I know this may not be quite the right thread, but it's a Canon camera and it takes video footage. Anyway, I bought a beautiful Canon PowerShot SX260 only a week ago, and I very stupidly dropped it on the edge of a puddle today. The camera kept taking photos, albeit with a fogged LCD screen. But then it started making funny noises and shut down; I glimpsed "camera error" on the screen before it shut down. It was wet, but hadn't exactly been immersed. I had wiped the camera off, but I know any moisture can be a killer. So, how screwed am I? Right now the camera is comatose, I feel TERRIBLE about this. Can Canon salvage this???

Thanks for any advice.

Depending on the exact content of of the mositure that entered the camera it might recover once it drys out. However, if the mositure contained disolved solids, mud, and crud, self recovery is much less likely.

Removing such things as you can from the camera (e.g., battery, memory card) and leaving the doors open should help the drying process.

Give Canon customer service a call to get a feel if they can fix it and what the cost might be. Ata certain point they are not worth fixing, just buy a new one. The phone number should be on the owners manual.

Thanks, I'm currently airing it out--it's gotten responsive again, which I'm glad for. I'll be monitoring it. Unfortunately even a little moisture plays havoc. In this case it was fresh water--salt would have probably been fatal right away. The irony is that I'm expecting a protective case to arrive today intended for this camera, and so here I go dropping it in water. Let that be a lesson to everyone--always, always keep your equipment safe wherever you go.

Do not turn it on until you feel it is completely dried out, I believe this is critical. Don't check it at all. I suggest leaving it completely alone for as many days as you can before checking it further.

Will do. Thanks; I'm just glad it seemed to revive itself. Now it can hopefully recuperate. If it was at the bottom of the puddle I would've been frantic; it was lying mostly on waterlogged grass on the edge of a puddle.

I dropped an Olympus E-520 camera in a stream about 3 feet deep 2 years ago. It was completely submerged for about 30 seconds. I removed the battery, sd card and lens. When I got home I put it next to a dehumidifier with all the little camera ports open for about two weeks. I fired it up and it has worked fine since. Even the lens works ok. I have also heard setting a camera in a sealed bag of rice will help pull the moisture out.

The rice idea sounds very good Mark, good thinking.

Thanks, Mark. The Canon SX260 is now quarantined in a bowl of rice. I need to just leave it alone for awhile. When I got it revived earlier the LCD screen wasn't quite as clouded, so I hope it can all clear out. This can be a cruel business; a few years I accidentally destroyed a flash unit by idiotically putting it in a camera bag with what I thought was a safely secured liquid container. I need not elaborate on what was a tragic scene afterwards, beyond hope. I've kept the unit on display ever since as a reminder of avoiding such incidents again, but as with today, in half a blink something can go awry. If it was my cellphone I wouldn't feel half as upset.

One can never have enough threads as this one as both a precaution and learning lesson!

Barry, I wouldn't power it up until about a week. Is the container sealed? Otherwise the rice is just absorbing the moisture from the room. Might even change the rice once during the week.

Noted. Thanks; I'll post a progress report in time. We can all learn from such sad accidents.

I apologize for this in advance, but after 24 hours I just had to unearth the camera from the rice just to see if it was still alive. When originally found yesterday it was wet, though not crazy-soaked--it now felt bone dry on the outside, and dry inside the battery compartment. Strange thing--it works in every way EXCEPT the LCD screen is still an inner haze of water spots, like specimens under a microscope. This involves the sensor/mirror? So close, yet...however, the initial startup has super sharp text and imagery, so I reset the time and date. The camera is responsive and has its original vitality, which makes those watery splotches all the more irritating.

Anyway, it's back in the rice. I will not touch it for days, hoping the lingering haze will ebb. What else might I do later? Ventilate it somehow? I see tiny screws....is it possible to wipe anything inside? I know, I know. I shouldn't.

Thus continues the rice treatment. This camera so deserves recovery!!

Barry, give it time. My lcd screen on the E-520 I dunked did clear up enough to be usable. Sounds like you are having good luck so far.

Would rice be good to use instead of silica as a long term dissicant? Plenty of the stuff here!

There is likely a very thin space or even surface to surface contact between the LCD and a transparent layer. Capilliary effect is likely to keep the water there.

You might be able to shift it by wrapping the camera in a towel and putting it in a washing machine spin-dryer on slow speed (woolen cycle). Make sure you have the water hoses disconnected and run the spin/rinse cycle at least once to drain any water from the inlets before putting your camera in there. The LCD panel would need to be edgeways to the sides of the washer barrel.

After doing this you would need to put the camera back into the drying envrionment of the rice or silicagel packs as there will be some more water having come out of hidden spaces.

You could put the camera in a vacuum bell at a school or university science lab, pull vacuum for an hour or thereabouts so that the water boils off at room temperature. A refridgeration repair or automotive airconditioner regassing service might be able to help but the cost of making a custom enclosure might be more than the camera is worth.

These methods could be risky on other components like capacitors, can motors, shutter mirrors, memory batteries.

Barry, give it time. My lcd screen on the E-520 I dunked did clear up enough to be usable. Sounds like you are having good luck so far.

Knock wood, yes. I'm now confident the camera is generally alive and kicking and now in need of gradual healing. It takes pictures, the flash works etc. Only blurry images remain, so drying must continue.

Huge lesson learned: my big mistake was not considering the safety of my camera when confronting a large puddle. Without even thinking about it, instead of securing the camera better, I jumped over the puddle, dislodging the camera from my front shirt pocket, where it landed at the outer edge of the puddle on some sopping grass. Bad enough; at least it wasn't under the water, and its power was off.

I'll have an update in several days. Patience is the key now.

There is likely a very thin space or even surface to surface contact between the LCD and a transparent layer. Capilliary effect is likely to keep the water there.

You might be able to shift it by wrapping the camera in a towel and putting it in a washing machine spin-dryer on slow speed (woolen cycle). Make sure you have the water hoses disconnected and run the spin/rinse cycle at least once to drain any water from the inlets before putting your camera in there. The LCD panel would need to be edgeways to the sides of the washer barrel.

After doing this you would need to put the camera back into the drying envrionment of the rice or silicagel packs as there will be some more water having come out of hidden spaces.

You could put the camera in a vacuum bell at a school or university science lab, pull vacuum for an hour or thereabouts so that the water boils off at room temperature. A refridgeration repair or automotive airconditioner regassing service might be able to help but the cost of making a custom enclosure might be more than the camera is worth.

These methods could be risky on other components like capacitors, can motors, shutter mirrors, memory batteries.


If anything, I'm learning a lot about cameras and water damage solutions. Thanks for the extra tips.

OR - That's why cameras usually come with straps!

Yup.

In retrospect I can think of five dozen things I could have done to prevent the incident!

Alrighhht!

After a few more days of the camera restin' in rice, the watery spots within the LCD screen seem to be 80% evaporated, so I can only hope a few more days will do the rest. For the first time I can see reasonably clear imagery on the LCD screen. Definite progress.

This is going to be the most coddled camera in history once it's back in service.

I tried to attach a photo following the "Manage Attachments" procedure and got nowhere. That's the downside. The upside is that I think the camera is definitely headed for full recovery. I didn't detect any water spots during the latest test.

I feel very, VERY lucky. But I still want to test it further in different situations. Away from water.

Okay, this is probably the grand finale of this episode. Took photos of a July 4th parade today--no problem. Did some video--just fine. I think the patient has healed.

Thanks again to those with helpful suggestions. Always keep a box of rice in the house!

I've come a little late in the game, but if it had been MY camera that had taken a drop in the puddle, I'd have done the following:

AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE, I would have washed the camera out with DISTILLED water, preferably BEFORE it had a chance to dry from the original dunking. The object is to flush out any trapped water with dissolved materials before they dry out and deposit themselves on the optics and circuit boards.

After a couple good rinses in distilled water, I'd have "slung" the camera around several times to shake as much of the remaining rinse water out of the works, followed by a thorough drying with lint-free towels. I'd probably use a hair dryer set on warm to get the camera above room temperature so any trapped water would evaporate. Moving a stream of air through the camera will also help eliminate any trapped water vapor that might re-condense later.

Then, with all ports and doors open, memory cards and batteries removed (you should have removed them BEFORE rinsing), I'd place the camera inside a closed container ON TOP of some desiccant (plain uncooked rice is good) and leave it for a couple days.

Electronic circuit cards go through water washes several times in their manufacturing process, and as long as you use distilled water, there won't be any deposits left behind. Soap or any kind of detergent is a BAD idea, as it tends to leave a film behind, plus will remove any oils or lubrication in the mechanism(s).

Probably the worst thing you could do is let the camera dry out without rinsing it first. Dissolved salts in the puddle water won't always go back into solution without leaving crud behind.

I knew one watchmaker who would "dry out" waterlogged watches by soaking them with the case open in rubbing alcohol, then letting them drain and dry out under a desk lamp. This, however, was to keep the watch movement steel parts from rusting, and was ALWAYS followed by a complete disassembly, cleaning, reassembly, and lube. Wouldn't be practical in this case for a camera.

Martin

Thanks for the belated advice; always worth posting.

P.S. I now have a Pearstone pouch to protect the camera on location. It's the least I owe it.

Good luck Barry, A few years ago I fell into some rapids in Scotland and was swept over a small waterfaull. Before I was swept over the fall I was holding on to some rocks and after a few minutes realized my digital camera was in my shirt pocket underwater. I had one free hand (nothing for it to hold on to) so I threw my camera to someone on shore.

I was given the advice you were given here about letting it completely dry out, etc which I did. The good news is that the camera continued to work and out of over 400 pictures on my SD card only a handful mysteriously disappeared.

The bad news is that something happened when it was wet that caused it to drain the battery after less than five minutes of use. I thought the water had ruined the battery so bought a new one but it would be drained in the same amount of time.

(sadly the camcorder around my neck came off and was swept downstream and into the loch which was probably about 900 feet deep!)

What a dramatic story. At least you got out of those rapids.

I'm still testing out the camera features, and the battery/duration seems unaffected.

The worst thing that ever happened to my camera equipment had nothing to do with water. Many years ago I absentmindedly left a telephoto lens on a library counter. I didn't know it was missing until the next day. I went back and it was gone, never to be found. I was so mad at myself I didn't use a camera for months!

Well, since we are sharing stories. This is in addition to the camera being dunked that I mentioned earlier in the thread.

I was hiking in the North GA mountains three summers ago along a steep creek bank. I stepped over a log into a deep hole that caused me to loose my balance and slide down a 30 foot embankment. My camcorder was around my neck. I tried to no avail to grab onto trees to stop my slide down the hill. What finally stopped me was the creek which was in flood stage due to recent rains. I went completely under water for about 30 seconds before I was able to pull myself out. I was ok but my camcorder was in serious doubt. I pulled the battery off and opened all the ports. It took me about an hour to get back to my truck where I called a K&M Electronics in Atlanta. They said bring it in asap. They opened it up to blow dry out the circuit boards, dry overnight and do a complete diagnostics. Sadly the lens was a loss and cost $1,700 to replace but the camera has worked great since then. The technician said he sees a few of these each year and it is the cams that they get from coastal news stations that usually don't survive.

Wow, what a brutal fall. And costly.

For what it's worth, it's a furnace outside and it'd probably further dry my camera out big time, but I'd rather stay inside!

I see this thread is still visited, so I might as well provide another update. Two weeks ago today my Canon SX260 had its unfortunate encounter with water, but today it was back for the second time to the nature sanctuary where it happened. I was testing out features this time, and nothing seemed off. I even duplicated some of the shots I did before the accident, to compare. At one point I came across a box turtle, who withdrew into its shell once it noticed me. If I could post the photo, I would. Box turtles used to be more plentiful in suburbia decades ago, but now I guess protected woodlands are the best place for them.

On a total sidenote, I've pre-ordered the Samsung Galaxy SIII smartphone, which comes with a generally well reviewed 8 megapixel camera. I doubt if it will challenge the Canon, which has a really excellent 20x zoom. Last week I photographed a blue heron at a distance with it.

Yes, the Canon is doing quite well. The other day at the nature sanctuary I also brought along the Samsung Galaxy III to try its camera feature. It takes excellent shots, for anyone contemplating a new smartphone.

It's good to see the Canon back to normal as if nothing had happened.

For those possibly still curious, the Canon Sx260 went on a trip to Manhattan today, and it took some very nice photos. The weather was perfect. I also took a few shots on the Samsung smartphone--good photo quality, but a bit awkward to take them compared to the Canon. Anyway, taking photos on a smartphone isn't a priority, so it doesn't matter. I was going to have lunch by the Lincoln Center fountain, but thought the better of it, given past problems. ;D

A month after the original incident, it's a bit ironic that the Canon SX260 found itself out on a boat, surrounded by water. I made sure the camera was strapped around my wrist, and it made it back to land nice and dry.

Yep, back again. Thought I'd mention just how impressively this camera did with its video feature. I used it as a backup for an outdoor concert. I popped it onto a lightstand. The audio wasn't critical since I was recording audio separately. The visuals though were fantastic. It even upstaged the Canon HFG10 at times, the latter sometimes getting overexposed results while the SX260 captured consistently excellent color and sharpness while left on its own. And so small and unassuming on the lightstand! The one debit was my error--the battery went halfway through and I neglected to bring a backup. But it was an experiment, and as such I was pleasantly pleased. As a bonus it didn't rain.