The story
I spent the weekend kayaking around the Indian Arm and camping at Granite Falls, and…you guessed it, my digital camera had a li’l mishap. We made the long paddle from Deep Cove to the campsite, set up base, then took off again to the Indian River estuary. Because it was high tide, we were able to paddle a ways up into the river, to a point where the water became very shallow and there was a strong current. The current was pushing to the west embankment where there happened to be a large dead tree. Rather than calling it a day and turning around, myself and two friends decided to try and “spawn like the salmon” and push up the current. My friend Jeremy was the first to try spawning and made it halfway up the slope, before the current became too strong and pushed him backwards into the tree, at which point his kayak flipped. Jeremy hopped out, and we all had a good laugh as all our gear was already safe and dry at the campsite. Then I realized,
‘Wait, don’t you have my camera?!’
‘Um, yeah…’
‘Where is it?’
‘I’m not sure.’
Fortunately it had stayed inside the cockpit of the kayak, and was in a ziplock bag. Unfortunately, the ziplock bag was not sealed and was full of water. I immediately removed the battery, and left it out overnight to dry. I still haven’t turned it on, and have been doing some Google research to see what I should do with the camera before testing it.
What to do if your camera gets wet
This is a collection of info I have found during my extensive research. Once your camera gets wet, immediately remove the battery and memory card. These will be the easiest two things to save, even if the camera is gonners. Now, if you drop the camera in salt water, it is probably best to rinse the camera in fresh water (preferably distilled) to remove any salt. In my case, I was a fair ways into the Indian River, so I’m hoping there wasn’t much salt in the water. If you have silica packets put those in a bag with the camera. They work great to absorb moisture. If you don’t have any silica, I have read on some web sites that rice works in the same way to remove moisture, so this is the method I am trying (and apparently instant rice is better than uncooked rice). You can also remove the case of the camera if you want and let it air dry, or use a hair dryer on the lowest setting. Whatever you do, do no turn the camera on until you are positive all the moisture is out of the camera. Turning it on with any water left inside will likely fry it. As soon as you are back home, you should call a local camera shop and ask them for advice, and they may want to take a look at it. One of my friends on the trip suggested rinsing the camera in distilled water, hang drying it, and then putting it in some socks duct taped to the inside of a drying machine, and running the dryer for a few hours (a method he claims has worked in the past on a cell phone). My plan is to just leave my camera in a bag of rice for a week before turning it on. If my memory card was saved, I’ll put some pictures on the flickr group soon!
*Update Aug 17 – Tried my camera after letting it dry for a week….no luck :(. The memory card and battery work, so at least I was able to download my existing pictures, but the lens won’t open fully when I turn the camera on…
*Update like 1+ years later – I still had the damn camera and tried it again. No luck. It has since been recycled.
nasiir edwards
i had the same problem but it was in the pool. my memory card still worked too. i tryed and tryed but that dryer thing does not seem like a good idea
Karl Woll
Hey Paul, no worries. I hope you have better luck!
Paul
Thanks for the advice. Sorry to hear that your camera didn’t work. I’m still waiting to turn mine on to see if it has survived.