Wet Lens - DPChallenge Forums

Mattel Barbie Photo Designer Digital Camera

02/01/2005 11:02:13 PM · #1

Soo..... the story of the cheap camera strap and a wet lens:

My first outing with a new Nikon N65 and Sigma 75-300 f4.5 ended up with the lens face down in a tiny creek I just happened to be slipping into. My brand new camera strap decided it didn't want to support the weight any longer, and released my camera into the water.

I am lucky, both the lens and the body are fine, after a little drying, but the trouble is this: the water was dirty and now I have specs of dirt on all my lens elements... Yuck

What can I do to clean this out? I've read that one should dunk electrical equipement that has gotten wet into distilled water to clean it up, but is that really the best solution?

I'd love to hear your words of wisdom!

-Jason

nsbca7

02/01/2005 11:12:00 PM · #2

NO MORE WATER!!!! Don't be dunkin anything. Take the film out of the camera and put the camera and lens in a warm, not hot, oven on a dry towel for about 15-20 minutes. As the crust begins to brown... oh, sorry, wrong recipe. Remove the camera from the oven and wipe everything down with a soft cloth. If you see anything between the elements send the lens in for cleaning as soon as possible.

I work in the swamp with my cameras and have dunked a few film cameras myself. Never hurt one.

(knock, knock)

Message edited by author 2005-02-01 23:34:33.

02/02/2005 12:05:51 AM · #3

oh...it's all dried out... the body didn't get dunked (luckily), but the lens was dripping :)

it's all dried out, but the elements are totally wasted..

darn, I was hoping that I wouldn't have to send it anywhere... :)

Mattel Barbie Photo Designer Digital Camera

02/02/2005 12:12:04 AM · #4

hehehe..when I say "wasted" I mean...dirty as heck :)

Thanks!!!

nsbca7

02/02/2005 12:30:00 AM · #5

Originally posted by jbeazell:

darn, I was hoping that I wouldn't have to send it anywhere... :)

It may be too late for that. Send it in to Sigma. See what they have to say. They will probably try to sell you a new one instead of cleaning it, but it won't cost you more then shipping if they can't. Sigmas are not sealed as tight as many other lenses. Those old pentax lenses I dunked still work just fine 8 or 10 years later.