dSLR plus rogue wave equals disaster

ghinson

I was taking pictures of the Hurrican Bill surf this am when a wave unexpectedly crashed over the dune and sucked my down the beach. I had my Nikon D90 in hand, with a nice 18-200 lens in place.

We rolled in the surf.

I'm afraid it's a bookend now. I've cleaned and dried it as well as I can, but the electrical readouts are erratic.

Anybody know anything I can do to try and salvage it?

Oobers

Sorry to hear of the accident, I hadn't realised that Bill had reached your neck of the woods yet. My guess is that it will have to be sent to a repair centre. You have a great gallery btw.

ziggy53

Salt water is terribly corrosive and can indeed spell death for a camera and lens. The first thing to do after an immersion in salt water is flushing with clear water and then finishing with distilled. Then a drying with a hair dryer on a very low setting at some distance. (The camera should never be more than warm to the touch.) The drying can (and should) take a day to 2 days and you should not try to power up before completely dry.

All batteries should be removed before any water treatment, both the primary and backup.

Lenses especially do not recover well from salt water, so I would not expect too much. The camera "may" recover but there is a only maybe a 1 in 4 chance (IMO).

Good luck.

mbrady

Were you able to recover any photos from the memory card?

ghinson

I was able to post a picture of the wave that wiped me out. I had snapped it when the wave was about 300 feet offshore. Hard to tell without something to put the wave height in perspective, but this was probably about a 20-foot high one.



The card was fine.

Pupator

Turing wet electronics back on is really what causes the damage. Ziggy's suggestions are good ones but if you've already been turning the camera off and on while there is still salt-water (or any water) in it you may have done irreparable harm. :cry

insanefred

ghinson wrote:

I was able to post a picture of the wave that wiped me out. I had snapped it when the wave was about 300 feet offshore. Hard to tell without something to put the wave height in perspective, but this was probably about a 20-foot high one.



The card was fine.

Hey, get that photo officially copy righted, ASAP.
I would also get it blown up and framed for the bedroom.
It's that awesome and sad :cry

angevin1

ghinson wrote:

I was taking pictures of the Hurrican Bill surf this am when a wave unexpectedly crashed over the dune and sucked my down the beach. I had my Nikon D90 in hand, with a nice 18-200 lens in place.

We rolled in the surf.

I'm afraid it's a bookend now. I've cleaned and dried it as well as I can, but the electrical readouts are erratic.

Anybody know anything I can do to try and salvage it?

Painful...Painful just to read it~~If there was just one question in my mind about them, I'd simply ship them off to Nikon. Potential for corrosive damage is the greatest concern. The low voltages these things work from shouldn't be an issue regarding the water and turning on/off. In my past experience (and life) as an Auto Computer tech/garage owner, I have taken more than one IMPORT computer apart, drained out the water, dried it out and drove it after sitting for 48 hours to ensure COMPLETE drying.

Additionally, I lost an SB600 to a 15ft drop into a waterfall pool a little over a year ago...and it is still performing. Oh, and it flashed as I saw it sink into the abyss!

good luck!

paddler4

At least you are OK, which was not a given, and you did get one great shot out of the disaster.

If this were fresh water, I would be more optimistic. I drenched a laptop (running at the time) with fresh water once, and if functioned fine after 24 hours of drying in front of a fan. Salt is another matter. I hope Nikon can fix it.

aj986s

Sorry to hear. Cool capture of the wave, btw.

By any chance do you have personal property insurance that might cover the loss?