Housing maintenance, especially in the field, is a much discussed topic. If you search for the word “rinse” on the Wetpixel forum, there are hundreds of results. For this issue of Wetpixel’s Ask the Pros column, we’ve asked some of our industry’s big names how they do it….

Douglas Siefert

Douglas Seifert, World Editor at DIVE MAGAZINE, is the creator of Water Column — a regular feature in DIVE MAGAZINE showcasing in-depth natural history subjects and conservation features in words and images. He has been a published writer and award winning photographer of the underwater world for over 20 years.

Have you ever flooded a camera system in the field? Do you carry a spare camera body or housing?

Everything that can go wrong will go wrong. Especially if it involves sea water and electronics, adventure and excitement and travel. Now things are compounded by the hamfisted rough handling by goons in the TSA who are saving the world by destroying delicate camera gear while looking for weapons of mass destruction in our luggage.

I carry two complete systems, minimum. Two cameras, two housings, two dome ports, two macro ports, just about everything. Redundant strobes, a multiplicity of sync connectors. A zillion rechargeable batteries. And still things go down and tough choices need be made. But keep shooting and be aware that no matter how much preplanning you did, you very likely have the wrong lens on for the surprises that the is going to send your way. I have had catastrophic floods with Nikonos cameras, expensive but not write off floods with Nikonos RS cameras and slight floods that were caught quickly before damage was done in digital housings. The extra room and big domes can really carry the day when bad luck appears. I had three Ikelite strobes flood on one trip because I was in a shark cage just below that water’s surface without enough water pressure to keep the O ring seal impervious when the strobes bumped against the cage bars. I was really really really angry at the company and threw the strobes into the abyss. This was in the days before recycling, sorry about that now.

I pack all the strobes, bits and bobs, housings and ports and keep them in checked baggage. I hand carry all the camera bodies and lenses and impossible to replace lenses, such as the modified RS 13mm lens and modified RS 20-35mm lens. I have endured three hernia operations and frequently have back pain. Those smug punks with GoPros don’t have the balls to do what we have been doing day in and day out for two decades plus…

Do you use a vacuum leak check system?

I have it on some cameras but I don’t have a free bulkhead on others (because I have a remote cord socket wired in the free space) so the answer is I would if I could but I soldier on if I can’t.

How often to do maintain your O rings in the field? What does this maintenance involve?

O-ring maintenance is typically done at the beginning of each trip for all o-rings: housing, ports, strobes, sync cords, then only checked when opening and resealing equipment prior to a dive, however, if diving in a sandy, silty environment, all o-rings generally need to be cleaned each and every dive or pay the consequences. Maintenance begins with stripping off the old lubricant with a lintless paper towel or rag, apply a thin coat of lube and running it over your fingers until there is no grit detected. The channels the O rings sit in are cleaned prior to the o-ring maintenance via q-tip removing any old lube and grit and then just applying a barely-perceptible coat to the groove. Once everything is cleaned and buttoned up, you’re ready to hit the water.

What sort of pre-dive checks do you carry out with your camera and housing?

A checklist is helpful, but the most important things are: battery inserted and full? Memory card inserted, formatted properly with lots and lots of space for many many images? Shutter release working? Autofocus switch turned on (unless manual focus is available on the fly)? Aperture and shutter speed gears working? Preset for go-to aperture and shutter speed based on expectations of first photo situation? ISO set properly? EV switched off? Delete button working? Review button working? Zoom gear working? Dome port screwed on all the way or has it become jostled? Batteries in strobe full and working? Sync cords working? Then: Air in tank and air turned on all the way? BC attached to inflator? Weights on? Fins on? Buddy alive and well and having checked their gear?

And, the most important piece of equipment that photographers overlook is a lanyard. I have seen more cameras and dive lights and dive computers dropped into the abyss than you can imagine and all because the photographer was smug in saying “I don’t need one”. It’s a five dollar investment on a multi thousand dollar set up. Don’t be daft. Also, there are times, such as emergencies or simply getting self or gear into boats, when having hands free is essential. A camera attached to one’s wrist or attached to one’s BC is the most sensible investment a photographer can make. I take great delight in saying I TOLD YOU SO when someone is too proud to accept the advice of the value of a lanyard. And you know who you are out there, don’t you fellows?…

How do you rinse your camera post-dive?

Sometimes. A dip tank is nice. But never never never ever leave a housing unattended in a rinse tank. That is where the majority of floods occur as there is little pressure to keep the watertight integrity and things placed atop another housing can jostle enough for water to get past an O ring, scratch a port, open a latch. I have seen terrible terrible things. And for God’s sakes take it easy with the air nozzle attached to a scuba tank. Its painfully loud and mostly people just blow seawater droplets past the O rings and into their housings. Sure it looks cool but moderation, moderation.

When traveling, do you leave the housing O ring in or take it out? Does your camera body travel in the housing or separately?

I travel with parts separated, cameras in carryon, housings in checked. I don’t take out o-rings because I don’t keep an airtight seal, just dust caps on the port openings. I don’t like cameras inside housing during travel due to jostling than can bend or damage the delicate levers and knob alignments inside the housing.

How do you clean your dome ports? Are they glass or acrylic? Do you clean the inside or not?

Always clean the dome ports inside and out or you will hate yourself for the extra step of cloning out detritus in post processing. I use glass ports. Old, clean, all-cotton t shirts are the best way to clean the inside. Check before each dive for water droplets caused by opening the housing with the port down. It happens.

Allison Vitsky Sallmon and Andy Sallmon

Andy and Allison Sallmon are professional marine photographers based in San Diego, California.

Have you ever flooded a camera system in the field? Do you carry a spare camera body or housing?

To date, our only “biblical” (biblical = bring the camera and lens underwater without a housing and take some joke shots because there is no way the gear is going to be saved) floods have occurred in our home waters. However, we try to be prepared for them when we travel. We tend to travel with 2 housings and 3-4 camera bodies each. We also try to ensure we have ample lenses to cover both wide-angle and macro scenarios, depending upon where we’re traveling. In associated news, we have paid a lot of overweight/additional baggage fees; we don’t worry about saving $150 in extra baggage fees when we’ve spent thousands to go someplace.

Do you use a vacuum leak check system?

No. But if we did, this is no substitute for insuring your gear, so do not think of this as an either-or proposition.

How often to do maintain your O rings in the field? What does this maintenance involve?

Every time (well, nearly every time) we crack a housing, we remove the o-ring, check it for sand/hair/debris, wipe clean the groove, clean and lube the o-ring, and re-seal.

What sort of pre-dive checks do you carry out with your camera and housing?

Name the mistake, and between the two of us, we have made it - we like to say that our system is hard-earned through Murphy’s School of Underwater Photography. Your pre-dive checks should be rigorous! Look around the housing to ensure it looks evenly sealed and no bits of o-ring are poking out. Turn the camera on. If you’re using a zoom lens, make sure your zoom gear is working. Make sure you can change shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. Look through the viewfinder (aka, the “lens cap” check). Make sure your equipment is auto- or manually focusing per your preference. And finally, make sure your strobes are firing. Then turn it all off until you are ready to dive it. If a freshwater tank is available, dunk your rig - with the understanding that sometimes things happen at depth that you may not be able to predict during a dunk check.

How do you rinse your camera post-dive?

As much as we can control this, we try to soak our rigs in fresh water for at least 5 minutes.

When traveling, do you leave the housing O ring in or take it out? Does your camera body travel in the housing or separately?

Andy - leaves O-ring in place, but he places the cap on the front of housing rather than a port (so the system is not sealed). Allison - generally removes O-rings when flying (admittedly, this is out of habit). We check housings/ports/strobes and carry on all camera bodies and lenses. Most airlines do not want you to check camera gear, though if you wind up arguing with airline personnel about carry-on weight, it is better to be arguing about one or two pounds as opposed to twenty.

How do you clean your dome ports? Are they glass or acrylic? Do you clean the inside or not?

We each use both glass and acrylic dome ports. We clean glass ports with glass cleaner and a lint-free cloth and acrylic ports with Novus and a lint-free cloth. We wipe out the internal surfaces with a clean, lint-free cloth and spray out particles with compressed air.

David Fleetham

David Fleetham is one of the most published underwater photographers in the world. He began diving and photographing underwater in 1976 and his photograph of a sandbar shark appeared is the only underwater photograph to feature on the cover of LIFE.

Have you ever flooded a camera system in the field? Do you carry a spare camera body or housing?

Yes. More times than I care to remember. In the old days I had several housings fail and spray my Canon F-1 with sea water. Amazingly these tough mechanical cameras could be soaked in fresh water and then worked while carefully drying them and they would still shoot, although the metering system was fried. Now just a few drops in the wrong place and you toss the camera body and lens in the trash…..which, I am sad to say…..I have done more than once. Even more sadly is that each time was operator error.

I carry two complete systems when I travel and hope to come home with both working. This has been the case in my last few years of shooting. It is my aspiration that the writing here of this fact does not bring any bad ju-ju my way.

Do you use a vacuum leak check system?

I use Ikelite housings which allow a constant view inside and so I have not spent a great deal of time investigating alarms and/or vacuum systems.

How often to do maintain your O rings in the field? What does this maintenance involve?

The O rings that are removable (main housing, port and strobe) I examine each time I put my equipment together. Any sign of sand, sediment and/or salt and I will remove them. Clean the surface where they sit. Wipe the O ring itself by running it through my fingers, and if necessary, I’ll use a piece of toilet paper (paper towels seems to leave material behind). Once clean and then bone dry, I’ll put a dab of silicon grease on my thumb and first finger and run the O ring through them until it is lightly coated. Do this lightly. If you regularly stretch an O ring there is a chance it may no longer fit into it’s designated position.

Any control shafts that can be pulled out, I’ll occasionally touch with silicon grease and then work in and out a bit.

All of the above will be performed if it appears to be necessary. I am a firm believer in the “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” school of maintenance.

What sort of pre-dive checks do you carry out with your camera and housing?

Once my system is ready for a dive and I’ve made sure my strobes are firing, I’ll set it in the rinse tank for a minute or two and keep a close eye for any internal water drops. Here I’ll once again ensure the strobes still fire and then turn them off and lock the switch in this position. The shared rinse tank is a scary place for me that I never walk away from. Dunk it. Have a look and then get it out of there.

How do you rinse your camera post-dive?

With all the push buttons on the digital housings now, a hose or shower just does not get the job done. It is mandatory for me to submerge my housing and strobes and work all of the controls, especially the push buttons. Ensure that your camera is powered off or who knows what settings you will screw up. As you push these buttons you will observe bubbles escaping. Keep pumping each one of these until the bubbles stop and then move onto the next. Pull and turn all the other controls one at a time. I DO NOT then leave my camera in the communal rinse container. I have witnessed too many floods occur here and a ridiculous pile up of systems get jostled about as the owner of the bottom camera attempts to extradite his beloved point-and-shoot from the barrel in the same way my six year old digs for Buzz Lightyear in the toy bin.

When traveling, do you leave the housing O ring in or take it out? Does your camera body travel in the housing or separately?

All the O rings stay in the appropriate locations and my camera bodies are tightly screwed into the housings and packed and padded for the inevitable bashing and pounding they will receive from our friendly airlines. I remove and wrap the ports and cover the housing opening with Ikelite’s flat housing cover.

How do you clean your dome ports? Are they glass or acrylic? Do you clean the inside or not?

I have both glass and acrylic ports. The acrylic ones polish up nicely with the Novus kit that comes in differing levels of grit depending on the damage afflicted. The glass ports (“knock-on-wood”) take quite a bit more to damage and if severely scratched are destined for a paper weight or decorative flower pot. As for the inside of my ports, I painstakingly seal them once they are removed from my housings in hopes of not dealing with the interior surface. Occasionally I will carefully blow them out with air. If it is the compressed air system at a resort or on a live-aboard I’ll blow a considerable volume into the room before aiming it into my port. This is not always looked upon as amusing to my fellow photographers to whom I then explain that I’ve seen many unrecognizable forms snot come out of these nozzles upon first contact.

Page 1: Douglas Seifert, Allison Vitsky Sallmon and Andy Sallmon, David Fleetham.
Page 2: Steve Jones, Tony Wu, Julian Cohen.
Page 3: Shawn Heinrichs, Alex Mustard, Rico Besserdich.