Nikon D700 and 2 lenses submerged for almost an hour!

FlyNavy

Just checked into our cabin in a remote camp in Maine and found out that a guy in the camp took a spill in his kayak today and his camera and lens were under water for almost an hour before he found them at the bottom of the Penobscot River. He currently has them covered in rice in hopes of that drying out his camera and lenses. What are the chances that his gear will ever work again? Any suggestions?

ziggy53

The lenses are almost certainly going to be a loss. When water from a lake or river gets inside, it leaves enough residue to render the lens unusable. The lens would have to be completely dismantled, cleaned and reassembled, and the electronics replaced, then lubricated and adjusted, resulting in costs beyond the value of all but the most valuable lenses.

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With the camera body, it should have had any batteries removed (generally the main battery plus CMOS/backup battery), and then it should have been flushed with clear drinking quality (but without chlorine and fluorine) water as a start, and then finished with distilled water several times as a rinse. A hair dryer set to low heat should have been applied at lowest heat for several hours, using the rice storage for a couple days for the final dry-out.

After drying, the mirror and viewfinder would need to be thoroughly dismantled, cleaned, lubricated (professionally) and reassembled. The shutter box might need to be replaced.

If the camera failed after the above, then electronics would need to be replaced, probably beyond value of the camera body.

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While this didn't happen to me, a co-worker years ago had a similar episode with a canoe, river and her Canon AE1 Program plus standard zoom lens. I used the above procedure, which still did not recover the lens to any quality (but it was a "kit" lens, so little value), but the body still worked years later, with no serious issues.

(She used insurance to recover costs of the camera/lens and allowed me to collect the camera from a repair shop for the repair estimation cost of $35. I affected repairs myself in order to recover the camera body and I still have the body. A modern dSLR would be beyond my abilities, however.)

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I will use this time to point out that river/lake and especially sea water and photographic equipment are a deadly combination. You really must use a proper protective case for anything of value. The case needs to have proper seals and latches, and even then I suggest that camera bodies and lenses be inserted into ziplock freezer bags for extra safety.

paddler4

This is no help for this case, but it may be useful down the road: when I carry a camera in my kayak, I ALWAYS put it in a dry bag. There isn't room for most rigid cases, and I don't trust the seal or the thickness of zip-locks. You can get them at any good outdoor store that sells serious paddling gear, like REI. That still leaves the chance that you will capsize when you have the camera out, which I have nearly done a few times, but at least it is safe the rest of the time.

However, that still leaves the question of where to put it. If you wear a skirt and know how to roll, you can keep it between your knees, where it is convenient. If you don't wear a skirt (most recreational kayaks won't accept them) or don't know how to roll, and you do what kakakers call a "wet exit," then a camera in the cockpit is likely to fall out and sink. Ditto, if you canoe. Many kayaks have 2 or 3 other waterproof compartments, but it would be nearly impossible to extract the camera from them safely while in the boat.

jhefti

When kayaking (whitewater) I keep my camera in a Peli case that is anchored to the front pillar. To reach it all I have to do is pop the skirt and open the case. When used properly (see next paragraph) I've never had a Pelican case leak.

Some years ago I was doing some steep creeking in West Virginia, when I must have left the camera strap partially out of the box when I closed it. I surfed a bunch of holes and waves with a leaky spray skirt, until there was a fair amount of water inside. When I went to dump and opened the Peli I found my 5D2 halfway immersed in water. Since this was near the take-out, I just booked to the end, then opened everything up and took apart as much of the camera as I could. I later packed it in rice overnight, then reassembled to find that it worked perfectly. I still use the camera when doing back-country work like climbing or paddling. It's been a real beast!