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As certified diver since over thirty years now and underwater photo enthusiast, Rene use his expertize on repair and maintenance of underwater photo equipments. No matter it is for the famous Nikonos system or for any other adapted underwater housing, his expertize will meet your expectation.
He had make several underwater housings for special applications, so he will be abble to help you on good advises for the basics care of your equipments. You can trust him for for more specialized care which include the waterproof test with our hiperbaric chamber. Visit Rene's UW photo gallery

                                        

Somes advises:

Before the dive:
Before each dive, it is strongly recommanded to check all joints and to replace it if they are not perfecly free of defects as splits or cracks, you also should clean and relubricate them. To do it, you remove the joint from it groove with a soft tool like a credit card corner, with a soft cloth, you clean the groove and the joint to remove all dirt and sand, then you apply a small coat of silicone grease. Too much grease would only help dirt and sand to stick back onto the surface and destroy the watertight of the joint.

All of that has to be done in a clean place as at home or in the hotel room, never attemp to do it outside on the beach or on the dive boat where the wind blow sand and dust all around. To remove the joint, never use any metal tool which would make small scratchs on the surface that receive the joint, even the smallest scratch will let water to get in the housing.

After the dive:
After every dive, all equipments should be well rinced in soft water for several minutes to remove all salt water traces. Then, sponge the remaining water with a soft cloth, do not let it dry at the direct sunlight, In the winter, or after diving in very cold water, problems will comes by dew forming on the equipment when you get inside. The best way is to put your equipment in a plastic bag with it exterior air which is generally a lot dryer than the interior air, then, you let the camera warming up inside it bag. Opening the back door of a cold camera inside will produce dew direcly on the shutterblades and elsewhere inside the camera with desastrous long terms results.

In the worse cases:
The worse thing to happend is, of course, water getting in the camera housing. In that case, the first thing to do is to remove the battery, then you gently rinse the outside of the camera from it salt water with a soft wet cloth, finally you put the camera in a freezer until you can bring it to a technician. Freezing the camera will stop the corrosion effects.

'' NEVER COMPLETELY IMMERSE THE CAMERA IN FRESH WATER ''. Just remember that the source of problem was water, therefore it is useless to add more of it!

Here an old housing adapted for a Canon GL2 camera



A rear view showing the LCD viewer adapted to the GL-2 housing instead of the traditionnal viewer,
offering now a quite better view.



Here an hommade housing for the Hasselblad 500 C/M



Here both Hasselblad still camera mounted just above the Canon GL-2 video camera, each with their own
lightening system. A bit heavy but make dive more productive...
Pictured by Raynald Gilbert with one of my Nikonos V and SB-105 flash unit.


       
To optimize divetime, two Nikonos V on the same bracket, the first with a wide angle lens for average
photography and the other one with extension tube and frame for macrophotography.