Yesterday evening I was at Bird Rock near the edge of the tidepools waiting for the sunset and there were a couple other photographers to the right of me. I was on a slightly higher part of the rock because the tide was coming in and when it does, it comes in pretty quick. So we did the whole "how's it going" and the "what are you shooting with" small talk thing. The guy closest to me was using a new Mark III Canon and had a lot of gizmo's attached to it. Not sure what all it was but it looked pretty cool. I mentioned that the tide was moving in and that they'd better not go any lower down the rock. I suspect they already knew that but I felt like I had to say it anyway.
We all clicked our camera for the next 30 or so minutes, looking occasionally at each other and wondering if there would be a good pink after glow once the sun went below the horizon. Near the end of the sunset after it was clear the big pink sky wasn't going to happen we started packing up. Throughout the shoot the water was coming closer and closer but never really go high enough to worry about, at least not at this point. But as we were packing up for the night a fairly big wave came in and it was clear it would reach the feet of his tripod. Nothing really to worry about other than it was time to go. But unfortunately the guy with the Mark III had placed his camera bag on the same level of his tripod. Having only seconds to respond, he quickly reached over and picked up his bag but in the process inadvertently hit his tripod. I sat there and watched the tripod tip over (in slow motion, no less) and just as the side of the camera hit the water on its way down, he grabbed the wired remote and quickly pulled it back up. The side and top of the camera got wet, for sure, but he had saved it from going completely under. And though I'm no expert on Canon cameras but I'm thinking it would not be a good thing.
Had this guy been using a wireless remote instead of a wired one, he would have spent the rest of the night in the bathroom with a hair dryer followed by packing his camera in rice, all the while praying for a miracle. Fortunately, he had a wired remote and it saved the day. So the moral of this story is this - never use a wireless shutter release. It may be the only thing keeping your camera from going under water.
We all clicked our camera for the next 30 or so minutes, looking occasionally at each other and wondering if there would be a good pink after glow once the sun went below the horizon. Near the end of the sunset after it was clear the big pink sky wasn't going to happen we started packing up. Throughout the shoot the water was coming closer and closer but never really go high enough to worry about, at least not at this point. But as we were packing up for the night a fairly big wave came in and it was clear it would reach the feet of his tripod. Nothing really to worry about other than it was time to go. But unfortunately the guy with the Mark III had placed his camera bag on the same level of his tripod. Having only seconds to respond, he quickly reached over and picked up his bag but in the process inadvertently hit his tripod. I sat there and watched the tripod tip over (in slow motion, no less) and just as the side of the camera hit the water on its way down, he grabbed the wired remote and quickly pulled it back up. The side and top of the camera got wet, for sure, but he had saved it from going completely under. And though I'm no expert on Canon cameras but I'm thinking it would not be a good thing.
Had this guy been using a wireless remote instead of a wired one, he would have spent the rest of the night in the bathroom with a hair dryer followed by packing his camera in rice, all the while praying for a miracle. Fortunately, he had a wired remote and it saved the day. So the moral of this story is this - never use a wireless shutter release. It may be the only thing keeping your camera from going under water.