Underwater Camera Case

Learning how to properly care for your underwater housing

The first thing you need to learn about underwater photography is to properly care for your housing.

In order to complete your underwater housing maintenance you will need the following things:

• Cotton balls
• A blower
• A silica Gel Bag
• Grease for the O-ring
• O-ring remover

You should also make sure to bring your items with you on ALL your diving trips.

Seawater:

Seawater is extremely harmful to your camera. Make sure to put a towel or a mat on your work surface when you're out of the water or in a dry location. Use the blower to remove drops of water, dust, sand and particles that could be trapped in the small gaps in the backside of your protector's cover. Always keep the lens pointed down as you carefully open the cover to prevent any seawater from getting inside.

Cleaning the O-ring:

Use the O-ring remover to remove the O-ring. Carefully clear away any seawater, sand, old-greased that may be caught in the O-ring area. Use cotton swabs to properly clean the indented sections. When seawater dries, it turns into small grains of salt t that could possibly damage the quality of the O-ring. Make sure you very thoroughly and carefully clean the O-ring and the O-ring housing.

Greasing

In order to remain watertight the O-ring needs to stay pliable and smooth. This means you have to clean it and grease it on a regular basis. There is no need for you to use large amounts of grease, however make sure you use enough of it as the O-ring could become stiff or wear out and could succumb to infiltrations if you use too little. Sad and hair can also be the cause for infiltration damage.

Placing the camera in the housing:

In order to minimize the opening and closing of the housing cover, it is highly recommended that you use an xD Picture Card with a large amount of memory. I know this goes without saying but make sure your battery is fully charged. Also be sure to insert a new silica gel bag and make sure the long glued section of the silica gel bag is facing inward before you close the housing.

Checking the Functions

Once you've placed the camera in the protector, it is very important to make sure that all buttons, including the shutter and zoom lever are in working order. Next, you need to make sure that the camera is properly inserted inside the case and does not shake or wobble. When using your camera with the housing, keep it away from high temperatures and intense humidity and make sure you don't drop it.

Infiltration Test

Now that you have completed the few steps listed above, the time has now come for you to test the housing. All you need to do is slowly immerse the protector in a tank of water and check that no water actually comes in. First, immerse it for 3 seconds and pill it out of the water. If the O-ring is damaged and not properly functioning, I could be enough for water to actually come in. If everything appears to be ok, immerse it for 30 seconds and check. Lastly immerse it for 3 minutes and put the various button to check that everything is in perfect order and that there are no leaks.

IMPORTANT

Where is the best place to do the maintenance?

It is best to do it in an air-conditioned humidity-free and brightly lit room. The bathroom is usually the best place because it normally has goo lighting and less dust than in other rooms. It is especially true in resort hotels.

What if my housing is leaking?

First of all, don't panic! If a leak occurs during the infiltration test, slowly pull out the camera out of the water. NEVER yank it out of the water. Open the cover very carefully to prevent he camera from getting wet and go over the procedure again from the start. If infiltration occurs again, it could mean that you need to replace your O-ring with a new one. It is always recommended to have a couple spare ones with you just in case.

In case of infiltration, take out your camera and dry it off, also take out the batteries and memory device and dry them as needed.

I hope this really helped you. See you soon with my next article.

Take care and happy photographing my friends =D

Kindest regards,

Sarah Gaillard

Sarah Gaillard http://www.earndollarsinaflash.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sarah_Gaillard