HELP! Water damage to D80

[petertranv]

I'm currently in Vietnam and was taking wave photos when on huge one creeped up unexpectedly and splashed onto my D80. I took out the batteries and aired it out. It turns on but then automatically takes photos as soon as you flip the ON switch. The LCD also doesn't work. After three days it worked normally but then went berserk again.

Does anyone have any ideas of how to fix it? I heard that sending it to Nikon repair is a hefty $300-400 and I just don't have that amount laying around...

Thanks,

 

[Dutchwindmill]

I would say 'you have one dead D80'. Do you have a good travel insurance?
Sucses with it!

 

[taat2d]

OUCH!!! That sux, hope you can get it fixed without costing YOU too much money.

 

[whyhan]

Don't rely on what you hear. Just send it off for an estimate. You might be lucky and turns out to be minor part replacement.

 

[Lurker]

Not to disappoint you in advance, but salt water is extremely corrosive (I was looking for an adjective that is more extreme than ehm, "extreme" but couldn't think of any).
I remember seeing some pictures on dpreview of Nikons that were damaged by salt water, with comments like "at first it worked fine but after a week it stopped working" and those pictures looked horrible.

Corrosion is a chemical process that depends highly on the free exchange of electrons. A highly conductive medium - salt water - facilitates this process greatly. This is why salt water is so much more corrosive than regular water.
On top of it, once the water has evaporated the salt stays behind in crystalized form, and these crystals are really good in sucking moisture out of the air, keeping the corrosion process in place.

 

[Seneca]

This is why you cannot take a camera to the beach. Ok years ago I learned this lesson...I took my Minolta 7000 (ok so I'm dating myself now) to the beach and didn't think anything of it. You don't realize there is sand in the air. Two days later I took the camera out to take pictures of my dog and when I went to manually lens focus on her [dog]...I could hear my lens go CRUNCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Yes there was sand in the crevis (sp) of the lens.

So sorry...you need to send it off to Nikon ASAP...it might be salvageable.

 

[Anthony747]

Sorry to hear this! Salt water and electronics = bad news