Shawn Heinrichs

Shawn is an Emmy Award winning cinematographer, photographer, scuba diver, and marine conservationist. He is the owner of Blue Sphere Media.

Have you ever flooded a camera system in the field? Do you carry a spare camera body or housing?

Not yet…fingers crossed! Definitely carry a spare body and spare 15mm lens as even a non water related failure ends your shoot.

Do you use a vacuum leak check system?

I don’t but should!!!

How often to do maintain your O rings in the field? What does this maintenance involve?

Once at the END of each trip when I am not in a hurry. That way the o-rings are ready for storage. And, I do a quick check when I go back in the field.

I remove the o-rings, wipe them down, wipe out the o-ring track, grease the ring then place by in the track.

What sort of pre-dive checks do you carry out with your camera and housing?

I check for any hair or sand on the rings, do a brief dunk test. Test power on/off, focus and primary gears (aperture, shutter speed, and shutter)

How do you rinse your camera post-dive?

Spray down and wipe with town. I never leave in a bucket EVER…damage and flood risk way to high.

When traveling, do you leave the housing O ring in or take it out? Does your camera body travel in the housing or separately?

Carry camera in housing with o-rings. Lens off and dome off. Always carry on with me in back pack..padded out.

How do you clean your dome ports? Are they glass or acrylic? Do you clean the inside or not?

I clean with dry towel and fresh water on outside. I use glass domes with acrylic back up dome. Only clean inside when there is lint.

Alex Mustard

Alex Mustard has been taking underwater photographs for 30 years and has worked as a full time underwater photographer for the last 10 years. He is also an Associate Editor of Wetpixel.

Have you ever flooded a camera system in the field? Do you carry a spare camera body or housing?

No SLR floods that have claimed a camera (film or digital). When baggage allowance permits I will travel with two housings. I prefer two housings as I like to make use of different formats (full frame, 1.5x crop or 2x crop). However, I have done many shoots with just a single camera and housing. This is not through choice, but when starting out working full time as a photographer, my own finances did not allow for second camera bodies or excess baggage fees! And I have never had a camera or housing stop working in the field and stop me shooting.

Do you use a vacuum leak check system?

Yes, I have them on all my SLR housings. Not on my strobes or Mirrorless housings.

How often to do maintain your O rings in the field? What does this maintenance involve?

Depends on the trip. Swimming in blue water from boats it might be once a week. Shore diving in sandy environments it might be every dive. I have noticed that the tighter seal of vacuumed housings means less grit getting onto o-rings for the latter.

What sort of pre-dive checks do you carry out with your camera and housing?

Thorough checks that the camera takes a picture, that is correctly exposed and in focus. Ensures camera and strobes have batteries in. No lens cap, Memory card in. And that focus, and all controls are working.

How do you rinse your camera post-dive?

Dunk in and out of freshwater. Stop. Never had a problem with my Subals treating them like this.

When traveling, do you leave the housing O ring in or take it out? Does your camera body travel in the housing or separately?

Again this depends on airline and allowances. In Europe many of our flights have very strict hand luggage limits. When I have generous hand luggage allowance I will pack my camera in housing and housing in carry on. When it is strict, as it was going to Egypt last month, I even had to back lenses in the hold baggage. Main o-ring stays in, but the viewfinder is off - so there is no seal.

How do you clean your dome ports? Are they glass or acrylic? Do you clean the inside or not?

Clean them inside and out. Wash them with freshwater inside when they need it. Glass ports mainly.

Rico Besserdich

Rico is a professional underwater photographer, lecturer, artist and journalist, and the International Director of Underwater Photography at DIWA, Diving Instructor World Association. He has been involved in photography since 1978, and became an underwater photography specialist in 2001.

Have you ever flooded a camera system in the field? Do you carry a spare camera body or housing?

Luckily not completely flooded but I had issues. I really would wish to have at a least a spare camera body with me when out in the field, but sadly I don’t.

Do you use a vacuum leak check system?

Not yet. But maybe one day, I will.

How often to do maintain your O rings in the field? What does this maintenance involve?

This pretty much on the circumstances. If the area I am working is sand- and dust-free I maintain the O rings every 2-3 days. But when in “dirty” environments I do this every day. When looking after my O rings, I completely remove them from the housing ( and ports ), clean them from any dust, hair, sand etc. , do a visual inspection (checking for cuts or any other physical damage) and, if necessary, treat them with a drop of lubricant. The latter I do only if the O ring feels a bit dry & hard to me. If the O ring still looks and feels shiny, smooth and flexible I skip the lubricant part.

What sort of pre-dive checks do you carry out with your camera and housing?

1) Checking the camera before it goes inside the housing ( battery, memory card, pre-settings, lens)
2) Checking the housing’s stroble cable connector and the contacts of the strobe cable itself
3) Visual inspection of the housing for any damages or items missed + checking cleanness of the port
4) Visual inspection to make sure the camera is mounted in the housing correctly
5) Checking if the camera is full operable in the housing ( access to buttons, functions etc. ), combined with a few test shots
6) Checking if the strobes are working (by doing some test shots, usually shots of my own feet)
7) Final visual check to make sure the entire system configuration is complete for the shots I want to do

How do you rinse your camera post-dive?

This pretty much depends on where I am. When on a larger dive boat I prefer to use the fresh water shower instead of the rinse tanks. If I have a room ( e.g. hotel room ) I always love to have a shower together with my housing ;-)

An intense rinsing I usually do when back home. Then, the housing dives in my bath tube for a longer while, and in between I push all buttons multiple times.

When traveling, do you leave the housing O ring in or take it out? Does your camera body travel in the housing or separately?

My housing’s O ring is only in it when I go for diving. When travelling (or simply not using the housing) I always store the O ring at an extra place. Most likely a few days of closed housing with O ring inserted would be no problem at all, but I prefer my own mindset, performing specific steps always in the same order. This helps me to stay organized, even if everything around me is a huge mess.

When traveling, my housing stores usually some smaller items and accessories such as zoom rings, lubricant, O rings, strobe cable. Everything packed in small extra plastic bags. My camera travels separately, I might need it for some quick land shots.

How do you clean your dome ports? Are they glass or acrylic? Do you clean the inside or not?

I am using acrylic dome ports. I just clean them from the outside with fresh water ( sometimes 1-2 drops of soap in it ) and dry it with a dish cloth afterwards.

If possible I try to avoid touching anything inside my dome port. But if, in very rare cases, it is dirty from the inside, I use an antistatic lens cleaning cloth for cleaning. Currently, I am using the wet ones from Kruidvat (Dutch company).

Page 1: Douglas Seifert, Allison Vitsky Sallmon and Andy Sallmon, David Fleetham.
Page 2: Steve Jones, Tony Wu, Julian Cohen.
Page 3: Shawn Heinrichs, Alex Mustard, Rico Besserdich.