How do you dry out a wet camera?

yoyostock

Help!!! A friend of mine just told me that she had her Canon Powershot G7 in her purse and discovered that a water bottle (spring water) that was also in her purse had opened up. :doh She said that the camera now has water in it - it's not as bad as if it fell into a body of water, but it's more than just a little splash.

What to do?!?

For now, I told her not to turn the camera on anymore. Take out the battery and flash card, and to leave those door open and to let it naturally dry out. Is there a way to remove the lens on a G7? Would that be recommended?

Vizhon

yoyostock wrote:

Help!!! A friend of mine just told me that she had her Canon Powershot G7 in her purse and discovered that a water bottle (spring water) that was also in her purse had opened up. She said that the camera now has water in it - it's not as bad as if it fell into a body of water, but it's more than just a little splash.

What to do?!?

For now, I told her not to turn the camera on anymore. Take out the battery and flash card, and to leave those door open and to let it naturally dry out. Is there a way to remove the lens on a G7? Would that be recommended?

Soaked Camera? Well, it needs to go into the shop, anyway you look at it. Even if it works once dried, the insides get coated by residues from the water that will corrode the circuitry if it isn't openned and cleaned out (not a cheap process, and often more expensive than replacing the camera). However, as far as what can be done, here's the nutshell of it.

1.) Time is of the essence. The sooner one deals with the moisture the less damage it is likely to do, a completely drenched camera often being able to still work if dried out immediately.

2.) Towel dry the exterior as much as possible and pour out (shake out if the camera can take the shock of shaking it). If it is a dSLR, remove the lens for this, if not, the job is MUCH more difficult.

3.) Blow dryer, low heat.

4.) Pack the camera (and lens) into a sealed container (or plastic bag) with a lot of dessicant. The normal dessicant one uses for this is the silicate gel that is packed with almost everything in little packs (beef jerky, electronics, paper products, pockets of clothing, etc.). I save every pack of silicate gel I get with products and pack them around the interior of my camera bags (to keep them nice and dry and so I have them in an emergency like we are discussing). If you aren't a silicate gel packrate like I am, you can go to most photography shops and buy them by the 5 pack or larger quantities.

5.) Still packed in the sealed container and padded with your choice of dessicant, get the camera to a qaulified service center for cleaning.

ivar

I dropped my cellphone in water once. Friend told me to dry it with a towel or something and then put it in the freezer. Once frozen take out an let dry up. Not sure if that actually does any good for cameras, but I'm still using the same phone 2 years later...

gpphotos

i doubt putting it in the freezer actually did anything.

as long as the water has no corrosive additives, you can pretty much dip your electronic devices in there so long as you have a way to completely dry them out before turning the power in. (although i would not recommend doing this)

clean water will typically not damage electronics so long as the power is not on when it got wet or you did not turn power on after it got wet.

with digital cameras, im not sure how getting the sensor wet would affect it, however. since this is such a sensitive piece of the camera, even clean water may have an adverse effect.

the most common item to get wet is cell phones...your best bet is to remove the battery, the SIM card (if it has one) and both the front and rear parts of the case. shake it out, and as someone said above you can blowdry it on low yeat. another option is to put it under a lamp so that the heat from the lamp will help evaporate. also, the silica is a great idea, you could even go so far as to put the phone (or camera) in a zip-lock bag, put the silica in there, and put the bag under a source of heat (like a small lamp). i'd wait 24 hours , then turn the camera (or phone) over and wait another 24 hours.

its still a crap shoot, you never know if you got all the water out until you turn it on. your best bet is to send the camera in. if you dont wanna do that, then you've got nothing to lose since you'd have to buy a new one anyway /shrug

mr peas

Here's an old thread I found googlin' round the net:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=36534

Someone dropped their G2/G3 in water as well.

Its pretty much a done deal now, just make sure you leave it time to dry out, then power it on. There's no special voodo magic you can do now to help make it work, just make sure theres no more water inside the camera that will go out and mess up the camera.

If the camera was off at the time of soaking, you have a better chance of 'surviving' the entire ordeal. But if it was fully soaked, like dropped in water kinda thing, one lead to the battery w/ the water as the form of conductor could ruin it. Its just luck now, hopefully it wasnt too bad. Def. look into sending it in, I've seen people talk about dropping their cameras in water and still be covered in their warranty. It sounds crazy I know, but there have been times when Canon was really cool about it.

Wish you all the luck.

yoyostock

Thanks, actually, I didn't even think about whether the Canon warranty or Canon, out of their goodwill, might help out.

mr peas wrote:

Here's an old thread I found googlin' round the net:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=36534

Someone dropped their G2/G3 in water as well.

Its pretty much a done deal now, just make sure you leave it time to dry out, then power it on. There's no special voodo magic you can do now to help make it work, just make sure theres no more water inside the camera that will go out and mess up the camera.

If the camera was off at the time of soaking, you have a better chance of 'surviving' the entire ordeal. But if it was fully soaked, like dropped in water kinda thing, one lead to the battery w/ the water as the form of conductor could ruin it. Its just luck now, hopefully it wasnt too bad. Def. look into sending it in, I've seen people talk about dropping their cameras in water and still be covered in their warranty. It sounds crazy I know, but there have been times when Canon was really cool about it.

Wish you all the luck.

sirsloop

at least it didnt get dropped SALT water!! HAH!

Dry, use... if it breaks buy new.

yoyostock

It worked! Took a few days to fully dry out, but the camera seems to be working fine.

sirsloop wrote:

at least it didnt get dropped SALT water!! HAH!

Dry, use... if it breaks buy new.

drippingred

You will need to use Silica Gel Packets to dry out your camera. You can use these in your Camera bag for protection or if you camera got wet put the camera and Silica Gel Packets in a zip-lock bag and the Silica Gel will absorb all the moisture out of the camera.

Just Google "Silica Gel Packets" and you will find several vendors selling.

ziggy53

drippingred wrote:

You will need to use Silica Gel Packets to dry out your camera. You can use these in your Camera bag for protection or if you camera got wet put the camera and Silica Gel Packets in a zip-lock bag and the Silica Gel will absorb all the moisture out of the camera.

Just Google "Silica Gel Packets" and you will find several vendors selling.

Drippingred, welcome to the Digital Grin.

Hopefully the original poster has completely dried out their camera by now. Silica gel will indeed help reduce the relative humidity in an enclosed environment.

Thanks,

Photoskipper

Being a field photographer for sometime, I experience the worst water accident. My handphone, one of my old 35 mm film camera and a flash gun drop in the run water during a typhoon(Cyclone)
Whatever the electronic device contacted water, take out the battery at once, including the backup battery.
The battery may cause short circuit and burn the electronic component.
Flush clean or remove of any debris, wipe it dry, open all the covers, drain out whatever liquid inside.
Remove any debris in the compartment, blow dry (no heat, just wind from some distance).
find the dry box, remove other items in the drybox. leave it inside for a day to a week. Visible check on the rusting on the key component.
Put back the battery after you are sure there is no more moisture in the device. Pray hard and see whether it can turn on. Check the movement parts and any abnormal noise.
Camera is different from other equipment, it is no way to use any lubricant or WD40.
The best would be sending it back to the agent to repair as soon as you can (you can afford). Prepare for the worst and hope for the best.