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Olympus 770 SW Leak - Any hope?
Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 12:15 pm
by Steve S
My Olympus 770 SW shut down during a snorkel Monday. I thought the battery was dead. When I got back to the villa the battery compartment was wet

. I was very careful changing the battery and closing it. Is there any hope?
Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 12:30 pm
by CariBert
No. Just went through that. Think...Canon D10.
-Bert
Olympus 770
Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 1:01 pm
by Jo&Wally
I had the same thing happen to my camera what I did was dry out the battery compartment as well as I could I used a Q tip and I left it open for a day or two in order to make sure it was totally dry. I had put the battery dried off back into the charger and recharged it and when I put it all together it started working again. I may have just been lucky but it is worth a try.
Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 1:26 pm
by Steve S
CariBert wrote:No. Just went through that. Think...Canon D10.
-Bert
Bert - I did look at the D10 - looks nice, but much bulkier than the stylus. The 770sw was a great pocket camera for trips to town or whatever. Excellent photos and it didn't matter if it fell out of your pocket or got pushed off the table.
We'll see.
Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 2:06 pm
by CariBert
You're right, Steve, and I look for the next upgrade of the D10 to be centered on the "bulky" issue. But all reports I've seen are pretty positive about the operation and the results of the D10.
As far as drying the compartment and battery out on the 770, that may work, but are you going to take it back under water again?
-Bert
Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 3:04 pm
by liamsaunt
On another board I read that someone was able to get their wet camera working again by burying it in a large bag of rice and leaving it for 48 hours. I have no idea why this would work, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
I feel your pain! I still miss my old Canon that I dropped in the petroglyph pool.
Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 3:16 pm
by mbw1024
heard that too about a cell phone that got wet. absorption I would imagine. I think I'd read up on that a little before trying though.
Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 3:38 pm
by Eric in NJ
If you go to a craft store you can buy a big can of silica gel used to dry flowers that would probably work better than rice. The main problem would be that it was saltwater that can corrode things pretty dang fast.
Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 3:39 pm
by cocosmom
I would guess it is the same reason restaurants at beaches put rice in the salt shakers...sounds like a plan???
Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 4:07 pm
by Bug
Mine leaked
Mine died
Mine dried

Mine worked
Mine corroded and died again
Mine is replaced
XOXO
Bug
Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 4:22 pm
by jimg20
The rice-in-the-ziplock-bag trick works because the rice absorbes the moiture without leaving any dust. You are probably right about the sea water. It is now too late. The salt corrodes the electrical components.
Good luck.
JIM
Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 5:42 pm
by deejayjay
Ours did the same thing. Dried it out, still didn't work. Sent it in , as it was still under warranty. Didn't mention that battery case had been wet, just that it had stopped working. They said it had a bad mother board and replaced it for free. Since then we have also upgraded to an olympus 1050. So now we have an extra so we don't miss any picts. We also spend a lot of hours on horseback, and take a lot of pictures from horseback. Occassionally a camera gets dropped from that height. The olympus survives well, and is small enough to fit into my small saddle bag.
Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 9:11 pm
by steve
De Ja Vu..
I had the Pentax WP version ...lasted midway through 2 trips to STJ, Olympus 720 sw lasted most of another trip. 1 month ago I bought the Olympus tough, battery compartment got wet on 3rd day of diving... dried it out, worked, very carefully again closed it up, got wet again within 10 min, did it a third time.... now it is toast. I am very careful and we snorkel a few hours a day.

I guess I need a housing and the D10 but the small size, under water videos, great clarity and versatillity are hard to beat... when it stays dry.
Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 9:26 pm
by brenda
We had the same thing happen to us last November with the Olympus 770. The camera dried out and came back to life a day or two later and is still working. We did nothing special to it. We did not take it back underwater again though. Somehow, I was able to download my pictures, but the memory card was otherwise fried. I would say there is still hope.
Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 10:04 am
by Kentuckygirl
It happened to my 770 too. I took it apart, dried all the parts and within a couple days it was working again.
I tried the rice trick with my iphone and it worked too! Good luck!