Paul Tierney wrote:
>
> 1. Which alcohol? There's ethyl,methyl,propyl, buyl, then iso-propyl, iso
> butyl etc, etc. They all have different properties.
> 2. There is no water in alcolhol. They must using some liquid which is a
> mixture of water and an alcohol.
>
> Some alcohols are very powerful solvents and will quite definitely kill
> your camera. Pure water, or at least tap water will at least remove the
> salt which is the main corrosive component in sea water. Some alcolhols
> will also assist the rapid drying process.
>
Methyl alcohol will react with aluminum and magnesium and is probably
worse for a camera than seawater if it soaks very long. Ethyl (grain)
alcohol is much less reactive but most grain alcohol is denatured, often
with methanol. Consumable ethanol such as Vodka, Gin, etc. has enough
other organic and inorganic molecules that it may not be much better
than water for the camera. Isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol is available as
70% aqueous solution and might be satisfactory. All alcohols will react
to some extent with light metals so do not leave in contact too long.
Almost all alcohol you can buy will contain some water since it is not
possible to distill an aqueous solution of an alcohol without forming an
azeotrope. Reagent grade distilled ethanol will be 5% H20. Anhydrous
alcohols require considerable chemical magic and are relatively
expensive.
The idea of the washing is to remove the seasalt before it can do
damage. It will require more than one change of the solvent (water or
alcohol) to effectively remove the salt so just a single soaking is not
likely to be effective. Salt dissolves better in water than pure or
near pure alcohols. I would think no fewer than three complete changes
of water, preferably distilled, with thorough draining between soakings
to flush out all the nooks and crannies possibly followed by a quick
alcohol dip to remove most of the water and speed drying followed by a
thorough CLA would be the only real hope of salvage (what a sentence,
I've got to stop reading Faulkner). The camera should not be allowed to
dry out before the fresh water immersion since salt crystals are more
difficult to remove than salt that is still in solution.
If this fails it is the Gods of Olympus way of telling you to get a new
camera or a new avocation.
W. J. (Jerry) Liles
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|