Risky Business in the Rinse Tank
Most of us are not quite that rich yet, so we do need to share a camera rinse tank with other divers. This can present a huge problem for photographers because most divers use some brand of bottled mask defogger. The reason defogger works is because it reduces the friction between the surface of the mask and the water that fogs it up. It also reduces the friction between water and the o-rings that make your camera waterproof. Combining masks and cameras in the same rinse tank can flood your camera! Even photographers reach to the nearest bucket of water to rinse out the excess defogger and sometimes it might be the camera rinse tank. In spite of pleas to keep the masks and other gear out of the camera rinse tanks, its sometimes too late once the mistake is made.
The only problem is that I kept forgetting to pull the floating sign out of the rinse tanks before I left to go home, so I've had to make quite a few of them. They are cheap and easy to make and serve a great purpose, so I'm glad to have made the donation.
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If
we were all millionaires we could afford
to buy our own yacht. Each photographer on my yacht would
have their own personal camera rinse tank!
Years
ago I found a lid from a 5-gallon bucket
that I carried around with me on dive trips.
I took a black marker and wrote on it "CAMERAS ONLY - NO
MASKS!" and floated it on top of the camera
rinse tanks on whatever boat I was on. It
served as a gentle reminder to keep those
masks out! Later I tried using
a foam garden kneeling pad I bought at Target
for $1. This was even better because the
pad also served as padding in my checked
baggage and could be used as a float for
my very heavy camera housing while doing
spit images.