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07/02/2007 10:23:03 PM · #1 |
When I say submerged, I mean water was pouring out of every orifice of the camera. The lens was fogged over and I could hear water inside of it. Wet. Very.
So what happened? Unfortunately I was at hour 0 of an 11 hour hike in the mountains of Colorado when I fell into the river with the camera. I immediately took out the battery and opened all of the doors to the camera. I shook out as much water as I could. I wasnât about to go home so I stowed the dripping wet camera in my camel back and didnât take it out again until I got home over 12 hours later! That night I set it out to continue drying and the next day, I set it in the sun for about 5 hours. (The mountains are a great place for drying out a wet camera since the humidity is so low.)
I was convinced it was dry inside the camera about 2pm the next day after being in the sun. The fog in the lens was gone and the black body was very warm from the summer sun. Ok so now I was ready to pop in a battery. At the time I thought the D70 was completely hosed (pun intended) so I wasnât exactly being very cautious. So I popped in a battery, put on the DX18-70 that went down with it and turned it on.
It actually turned on! The first thing I noticed was that the top lcd was flashing âclockâ. So I reset the clock. That was it. All my settings were retained. Wow. This was the first picture I took after it had been drip drying for less than 24 hrs. Needless to say, I was one happy camper! The camera withstood a full submerging in a mountain stream and worked flawlessly. So I thought at the time.
About a half an hour later I noticed that the battery was dead. It had been nearly fully charged when I powered it up for the first time after the drowning. New battery worked great but I had to reset the clock again. The next battery lasted a bit longer. I probably took 5 pictures on it and let it set over night. The next day, the battery was dead again. Again I put in a new battery and this time it lasted a lot longer. Iâm still noticing faster discharge but everytime I put in a new battery, its endurance seems to get longer. Very strange.
So kudos to Nikon for a great water resistant camera and curious if anyone might know of why the camera is behaving this way. Right now Iâve had the same battery in it for a few days and it still has a full charge. Any similar experiences out there?
In love with Nikon,
 hubbardr1
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07/02/2007 10:27:47 PM · #2 |
While some water probably got in. With such a tight enclosure even without weather seals you'd be surprised how long it takes to fill a camera with water. It does take much to kill it but depending on the circumstance you could have got more in it and it lived. It might have had less in it then you thought. Fog = moisture not filling.
All depends on the circumstances 5 seconds more and a different position and you might be telling a different story. But air has to move out for water to move in the tighter the body more of a difference, still isn't always enough. |
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07/02/2007 10:33:16 PM · #3 |
Originally posted by hubbardr1:
Iâm still noticing faster discharge but everytime I put in a new battery, its endurance seems to get longer. Very strange.
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Many of the Nikon DSLRs have a second battery to back up the clock when the main battery is removed. This battery probably completely discharged while the camera was wet. It may take a while to charge it back up. The way your lucks running I'd keep putting charged packs in the camera and see if you could get it back to normal. Normal on my D70 was about 3 months with no usage. Heck I left it on for a month in the bag by accident and it hardly dropped charge. Good luck.
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07/02/2007 10:36:00 PM · #4 |
| Sounds to me that you might have a partial short somewhere, allowing current to leak out of the battery faster than normal. |
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07/02/2007 11:11:45 PM · #5 |
Originally posted by RainMotorsports:
It might have had less in it then you thought. Fog = moisture not filling. |
There was enough water inside the lens to wash off the fog. Tilting it one way or another would cause beeds of water to flow over the glass inside. I don't know how deep the water went but it was purty wet. There are some spots on the glass where it dried unfortunately...I'll need to have that cleaned. |
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07/02/2007 11:13:46 PM · #6 |
Originally posted by GeneralE:
Sounds to me that you might have a partial short somewhere, allowing current to leak out of the battery faster than normal. |
Yeah maybe it was still wet day 1 or day2 after and the partial short drained it more quickly. I hope it holds up. I wasn't exactly planning to be in the market for another camera. :)
Thanks. |
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07/02/2007 11:36:00 PM · #7 |
You did all the right things :-) Congrats on saving your camera from certain death :-)
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07/02/2007 11:56:16 PM · #8 |
| and probably the coolest part of it all...DUDE YOU WERE IN COLORADO! Don't know when I'm gettin back there again :( sigh |
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07/03/2007 12:29:16 AM · #9 |
Very lucky - I got my D70 really wet a few months ago but unlike you I was taking a 30 second exposure at the time. It has been a dead lump of black plastic ever since. I assume that because all the electronics were fired up at the time that everyting is cooked and it won't ever come back to life. Even the battery that I was using won't charge or work in my brothers D70.
Anybody need a nikon shaped paper weight? |
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07/03/2007 03:04:51 AM · #10 |
Dropped my first D70 in our hot tub...yeah, interesting story...and it died. That was back when we were using chlorine based chemicals to treat it, and the corrosion set in almost immediately. Sure was thankful for insurance. So, I bought a D70s, then another D70 later. Great cameras. Nice job saving yours.
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07/03/2007 04:55:45 AM · #11 |
| The other day I wiped on my bike, flipped over and landed directly on my D50 (it was in my backpack). I just removed the battery and replaced it and it worked. Thats 180 Lbs. full force impact! I to have to give Nikon kudos for build quality!!!! |
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07/03/2007 01:07:52 PM · #12 |
Glad your camera is okay! Good enclosure + your quick reaction = live to shoot another day.
A couple weekends ago I was photographing Portland Head Light in Maine and I was hurriedly switching lenses since I spied my friends and family heading back to the cars, and I dropped my kit 18-70 on the concrete. It bounced first off the lens hood (and for a split instant I was thinking "phew") but then it bounced a couple more times on the mounting ring and then the barrel side before rolling into the weeds. I picked it up, gave it a little shake and thought I heard something broken inside, but I put it on the camera and took some shots and they are as sharp and clear as before I dropped it ... and now giving the lens a shake doesn't produce the noise I originally heard, so who knows! But yes, I too am glad for Nikon's build quality! |
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07/03/2007 01:12:03 PM · #13 |
And the first thing you shot was a dandelion! He, he, that's funny.
I'm very glad your camera is OK. Nikon rocks! |
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