Clean your camera

After a lot of careless handling, the front panel of my camera came off the back panel. That leaves it fairly water-permeable! Which is a bad thing, And unfortunately, I noticed that while submerged in the sea. But to my pleasant surprise,  the camera came back to life after having dried out again. And then I made brass brackets to re-waterproof it. That lasted for about a year, after which the little screws I used broke and fell off. I then made thicker brackets, which can hold thicker bolts. Worked rather well, again for well over a year.

In Boxhead Pot, one of the brackets came off. And when I took a picture of the sunset after coming out, I noticed the second had detached too. Fortunately, both events had happened inside the pocket I keep the camera in, so the brackets, which are a bugger to make (the size has to be JUST right) weren't lost. But I could again look straight into the inside of the camera. It looked muddy in there.

When it was open anyway, I decided to rinse it out. Who knows how much mud and salt there was in there! And yes maybe that would be the end of the camera, but hey, it would still have served me for over two years after me effectively having broken it. That would be acceptable. But who knows, maybe it can serve for another year or so if I clean it out... so I did. It does feel a bit odd, I can tell you, to purposefully hold the interior of a camera under the running tap, but I figured it had to be done.

After rinsing I let it dry again. And then I hesitantly switched it on again. And it worked! What a tough camera. Then I had to re-attach the brackets. And when that was done I switched it on again. Nothing! Oh dear. But then I exchanged the battery with my other Lumix, and it came back to life. Welcome back, camera! Next week Jenga Pot?