There are two main reasons for floods on most types of underwater photographic equipment:

• Lack of annual service
• Improper assembly of equipment.

Lack of servicing is easy to understand; manufacturers set time frames for the total service of the equipment. These can be from 12 months with the Nikonos line, to two to three years with some of the the Sea and Sea equipment (Motormarine 2 and EX). Your best indicator of need for annual service is the equipment itself; does your Nikonos III or V have a slow return on the film advance? Does your strobe or lens have a knob that's tight or very loose? Do you see contamination under the dome port of your wide-angle lens? My best advice is, when in doubt, send your equipment to a repair tech for a free inspection/estimate. Please remember you will have to pay shipping and insurance both ways.

Improper assembly of your equipment is the second and most common cause of flooding. How many times have you had your dive buddy whine that photographers are overcautious dawdlers and nogoodniks? Don't listen; rushing through assembly is a big cause of floods that could be prevented if everyone would look carefully at their o-rings, o-ring seats and connections before, during and after assembly. Many flooded cameras and housings are found after flooding to have an o-ring sticking out of its seat (or an errant hair or bit of sand). Had the unfortunate only looked around the seats (ports mostly) they would have seen half an inch of black or blue o-ring sticking out. It's that simple. A careful look at all o-rings before, during and after assembly would take away around 40% of my business.

If you do have a flood or suspected flood, turn your strohe off, your Nikonos shutter speed to M-90, and if you can, turn off all functions of your housing. Safely end your dive and after you strip your dive gear off remove all batteries. Batteries wet? Throw them away.

There are three types of floods:

1) MINOR FLOOD
You may have strobe flashes while diving, or just see a little water somewhere on disassembly of equipment. Do not flush all the equipment in fresh water for this type of flood. Look carefuly--is the water only a few drops on sync. pins? A drop of water on the shutter or just wet film? The full extent of the the flood may be just these drops of water. If your camera is working otherwise, gently remove all the water with a swab (Q-Tips is a very good brand) or towel, place the camera in the engine room of the boat (assuming it is large, dry and warm) with the back door and sync port open. If your lens etc. are not wet you can set them aside. If you don't have a dive boat handy, I prefer a hair dryer ( a small one is best). Use 'low' setting for the heat and 'high' for the air flow. Place the hair dryer and camera on a tile sink or floor (follow common sense rules of hair dryer usage). The camera should be 20 inches or more from the dryer. If the camera is too hot to hold it is too close. On a small flood of this type two hours or so is usually enough to dry it. After a two hours, your camera is ready for the test. Did you find a reason for the flood? Cord o-rings are a common cause of sync. port floods. A hair across the back door o-ring is a common cause of minor floods to the back of the camera, Install your batteries -- if it works and you found a fixable cause for the problem, go back to shooting. If the camera/strobe does not work you have at least saved yourself a lot of money on repairs by stopping the rust and contamination that occurs when gear sits wet for a few weeks or even hours. Send to a repair tech, when you get home.

2) TOTAL BIBLICAL FLOOD (Open the the back door and a fish swims out)
Take out the batteries and throw them away. If the strobe and lens (check the spring-loaded rear clusterer of the lens) are dry, set them aside. Open the back door and rinse with the freshest water you can find (dunking up and down in a bucket) for about two minutes. After dunking, rinse for another minute or so in another source of fresh water, uncontaminated by the first flushing. Follow the drying routine in Flood Type 1 except extend to six hours with the hair dryer or a couple of days in the engine room. During the process, fire the shutter every once in a while to keep it from freezing up. If it won't fire, don't force it. Your chances of using the camera again on this trip are slim, If you can fire the shutter and find a reason for the flood (hair in the o-ring, etc.) sometimes the camera can shoot at M-90. This is a mechanical 1/90th second setting and will sync with your strobe but TTL will not function. Send it in to be repaired when you get home.

3) SEMI-TOTAL FLOOD Do everything as in step 2, but if the viewfinder is dry, keep the camera level in the water as you rinse it and the viewfinder above the water level. This can save up to $50.00+ on the total repair.

If your lens is wet with just a few drops of water, cap it, wrap it, and send it to a tech. If it is full of water, rinse it like the camera and do your best to dry it out. The Niknnos 15mm lens has six screws below the front port. These can be removed and the port and sunshade pulled off as unit; this will help speed drying. Please do not unscrew everything in the lens; this can make the repair even more extensive and expensive. Lenses can be sent wet (cap them) and sealed in a plastic bag. Most lenses can be repaired good-as-new for less than replacement cost. The sooner you get your gear to a tech. the better the chance of a good fix, I'm happy to have people call far advice on this subject at (831) 484-6230 or email me at dan@subaquaticcamera.com.

Thanks, and happy shooting to all.

Dan Blodget
Sub Aquatic Camera Repair Co.