Rice saved my camera

We were camping this past weekend at Dosewallips. If you live in or near Washington state, it’s a wonderful campground. It is right near the Hood Canal and the Dosewallips river. Just a 5 minute walk from your campsite to either.

We had fun playing and splashing in the very shallow part of the river near the campground:

Fenix was surprisingly fearless about wading into the river which was nice. He had fun trying to skip rocks with J.

Then rather suddenly the cord slipped from my wrist and my camera plunged into the river, not unlike Fenix in this picture:

We didn’t panic – J waded right over and took the camera from me and removed the flash card and batteries. He waded to the shore and used a towel to dry it off as best he could and then he and Fenix consoled me as I sat there sulking.

Luckily we brought a box of rice with us to the campground (side note – leave some rice and a can of beans in your camp kit for a quick easy camp food). The rice was important because J and I have both read in various places on the internets that if you drop an electronic device (cellphone or camera) into water, it can be saved by doing this:

1) immediately remove the batteries, sim card, flash card, or any other accessories
2) dry the device with a soft, dry rag or towel
3) wrap the device in a couple of paper towels. you can hold the paper towels on with a rubber band
4) place the device in a large plastic container with a tight fitting lid or a large ziploc bag
5) add enough raw white rice to the bag or container to completely cover the device

wait a few days (don’t try to turn on your device!)…….

After a few days you can take your device out of the rice and try putting the batteries back in to see if it will turn on.

It worked for us and mind you, my camera was ON when I dropped it in the river. Also had the water been salt water, this exercise would likely have been futile since the salt left behind after the water evaporates is corrosive. It would have destroyed the internal workings of my camera eventually even if it was working after initially drying out.

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~ by reesemcg on July 15, 2009.