Why you should never use a wireless remote shutter release

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.

Sounds like- always keep it on some sort of leash attached to you. Haha

Moments like this prove that time is not a constant.

Yikes that would of been scary!

The folks over at Digital Rev TV took a Canon 7d and submerged it in a container of water. They then proceeded to freeze the container of water with the camera submerged in the water. They took the container out and they had a block of ice with a Canon DSLR in it. Once thawed out and dried, the camera still worked. That guys Mark III would have been just fine after a 2 second dib

AC016 said:

That guys Mark III would have been just fine

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I think the difference would have been the salt of the tide pool.

AC016 said:

The folks over at Digital Rev TV took two mid-range DSLRs (one Canon and one Nikon, non-weather sealed) and submerged them in a container of water. They then proceeded to freeze the container of water with the cameras submerged in the water. They took the container out and they had a block of ice with a Canon and Nikon DSLR in it. Once thawed out and dried, both cameras still worked. That guys Mark III would have been just fine

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If you buy that then I've got a lovely bridge that you're gonna really like...and it's cheap, too!

Sad part is someone will try it for real.....

Ugh. Thanks for reminding me of the night I woke up in the middle of a flood. The first thing I see is my fully loaded camera bag floating lazily by. Thank goodness for insurance.

1 PocketWizard and 1 speedlight were all that survived. That was about 3 years ago now, and they both still work flawlessly!

Dave_W said:

If you buy that then I've got a lovely bridge that you're gonna really like...and it's cheap, too!

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Don't really need a bridge, but here is the video for you - corrected number of cameras and camera model.

I had the oddest thing happen to me about 5 years ago which is in some ways similar to this. I was down at the beach with my F2/MD-2/MB-1 doing some early morning black and white sunrise stuff. The camera was on a tripod, a 30 year old Slik U212, which is not a particularly steady tripod but is usually sufficient for field work in 35mm and 2 1/4. I have fairly low blood pressure, always have. I was squatting down for a little while and stood up too quickly. I felt a little light headed but figured it would pass.........it didn't. I fainted and on the way down, knocked over the tripod and camera. It hit the sand and the impact pressed and jammed the shutter release button on the motor! I came to almost immediately but was still a little groggy and watched helplessly as the motor wound that film at 5 fps until it ran out. I had hand loaded 40 exposures into the reloadable cassette and was about halfway through the roll when this calamity befell me. I picked up the camera, brushed off the sand and unstuck the shutter button. I turned the rewind button and to my dismay it rotated freely. CRAP! The motor had ripped the film off the spool and wound it all onto the take up spool! I did not have a film changing bag with me so that camera was dead in the water until I could get home and remove the film in the darkroom. Fortunately I had another F2 in the bag and more film loaded so I finished up and went home.