How waterproof is the HMC150??

I don't know that it's warranted to be waterproof at all... if you're in the rain, cover the camera with a plastic bag or something.

That said, the guys at NDTV (New Delhi TV) shoot news on the HVX200s, and there's some folks who get RAIN. Unbelievable during monsoon season. Anyway, they'll come out of that with the cameras pouring rain from the inside, and still get away with it. Salt water will destroy your camera, no doubt, but fresh rain water is much less destructive.

Anyway, I wouldn't recommend letting the camera get wet, I'd put a bag over it.
 
Denialorcoped said:
I was filming in some light rain and was getting kinda paranoid; anyone know how waterproof this thing is?
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It's not waterproof, but it will be fine. I would give it a few days to sit indoors and dry out internally. And I wouldn't make a habit of it.

Mine has been in a mist to very light rain a couple times under an umbrella, but still got wet, and it is still okay. However, as soon as the lens gets a little mist on it, the image quality is very poor.
 
jeff9329 said:
I would give it a few days to sit indoors and dry out internally.
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Damage is done when the electronics get wet while power is on. To take it in and let it dry, is fine if no damage has been done. Otherwise it won't help. I speak from painful experience with a Canon HF10. It got wet when I was shooting. I thought drying it would help, I even disassembled everything and let it dry for 6 days, on a warm and dry place.
When using a strong magnifying glass, I could see how corrosion had bridged electrical circuits. Practically - id died instantly when it got wet.
So now I always protect my HMC, I am super-careful.
 
While I don't doubt anyone's experience and you should always cover your camera if you can, I have shot with my DVX in some pretty wet downpours (and that thing has a tape drive) with no damage multiple times.

Lucky? Maybe. But I like to push it. Just know the risks, and that you might end up with a $3,000 brick.
 
ingvarai said:
....I could see how corrosion had bridged electrical circuits. Practically - id died instantly when it got wet.
So now I always protect my HMC, I am super-careful.
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The "corrosion" (it's not actually corrosion) you see is a byproduct of a dirty PCB not washed throughly in the manufacturing process. However, I agree if it never got wet, it may never have happened.

A perfectly clean (certainly possible) PCB would have no effect at all by contact with 18Mho water. In fact, the PCBs are washed multiple times using water and/or solvent during the manufacturing process.

What burns me is when electronic products are deemed to have gotten "wet" by a repair technician who thinks he sees watermarks on a PCB when its not actually a watermark at all, but most likely ionic salt formation from atmospheric oxidation (note: the ultrapure water used during manufacture leaves no watermarks or rings).


I do agree to be super careful.
 
jeff9329 said:
The "corrosion" (it's not actually corrosion) you see is a byproduct of a dirty PCB not washed throughly in the manufacturing process.
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It is the expression used by the folks here in Norway, at the repair shop. I know what this word really means, but I found no better word to use. The man at the repair shop also showed me a mobile phone where someone has sent an SMS on a rainy day, and he also called this "corrosion".
About PCBs, I worked with PCBs many years before, in the electronics business. The big difference between the production environment, and the real world environment, where the product finally is being used, is that it is powered on when in use. And when miniaturizing has comes as far as it has nowadays, the space between conduction points of different voltage has become literally microscopic. This makes modern electronic products more than ever vulnerable to moisture.
At the repair shop, they said that they never listen to what the customer says, they just open the device. Any "corrosion" - and the repair guarantee was not valid!
Ingvar
 
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Unfortunately in todays world, there are almost no competent IC/SMD/PCB electrical technicians outside of manufacturing and design as everything is disposable nowdays. And like you say, smds are so small they are self destructive and have also wiped out most chance of repair anyway due to the small size.

Because of no PCB level repairs usually being possible, I think it's more critical than ever for factory QA/QC monitoring.
 
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