My DVX Disaster...

K

Kevin McCallister

Well-known member
Hey Guys....

...So I was shooting something on an island for work with my DVX100A and I really screwed up. I was standing at the shore of the bay and decided, "hey, let me put my DVX down on the rocks and shoot at the water level." I shot for a good 30 seconds with no problem. The salt water looked great lapping gently up onto the rocks.

Just as I was about to pick up the camera, a stronger than normal wave of salt water came along and soaked the bottom half of my camera! I quickly yanked it out of the water and dried it out with a tissue, but to my dismay, water had already gotten inside.

The good news is that the water didn't completely swallow the camera. It came up only as high as the manual/servo zoom switch in front. However, I didn't realize that the plastic panel on the bottom was a separate piece, and some water definitely got in there. The camera allowed me to shoot one more shot before acting weird.

The camera never stopped working completely. At the beginning, it would turn on, zoom in, focus, iris, etc, but would not record. Nor could I put it in VTR mode, and I also could not access the menu or eject the current tape. After letting it dry for an hour, it allowed me to eject the tape, but would not take a new one, and the menu/VTR/record features were still off-limits. I also kept getting the error "Auto Off: Cylinder Lock".

I let the camera dry for the night and then, lo and behold, the menu and VTR features started working and it let me record! However, I would sometimes get an "Auto Off: S Reel Lock" error now, and the footage recorded was full of digital hits. I ran a head cleaner once and it worked for a few minutes.

The current state of the camera is this: it turns on, records, the menu works, and I can go to VTR mode, but when in VTR mode, the camera doesn't recognize TC or play back tapes with pre-recorded footage on them. I haven't tried recording new footage again, but I'm sure that it would have some digital hits or bars, and I wouldn't trust the camera on a shoot.

So here are my questions:

1. I think most of the salt water got in that bottom plastic panel. Is it safe to open that up with a screwdriver? Does anyone have a picture of what it looks like in there?

2. Do the errors I was getting indicate a problem with the heads? The odd thing is that the water didn't get near the tape compartment (to my knowledge anyway), but the recording and playback troubles point to the heads.

3. If all else fails, does anyone know of an authorized repair center in the New York area?

Thank you for your help! This is really devastating to me...if only I had stopped shooting 5 seconds earlier!
 
I don't have answers to your questions, but in the future your safest course of action after a water incident like this would be to shut the camera off and let it dry for a few days before trying to fire it back up again.
 
Saltwater is one of the most disastrous things a camera (or any electronics for that matter) will ever encounter. Saltwater is a much better conductor than fresh water so the odds of a short and frying some boards is much more likely.

From a horrifying personal experience, I dunked my Nikon D1h in a river. I immediately drained all the water that had collected in the battery compartment, opened all the compartments and let it dry for about a week before I ever even thought of trying to power it up. She came back to life and still works great to this day (this being about 4 years later). Lesson learned is if you ever encounter a water situation don't even think of powering up until you're more than certain it's dry.

But that was freshwater. When it dried it probably didn't leave much behind (except for river funk). Saltwater will leave behind salt when it dries and anyone who has ever lived near an ocean will tell you what horrible things ocean spray and ocean water will do to metal. Most people who shoot near an ocean for extended periods of time will protect their camera to keep the ocean spray from doing exactly what one wave has probably done to your camera. Another thing to keep in mind is that all it takes is one piece of sand of in the wrong place to screw up delicate tape transport mechanics.

I'm not sure about tearing apart the camera. It's nightmarish to me to even think about opening my 100b up to perform some surgery. Your problems sound like there's either some shorts or something screwed up in the electronics and/or dirt or corrosion in the tape mechanism.

Have tried a system reset? It's possible that when you powered it with wet components it started generating errors that need to be cleared. Other than that I'd find a service tech (don't know of any in NY area since I'm in FL) and have them clean/repair it.
 
Okay, so the reset didn't seem to do anything. On top of this, my camera now looks like its recording (I recorded 30 min of test footage last night), but when I put the tape in a deck, there's nothing on there!

I don't know what to do. Record and playback were both working briefly a few days ago. It was a very little amount of water that hit the camera, too, and none in any highly vulnerable spots, mostly just in the hard plastic shell on the bottom.

Does anyone know any reliable repair places in the NY/NJ area?
 
It's amazing how even a tiny bit of water in the wrong place will cause some serious havoc. That's the nature of the beast. I'm guessing there's little/no weather sealing on the compartments. Sorry to hear the reset didn't work.
 
Check Panasonic's web site. I seem to remember them having a list of authorized repair shops.

Good luck!
 
Hey, so I put my camera in for repair at Nivie Electronics in Brooklyn, NY and it looks like it needs a new VTR board. Total damage, 800 bucks. Lesson: stay away from salt water with your DVX.
 
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