kcimato

I took a few pics outdoors yesterday and when I went to download my pictures I could not for the life of me find my camera. Looked all over and outside also. This morning I found it on my deck among some plants. Of course it rained for a little while yesterday. What do I need to do to dry it out. Haven't taken any pics since I'm afraid I'll do further damage
Thanks for your help

It's the Canon sx 50

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

This has come up before, of course. Here's the advice I've accumulated.

Saving a Wet Camera
March 19, 2013
http://www.redbubble.com/people/peterh111/journal/9049428-how-to-perform-cpr-on-a-drowned-dslr

1. Take the battery out as fast as you can. Yes, it doesn’t take more than a nanosecond to turn the camera OFF (which is the least you should do), but even after doing so there are still volts inside going where ever the water goes. If the charge meets that moisture, your electronics will be fried. End of story.
2. Take the card out. Simple step, but in the panic immediately following the drowning it’s easily forgotten. I know I have.
3. Don’t stand there wiping the exterior of the camera body. You are wasting valuable time. You need to get to a heat source ASAP.
4. Did you drive to your shoot? Get to the car pronto. Now take the lens off and wipe as much water as you can from inside the camera with your lens cloth or an absorbent cloth if you have one, without damaging the mirror or sensor. Tissues are NOT recommended because they will separate and strands will be left inside the body. Even shaking the body while holding it downwards will help. Turn on your car’s engine, turn the car’s airconditioning on full-bore and HOT, and hold the body up to the vents. Keep it there as you drive home or to your hotel, or get your passenger to do it if you have one. (Drive safe but don’t dawdle.)
5. Think as you drive home. How much rice do you have? You’ll need a good 4kgs, so if necessary buy some on the way home, but don’t stop for a Big Mac or a pie. Get long grain, basmati, jasmine, whatever. Just get the damn rice, ok?
6. When you get home, grab a blow dryer and give the body’s interior a good going over. (The camera’s, not yours.) Full blast. Give it a good 15-30 minutes or at least until you can’t see any more water and your camera body is nice and warm.
7. Ideally, whilst you are doing the blow job, someone else is grabbing a pillow slip and putting all the rice in it. Now find an item of clothing. The thinner the fabric the better. The BEST item to grab is a thermal top or thermal pants or similar.
8. Insert the camera body into a sleeve (or pant). This is to prevent rice grains from getting inside the body. Don’t “wrap” the item of clothing around the body because you want as little as possible coming between the moisture-sucking rice and the body. Now immerse the body in the rice. If the body is in a sleeve, you can leave the rest of the item of clothing hanging out, just make sure the body is immersed in rice.
9. Put the bag on a table next to a fan. This will help keep moisture from hanging around.
10. Leave the body in the bag of rice for as long as possible. Note that I haven’t said you can turn the camera on. That is the hardest bit – resisting the temptation. Give it a week. Seriously.
11. When you finally can’t wait any more and turn the camera back on, do not leave it on. Turn it back off and put it back in the bag of rice even if the camera seems to be working. CPR by rice takes time.
As I said, no guarantees any of the above will save your drowned buddy, but hopefully you can give it at least your best chance to survive. Bear in mind that repairing a drowned DSLR, if possible, can end up costing nearly as much as getting a new one, if not more.

JR1 Loc: Tavistock, Devon, UK

Good luck personally little hope claim off; photographic insurance. Oh and forget the d wife's tales about rice. Silica gel is the only absorbent thing

kcimato

Thanks for the quick replies. I did take the battery out

sportyman140 Loc: Juliette, GA

Hi JR,
I know you can get and keep the Silica gels in packages you receive but where else can you buy the gels?

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

All shapes and sizes -

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=silica%20gel&sprefix=silica+%2Caps&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Asilica%20gel

JR1 Loc: Tavistock, Devon, UK

I keep them in the camera bags all the time, leave them in the heat (on a radiator, low oven) to dry out and re use

STVest Loc: LA - that's Lower Alabama

Don't know about JR, but I got mine from Amazon.

GHK Loc: The Vale of Eden

[quote=kcimato]I took a few pics outdoors yesterday and when I went to download my pictures I could not for the life of me find my camera. Looked all over and outside also. This morning I found it on my deck among some plants. Of course it rained for a little while yesterday. What do I need to do to dry it out. Haven't taken any pics since I'm afraid I'll do further damage
Thanks for your help



You will be lucky if the camera has not been seriously damaged.
If it is, it will need to go to a specialist repairer, or back to the manufacturer.
GHK

tramsey Loc: Texas

Good luck on getting it back in shape, I hope you can do it. But if all all else fails we have a repair man right here on the forum. His name is Rick RIggins. He has done some work for me and several others on the forum and he is very good. He is reasonable because he works out of his house and keep the over head down. He's been doing it for thirty years. He has a website, here's a link

http://www.discountcamerarepair.com/


Give him a call and see what he says or advises, again good luck to you. Let us know how things turn out :-D :-D :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

kcimato

I took the camera to my local camera store this morning. I bought some of the gel packs and I had a large one from a pair of running shoes. The guy thought everything looked ok . Problem was I couldn't extend the lens since I would have to turn it on. So it is a wait and see game. Tramsey, thanks for the link. I have already bookmarked it.

boudreau Loc: Ascension Parish, LA

If that detailed fix fails, you might try what I did to a vacuum cleaner [canister] that my son used to suck up some water. It developed a short circuit, so I tried this and it worked. I disassembled the thing as much as possible and put it in the over for a couple of hours, with the oven set at around 140 degrees F. Hopefully the previous fix worked and you won't need to do this.
Thanks, Jerry, for the great detailed rice instructions.

Wabbit Loc: Arizona Desert

Keep it in the hot sun Doc, vary it's position ..... take it inside at night ..... I'd repeat this for at least two weeks ..... if ya lucky it may work again but don't be impetuous ..... you want to remove all the moisture before you power it back up, you may get lucky .....

..... rice absorbs moisture but you don't need it .....

..... ps keep ya eye on the weather, if it looks like rain bring it in the house Doc .....

cherylpeters Loc: Kentucky

Maybe put it in a bag of Rice like we do our I phone's.

kcimato

Doc. It is quite humid here. Should I still put it in the sun?