Nikon D3100 Digital Camera Logo
Anonymous Posted on Nov 18, 2011

My D3100 got dunked, it works but images seem cloudy

I fell into a mountain stream (pretty clean water), the camera(off) was toally under (briefly). I pulled that batter, lens, SD, and dried it for a week. It seems to work fin, there are some specks lookng through the viewfinder that do not show up on images, but everything seems a little bit hazy, a white cast Ideas?

  • Anonymous Nov 18, 2011

    I should add, I had to shake water out of the lens and camera, we are talking full immersion.

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Steve

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  • Nikon Master 3,290 Answers
  • Posted on Nov 18, 2011
Steve
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Bob, Your camera may stop working very soon as corrosion begins. You should place all parts that got wet in a pillow case and put in a large container of dry, uncooked rice for a day or two (or longer). The rice will will draw out the moisture from all the affected parts.

Next, you'll need to do a "wet cleaning" of the sensor. This is not for the faint of heart - but can be done at a camera shop for under $100 if you'd rather have them do it. I'd wait a couple of weeks before doing that - as the camera may fail as a result of the corrosion I mentioned earlier. It doesn't make sense to drop $100 into a broken camera - right?

The lens will need a thorough cleaning - but may be better / cheaper to buy a replacement. This is not an "end user" job - it will need to be sent out - but consulting a local camera shop first would be best.

  • Anonymous Nov 18, 2011

    Steve, the lens is just the stock 18-55 that came with it, something I was planning on replacing anyways. this happened back in August, and the camera still seems to work fine. I dried it in a very warm low humidity environment so hopefully that did the trick. On the sensor, I've read that one is actually cleaning some sort of screen over the sensor, I am worried that gunk got in between, is the screen effectively fused to the sensor?

  • Steve Nov 19, 2011

    Yes, there is an infrared filter on the sensor itself. The filter can be removed and once removed - my understanding is after this is done it can not be "put back" (I have not done this to a camera but using google might provide more info). After the filter is removed, the camera will only take infrared images (IR images). There is a market for these modified cameras - so if you find that the resulting images are not your cup of tea - you may be able to sell it.

    As far as how it is attached to the sensor - I'm not sure. You could check with a local camera shop - or return to Nikon for a free repair appraisal (you only pay for shipping). Anything can be repaired - if you're willing to spend enough money on it. Having it inspected and cleaned professionally is probably the best way to go as we here do not have the benefit of inspecting it.

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