Sony A77 took a dip in the sea

Cheesy feet

Cheesy feet

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Ollie
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So after almost getting cut off by the tide whilst photographing and videoing time-lapse sequences on my Uni's Nikon D3, and my Sony A77, I made it back to the strip of coast connected to the mainland. I set up the Nikon on my tripod about 5ft away from the sea, put my camera (on tripod) lying on the ground next to it, and perched on a rock facing the opposite direction in the sunset to catch some rays. I scoffed a couple of packets of crisps and an orange, turned around and spotted 1/4 of my Sony in the water. Oops! I picked it up (stupidly not keeping it up the way it was in the water), and there was a slight burning smell (I had left it on - so I turned it off). So it was working.... I moved the camera back 2ft to some dry land and straight away the tide came in a wave and almost reached it!.. So I've now learnt how quickly tides can move. I left it to dry overnight on the windowsill and it no longer turned on. Then, after noticing a bit of damp under the tilt screen, and some salt crystals on a screw on the body, I then put it next to the radiator, but that hasn't seemed to have helped. To be honest I was hopeful it wouldn't be affected as it had the 16-50mm Sony lens which makes it 'water resistant', or something like that... Too hopeful.

Do I send it off for repair? Sell it for parts?
I have 3 sony lenses unfortunately, and no money, but I'm tempted to just sell it all (and make a massive loss) and buy a decent full frame body.
 
what lenses do u have?

although the a77 and others are weather sealed, thats more rain, and not sitting in water, soo...

Im not sure how much sony would want to repair it, it used to be 117 flat rate for camera repair, had a shutter die on a55, but in your case its user damage, so dont know :x

you can try the lenses on any a mount body, including minolta film cameras, should u want to test the 16-50
 
Salt water will ruin a camera, and it will keep eating at the electronics, try sony but I dare say they may write the camera off.
 
It can take a week or two of being in a warm dry atmosphere to fully dry out a camera. If you're lucky that can restore the electronics to normal operation. Lenses too -- modern lenses have electronics. Salt water however is the worst. It can leave hygroscopic corrosive deposits. Worth trying a really good dry out, battery removed, all access flaps open, display unfolded, lens off, body cap replaced by a body cap with a hole in it covered with a piece of lint free cleaning cloth to allow drying without ingress of dust. Dry the battery too -- it has internal electronics. After that try it with a unsalted battery. With luck it might just be the battery that's been killed.

By way of encouragement I once took my Sony A77 with the water resistant 16-50mm lens out for two hours of heavy rain during which I took lots of photographs and video. It was an unrepeatable event I probably foolishly thought worth the risk. We both got thoroughly soaked. Not the slightest problem.
 
Blimey, bad luck. Do you have home contents insurance? If so you may be covered. You mentioned you're at university - perhaps your parents' home insurance may cover you?

I wouldn't be too confident about a DIY fix. I've seen how bad salt water can be with tripods, so I hate to think what it does to a camera.
 
As the body is probably stuffed you have nothing to loose by taking the battery and card out and then rinsing it off in fresh water and putting it in the airing cupboard or other warm place for 24 hours plus. Ideally this should have been done as soon as possible after the salt water dunking but better late than never.
 
Home insurance if you can. Better off left knackered and claim if you have accidental damage cover.
 
Giblets said:
As the body is probably stuffed you have nothing to loose by taking the battery and card out and then rinsing it off in fresh water and putting it in the airing cupboard or other warm place for 24 hours plus. Ideally this should have been done as soon as possible after the salt water dunking but better late than never.
Click to expand...

In a bag of rice as well? Or some desiccant bags Tends to draw the moisture out
 
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