Took my good friends hiking here on Maui on Tuesday, we had a tremendously awesome time all except one little thing….my good friend Kearstin slipped and fell into a river, completely submerging her Canon 7D and Canon 50mm 1.4 for several seconds. While the 7D is weather sealed, it is absolutely not waterproof.

I captured the Kodak moment just after the misfortunate event:Kearstin was laughing but the truth of the matter is, she was very upset about possibly losing her very expensive camera. The one saving grace about the whole situation: her 7D was turned off . I Immediately removed the battery, and looked it over. Everything was wet, the lens was even full of water, inside the battery compartment, CF card compartment, and yet even when I removed the lens, from inside the housing.

Over the next several days, I placed the camera in a zip lock bag full of rice and placed it in the sun. The Ziplock bag prevented all kinds of gunk, dust, insects from getting inside the body. The Sun Warmed the camera up, the rice helped pull moisture out of the air trapped within the bag. I checked on the bag several times each day, either drying the inside with a towel, or changing the bag completely. I repeated this process over and over, until no more water was forming in the bag. I also used the same technique with the lens, which only took a day or two to dry out. Once no more water was forming, I mounted the lens onto the 7D and placed them in my hot car for another 2 days.

Today I put the battery in (same battery that originally got wet), turned it on and it looks like it is working GREAT! I will test it out more over the next few days. Out of all the gear I have ever heard or seen getting wet, this was a worst case scenario. I believe the only reason it was saved was because the power was off when it happened.

Good tip to know if you ever get your camera wet, the main thing is: Do not turn your camera on while it is wet! It will short the camera out!