Posted by Kevin on December 24, 2002 at 04:31:05:
I arrived on Maui last October to dive and shoot video with my digital 8 camera and Ikelite housing. I am new to videography and was excited to get four full days of diving at Lanai and the Molokini crater. The first day was good and offered lots to shoot. I arrived for the second day and was in hurry to get my gear on the boat as I was running a bit late. I recall the guide asking, "Do you want me to put the housing right into the rinse tank?" I replied,” Sure, thanks." Since I have been doing underwater video, I have read many stories about people flooding a housing. The majority of the time it seems to be operator error. With that in mind, I have always double checked my O ring making sure there is a good seal before allowing it to get wet. That was until this morning when I became complacent. I got my gear on and was ready to make entry for my second day of diving. The guide handed me my camera from the rinse tank and I knew instantly something was wrong. The rig was much heavier than it should have been. It was completely filled with fresh water. The camera was totally immersed for about half an hour. In case you were wondering, it does not matter that it was fresh water. Once water is behind the lens, forget about it. The worst part was the remaining dives. I had close up encounters with manta rays, eagle rays, sharks (grays and white tips), frog fish, octopus, jacks, and morays. The water was warm adn had visibility exceeding 100'. There was more reef life than I have seen in the last three years I have been diving in Hawaii. I was so disappointed with myself, that I did not even look at the one day of video I shot. I finally gathered the courage last week to look at the video and to my surprise I actually did get a lot of good stuff before destroying my camera. I edited it with Premiere and added some music, feel free to take a look at the video and let me know what you think. I hope this helps prevent someone else from being complacent and making a costly mistake.