I was hiking this weekend, and my new Cannon Elph 300 HS fell out of my pocket and into the river. I didn't even relize it had happen until I went to take a picture of the sunset an hour later and I couldn't find my camera. I back tracked my steps and remember something rolling past me down by the river, which I thought was odd, since there were no rocks on the bank to roll into the river, then it hit me DOOUUUT! It was my camera. By this time it was dark, so we got out the flash light out and there it was at the bottom looking at me. Well by now it was to dark to retrieve it so, it spent the night in the water. At first light I got it out and took out the card and battery and set the camera in the sun to hopefully dry out. I need to know what I can do to try and save the camera, and dry it out completely before I try to turn it on again, or is it hopeless? Thanks, Jack

Edited by jumpbackjack on 05/20/2012 23:42:27 MDT.

Let it sit and dry for days, at least. Some say putting it in a barrel of dry rice will help dry it out faster.

Even if it works electronically, some silt may have got into the servos and lens.

The memory card will probably be okay, but give it plenty of time to dry too.

Hi,

I was on a canoeing trip with my daughter and almost at the takeout point we turned the canoe over. Her sort of new camera got as wet as a camera can. On the way home we stopped at the first camera shop we saw. They said put it in a zip lock and let it stay wet till we got it to the store where she bought it. At the store they sprayed some kind of chemical drying agent on it to dry out the electronics in a controlled way. The spray they used put a coat of something to protect the electronics on all the parts. When they were finished the camera was good as new.

If the camera is worth saving get professional help, soon.

Call These Guys.

They know their stuff. Even though this link is all about "No Power", they do it all, and do it well.

Edited by greg23 on 05/21/2012 06:42:21 MDT.

I would remove media cards and batteries, leave all compartments open and let dry out. I only buy waterproof cameras for this and other damaging outdoor situations.

I personally went the bag of dry rice route, then made sure I used an air-spray can afterwards. Seemed to work fine, although the professional drying chemical route is better if you want to spend the money.

In the future you can always add a dessicant (those little bags of crystals that come with bags and stuff) to absorb any moisture vapor. They'll be particularly good at getting the "last drops" out. They do the same as dry rice, but are a bit better suited to the job.

Dessicant must be dried first. Put in oven at NO MORE THAN 220F degrees. Dessicant is generally packaged in Tyvek bags. Tyvek will melt above this temperature! Time to dry is about 4 hours. I come from this from the multi cubic foot user perspective. We have some bags, but not many.

Just "throwing" bags of dessicant around that you have sitting in your house will not work. Just sitting in the ambient air for a day will deplete the dessicant in question. IE LOSE its absorbtion ability.

All, well nearly all, dessicant comes with a color indicator to tell you when it is dry and when it is wet. Generally purple = wet and blue = dry. There are other colors used. Most commonly is purple = wet and blue = dry.

An old sailing trick I learned to save electronics - bake it. Turn your oven as low as it will go, and bake it at 170 for an hour or two. I've lost count of the number of phones and cameras I've saved like that. So much faster than the bag of rice thing. Been doing it as long as there have been cell phones.