16 April 2009

An anecdote from experience

There it goes. My fourth TC-80N3 remote control. It's gone to the great camera gear heaven. At around £100 a pop, it's not cheap to keep killing them, but that's my fourth one gone. And would you believe it, I've killed all four of them in the same way - lowering the tripod while shooting water and forgetting the TC is hanging below. Yep, that's right, I've drowned them. This time was even fresh water and I dried it immediately, but no matter, it's dead.

So what's the story here? Firstly, when working around water keep an eye not just on your camera, but also anything you may have with you.... the 80cm cable is great for triggering the camera remotely, but easily long enough to drop the release into the water. Secondly, maybe it's time to look at ways of keeping water out for when I feel stupid again and accidentally dunk it in the water again. My number one choice currently, as weird as it may look, is a 'phone condom'. Yes, you read that right. Some genius came up with the idea of making condom type things for mobile phones, and I reckon one will be just the job for keeping water out of the TC-80N3.
I've got a couple here and I'm going to give them a try. While they're not going to be able to seal the top end, I think a bit of tape around the cable should be enough for the couple of seconds that I usually submerge them for!

Anyone else killed one of these or have any thoughts on how to keep them dry? Anyone that suggests 'not dipping them in the water' will be berated forcibly! :-)

-blabpictures-

3 comments:

WPATW said...

When working around water, I just tend to use the standard Canon cheapie one. It has been immersed in river water and left overnight on the Chilterns Hills in the rain and recovered the next day - and still works.

Well I would say that as I havent spent the money on the much more expensive one :-)

I guess the other option is to use the 2 sec timer release

Martin

Unknown said...

I am going to try the new Hahnel wireless remote-no hanging leads and has a good range for about 35 GBP-Cheaper than a lead as well

Anonymous said...

Just use an elastic band around the tripod head and loop the lead through the band,a lightweight and cheap solution to the dreaded remote dunking!!