What is the Annual Service?

"Annual" is not so accurate.  Most of the Nikonos services are about 12-18 months and as long as 24 months.  The Sea & Sea product line of motor marine systems are about two to three years and most housings run about two to three years for full servicing.  Since I cannot remember if biannual is two times a year or every two years, we will call it "annual service".  So here"s the what and why.  The cameras (Nikonos, Sea & Sea and Housings) have what are called user o-rings and internal o-rings.

1.     User o-rings.  These o-rings can be blue, black or red and are the
o-rings that you, as a shooter or camera owner, service daily.  On a Nikonos camera, this is the battery compartment, synch plug, back door and lens.  For the Sea & Sea, MMII and MMII EX Shooter, this would include the synch port, battery door and the battery clips.  For the MX10 and MX5 shooter, it"s just a back door o-ring.  For the housing shooters, the user o-rings include the main seal (between the two halves of the housing), the lens port o-ring and synch port o-rings.  Those shooting extension rings or extension ports or dual synch ports, have a few extras thrown in.  These o-rings, regardless of color, all need to be pulled and cleaned daily, and in the case of some, between rolls of film (see article on MMII back door).  Not only pulled, but also cleaned and regreased.  The o-ring channel must also be cleaned and the o-ring reinstalled after it is properly greased.

2.     Internal o-rings.  The second part of the annual servicing is the internal o-rings.  These are the o-rings that we, as technicians, address on the annual service.  In the case of the Nikonos V or IV-A, there are around seven or eight dynamic o-rings that get replaced during service.  In the Nikonos II and III, there are four or five o-rings.  On the Sea & Sea Motor Marines, there are five to six internal, dynamic o-rings that get replaced.  In the housings, there are between 20 and 40.  The annual O-ring or dynamic o-rings get squashed, dirty and abraded with use.  I've listed in the first part of this article the manufacturers" recommendations on getting annual or internal o-rings replaced as every one to two years on the Nikonos V, two to three years on the Sea & Sea Motor Marine systems, most housings about every two to three years and of course any time when a piece of equipment not functioning properly, water or salt is detected inside the housing or camera or any time anything is frozen (will not turn).  Bad internal o-rings lead to flooding.

When we perform the annual service, we change out the dynamic internal
o-rings, and of course, a fresh set of user o-rings are installed at this time.  After the inspection and cleaning of all O-ring seats and mating surfaces, a fresh set of internal o-rings is installed.  The camera is tested with a dynamic vacuum tester.  After it passes this test, we send it to 150 feet in a high-pressure, steel, water filled test tank, which stops at 10 feet, 80 feet, 120 to 150 feet and then goes back to 10 feet.  The whole test takes around 75 minutes or so.  The camera is then removed from the water, dried, opened, inspected, cleaned on the outside, batteries are installed and all auto/manual functions are tested and adjusted to factory specifications.  The TTL is tested and adjusted as necessary on the Nikonos V cameras.  The camera is then checked with a roll of film for advance and rewind function.  The camera is given one final cleaning, a wipe off of the optics and returned to the customer in like-new condition"with a bill, darn it.  Please e-mail any questions to Nikono5@aol.com or visit us again here soon.