A student dropped her Canon 30D in a river today. I told her to:
1. Remove the battery
2. Shake out / wipe out as much water as she can
3. Fill the cavities with desiccant containers from vitamins, etc, and with rice
4. Wait several days before trying to fire it up.
Anybody have any other thoughts on getting the best chance to save her camera?
Don't just fill the cavities with rice, put the whole camera in a gallon zip-lock full of rice.
And depending on how dirty the water was, I have actually heard of people re-dunking their camera (letting it soak as well) in distilled water to get rid of deposits/contaminates. I don't know if I could do that to my camera but its been done successfully.
As long a process as re-dunking would make this, I think if it does not fire up after drying, it can't hurt. Or, if the water was very dirty, I'll suggest doing it now.
Once the dirty water dries internally, particularly on the sensor, it's going to leave water spots/deposits which will be much harder to clean/remove and require a longer soaking (or so I've read). Make sure it's distilled water.
Hopefully someone with actual experience with this will chime in soon.
I had a transistor radio that went swimming with disgusting regularity. We just set it on the seat of the boat and let the sun bake it dry. We even listened to it as it dried.
Put the camera in the hot water cupboard on a towel and leave it there for a week, then wipe the battery terminals & see what happens, if it goes then get it serviced, if it doesn't, its an insurance claim
jcbradshaw wrote:
3. Fill the cavities with desiccant containers from vitamins, etc, and with rice
Jeff
Note that desiccant like silica gel desiccant you find in packaging absorbed water and that is all it does it never releases that water under normal conditions. It will absorbed water until it it can hold no more water and then be unable to absorb any more water making it is useless until the water that it had absorbed is removed. Because of that the any desiccant pulled out of packing is most likely not going to absorb any water.
If you put it in a bag or container with Rice, it is important to seal it.
I had a phone that went...swimming...and this trick worked. Sort of (but not sure a camera wouldn't have a better chance). The cleaner the water was and the quicker you get the moisture away the better your chances.
She could not get it to come back to life, so I had her bring it to me. I opened it up (removed the entire back panel) and, even after days of drying, there were drops of water easily visible. I did some more aggressive drying and now it is working.
I told her not to trust it, so she will be looking for a replacement here on FM. But it will provide a backup and second body, at least for now.
