Water Spill - Need Advice

Yale Quan · 10-12-2008, 11:45 PM

Hey Guys and Gals,

I was doing a shoot today at a diner party and while on a break someone spilled water on my camera. Yes the camera was right in front of me on the table, probably not the best place to have left it.

The bad news is that I wasn't using a sealed lens so water got between the lens and my contact points. By contact points I'm referring to the 7 points on the outer rim of the mount and the two points inside of the mount. (refer to attached photo)

The good news is that I checked the mirror and the sensor and neither of those got wet.

I haven't turned on the camera yet, I just took off the lens and put on the cap to let it dry out. (well I turned it on to check the sensor about three hours after the spill, and then I turned it off)

My question is will this damage any of my contact points on my camera or the lens, and will this have any long term effect on my camera? I don't know if the type of lens matters but I was shooting with a friends Tokina 80-200 F/2.8

I also need advice on how to check if this has damaged anything.

Thanks,

-Yale

K200D Mount Point:

Marc Sabatella · 10-12-2008, 11:53 PM

FWIW, I used my camera in the rain with an unsealed lens yesterday, then spilled a glass of water on it when I returned to my car. Absolutely nothing seems to have gone wrong as a result.

I'm betting you the camera is fine, but I'd check out the lens carefully. Seems that water, if it got in the lens, could leave behind deposits.

*sewebster* · 10-13-2008, 12:59 PM

Yeah, most likely it is already fine... to be "most safe" you could let it dry out for a while before using it again. How long will depend on how paranoid you are (up to several days if you are quite worried, could be even longer if the camera got REALLY wet).

The camera probably won't dry out too well with the body cap on though, since it is sealed. Maybe try to open all the doors on the body and perhaps slightly open the cap so that it is resting over the mount point to keep out dust but isn't blocking all air flow.

But from your description I think this might be a bit excessive... probably you are good to go already.

Yale Quan · 10-13-2008, 01:01 PM

Originally Posted by Marc Sabatella

FWIW, I used my camera in the rain with an unsealed lens yesterday, then spilled a glass of water on it when I returned to my car. Absolutely nothing seems to have gone wrong as a result.

I'm betting you the camera is fine, but I'd check out the lens carefully. Seems that water, if it got in the lens, could leave behind deposits.

Hey Marc thanks for the quick reply. It's good to know that your camera survived the rain. Mine seems fine, I turned it on and did some test shooting with my 50mm. The autofocus seems a tad bit slower...but I'll test it some more when the wind stops blowing in CA.

I think I'm just being paranoid but this is my only camera...a backup K10 is looking like a good idea...

-Yale

*Damn Brit* · 10-13-2008, 01:22 PM

Originally Posted by Marc Sabatella

FWIW, I used my camera in the rain with an unsealed lens yesterday, then spilled a glass of water on it when I returned to my car. Absolutely nothing seems to have gone wrong as a result.

I'm betting you the camera is fine, but I'd check out the lens carefully. Seems that water, if it got in the lens, could leave behind deposits.

Lucky you had that glass of water handy Marc.

Yale, don't forget to take the battery out just to be on the safe side.

Yale Quan · 10-13-2008, 02:07 PM

I took out the battery and my SD card when I left it out to dry overnight. Everything looks good. I just finished shooting some test shots...nothing interesting or I'd post them. But the autofocus is still slow...slower than I remember it being. The lens hunts for the focus more than it did before. It spins out and back and then finally locks on my subject, on both my 50mm and the 50-200.

I think it's the internal focus as the lens that got wet was a manuel focus lens. OR mabey I'm just going slightly insane with the worrying...

-Yale

*sewebster* · 10-13-2008, 02:49 PM

Hard for me to say, but I'm guessing that you're just being paranoid. If the water was going to mess things up it would likely short something out and something would stop working in a more obvious manner (of course this isn't for sure).

Try AF in good light conditions... I bet it'll be good as new! (trying to be optimistic here

)

Marc Sabatella · 10-13-2008, 02:50 PM

Originally Posted by Damn Brit

Lucky you had that glass of water handy Marc.

About halfway through my walk in the rain (a very light rain), I remembered I had a plastic bag in my case, so I pulled it out and covered the camera with it while not shooting. When I got back to the car, it was in the act of taking the camera out of the bag that I spilled the contents of the glass on it. What could I do but laugh at that point? With the weather sealing, I'm quite sure the only place any water would have made it in would have been right around the lens mount, and it seems that would just not be a really sensitive area of the camera. It's designed to take a fair amount of abrasion, after all.

schmik · 10-13-2008, 04:19 PM

I good tip i got for wet gadgets is to put them in (or under) an air conditioning vent. AC dries things out quite well. I tried this on a cell phone after i jumped in the pool with it in my pocket. Took the covers off and popped it up in the AC vent. Grabbed it 24hrs latter and it worked again. Obviously cameras are sensitive to dust so take be a little careful.

mike

offertonhatter · 10-13-2008, 04:27 PM

Just let it dry out.

I used my K10D in a monsoon in Blackpool, it got soaked.
Initially with the 50-135mm, then with the FA 50mm, the latter without any sealing. I got a bit of mist on the top LCD display, so stopped using it, in case. Got it home and left it to dry out. Used it again at a studio shoot, and no problems at all with the camera.

Hope this helps

Yale Quan · 10-16-2008, 09:36 AM

Hey guys, just a quick update the camera's doing fine, everything seems normal.
It turnes out that I was just freaking out over the accident.

Thanks to all for their advice and imput.

-Yale

*Jonson PL* · 10-18-2008, 10:37 PM

I was shooting in monsoon in Malaysia with an A-series lens. After letting it all dry out, no harm was done.
Worst case is the lens could die, you should be very unlucky for the camera to stop functioning. Gotta love the gasketing.