Re: Sugar Spills, Water spills, Oddmund after all.....

[Jim Brick <jim@brick.org>]

At 03:23 PM 4/23/97 -0400, you wrote:
>Oddmund Wrote:
>>Once I was drinking sweet mint tee with some villagers. The M was 
>hanging
>>around the neck. A drop of this sweet (sugar) drink fell down and hit 
>the
>>aperture ring of my 35mm Summicron. I just swept it off and continued
>>drinking and discussing. The next day the ring was like welded. I 
>tried to
>>clean up with a Q-tip and alcohol. No way, no possibility of 
>unblocking it!  
>
>A well placed drop of a sugary drink can incapacitate most any 
>electronic camera,  I seen many a point shoot camera that has been 
>incapacitated by Coke, Beer, Salt-water and sand.  I would venture to 
>say that had that drop gotten into the front of your Nikon PS, it would 
>have "seized" (a pun,humor) to function.    As a rule, Mechanical 
>cameras and lenses can take those drops better than PS or Electronic 
>cameras.  Sure the EOS1n is sealed, but drop sugar water into the 
>mirror box and watch out! Some  EOS lenses are quite susceptible to 
>sugar drops too.  I am surprised that a single???? drop froze up your 
>Summicron.
>
Hi Duane,

I was going to leave this one alone but I have some real experience. I
wasn't going to say -strange place for a camera while eating & drinking-
because I too have been there! A drop of frozen yogurt on the f-stop ring
of my 135mm f2.8 Elmarit-R. A focus or f-stop ring, shutter/mode dial, etc.
on an electronic camera is basically the same as on a mechanical camera.
The difference being what it's hooked to on the inside. It's metal or
plastic and rotates from the outside. If a sticky liquid is spilled on it
and seeps in, you cannot wipe it off and if allowed to dry, will lock the
dial in place. Oddmund is correct! This was not a joke! IT WILL LOCK-UP.
Believe us, you will not be able to move it. Sure, a big enough knob, lots
of mechanical advantage, maybe you'll move it. It'll still be really stiff.
The clearances are extremely small (meant to help keep dust & dirt out) and
liquid will find its way into anything. About spilling into your mirror
box. I'm really not going to touch this one. One would almost have to plan
ahead for this to happen. Most liquids if spilled on to an electronic
circuit and allowed to dry, will not incapacitate the circuit. It could
keep those tiny little contacts from making contact though. This could
indeed incapacitate your camera. If the circuit is energized (powered-up)
while still wet, damage could occur if the liquid is a good conductor. BTW,
pure water is NOT a good conductor. Spill your bottled water or rain water
on your camera, just let it dry. Nothing should be damaged. Have you ever
shot in the rain and ended-up with a very wet camera? I had an encounter
with very heavy rain and an R4sp. It kept right on clicking... Water with
stuff in it is a much better conductor. Ions free to travel around and all
that stuff. The reason people get electrocuted standing in rain water and
touching an electrical supply is because the water has dissolved all of the
dirt and salts on the road surface making the water a really good
conductor. Please don't try this at home, or even away from home. It's much
more fun hearing about it from other people.

Jim