around Nikonos lens mount is extremely reliable and no different than any other well engineered bore o-ring seal.

You are also incorrectly assuming that there is no mechanism redirecting water from our patent-pending Nikonos mount system away from the sensor well. The fact is that our Nikonos lens mount has specially designed channels redirecting any potential moisture down and away from the sensor area to the bottom of the housing. But, thank you for your concerns.

You are further incorrect that other solutions produce higher contrast, clarity or better colour. We are the only housing manufacturer that measures, publishes and compares optical performance. We have measured and published the MTF curves (which measure contrast, in case you didn't know this) and proved beyond any reasonable doubt that even a Master Prime lens housed behind any port (dome or flat) can not produce even a quarter of the contrast underwater that Nikonos 15mm is capable of. The closer the lens to subject distance, the worse the contrast and sharpness of the housed lens becomes. And, at wider apertures, the difference can be over an order of a magnitude in favour of the submersible Nikonos 15mm lens.

The MTF charts and real life true 5k images speak for themselves.

RED has thoroughly evaluated our DeepX housing and particularily the Nikonos lens mount system. There have been no problems or faults found in our lens mount. Thank you for asking (again) and giving me an opportunity to repeatedly clarify this issue for you and others.

Lastly, the lens choices available for DeepX are not limited to Nikonos 15mm (which is my personal favourite lens). Whilst housed lens systems are only limited to one or two fisheye lenses only (as rectilinear lenses do not even resolve standard definition quality when placed behind dome or flat port), we can use superior submersible fisheye lenses, such as Sea&Sea 12mm producing about 140 degree of view and, again out-resolving the Epic sensor in every point of the frame.

Hope the this answers your concerns.

There is no need to spread FUD about competitive products without a proper or valid reason. For a builder utilising sewage PVC pipes as the the body of your housings and treating customers poorly (who write to me expressing their frustration with your products and service) parhaps some problems you have indicated are closer to home than they appear.

Just a friendly suggestion. :thumbsup:

Best Fishes.