Pooched

I'm going to be miserable for the next few days, possibly weeks.

Do you remember that camera I purchased a couple of months ago? I pooched it.

It was a silly mistake, one that, in retrospect, the designers should have taken into consideration. You see, my Insta360 One R video camera is waterproof up to five metres. I've only taken it underwater twice: the first time was when I was chasing turtles, as DW and I were kayaking along the Mississippi River, near Pakenham. I stuck the camera into the river but the dense growth of underwater plants prevented me from seeing much.

Still, it was cool that I could plunge my camera into water without a care.

My Insta360 One R mounted onto my kayak, on the Mississippi River.

The second time that I placed the camera under water was last Friday, on the Madawaska River, near Burnstown. And this time, things didn't go as planned.

Because I hadn't used the camera in nearly a week, I thought it would be a good idea to plug it into one of the Niro's USB ports, to charge up to its fullest. When we reached the kayak launch area at Burnstown Beach, I saw that the charge had completed, and so I unplugged the camera and snapped on the waterproof cover, which keeps the charging port and microSD card dry.

DW and I paddled just a short distance when I spied two turtles jump off a partially submerged tree and into the Madawaska. Here, the water was clear and there was no underwater growth, so I extended the selfie stick and plunged the camera nearly a metre below the surface.

When I pulled the camera back out, I pressed the button to stop recording, and noticed that the blinking, red recording light would not shut off. I pressed the button a second time, and then a third time, but there was no response. Is was then, as I looked a little closer, that I noticed the cover to the charging port was slightly ajar. When I touched it, it fell open and drops of water flowed out.

And then the light went out.

I pressed the button a second time, and to my relief, the small display showed the Madawaska River. I thought I was lucky, so I tried to start recording again.

No response.

I tried a second time, and when that didn't work I thought it was best to shut the camera off. When I pressed the power button, the red light returned but remained solid, which is not the state that indicates it's recording.

I could not get the camera to respond to anything, but after a minute the light went out and the screen went black.

I decided to not touch the camera any more. I left the cover door open, to let air get in and help the camera dry, and DW and I continued our paddle.

When we returned to Burnstown Beach, after paddling to a dam, about five kilometres downstream, and back, I carefully placed the camera in the back of the car, and when we returned home, I took the modules apart, removed the microSD card, and placed them all in a sealed container, with rice, hoping that the rice would absorb all of the moisture.

This may have been mistake number two.

The next morning, I pulled the modules and data card out of the rice and began to reassemble them. I noticed that a grain of rice had become stuck between two of the battery contact points. As I swept the grain away, I noticed that it was moist and had some green colouration from where it touched the contact points. I took a tissue and wiped the contact points, and continued building the camera.

I tried turning it on, figuring that it must have had enough charge in it. Nothing happened, so I plugged the camera, once again, into a charger. The red light came on, indicating that it was charging, and I sighed a bit of relief.

And then I heard a sizzling sound. Mistake number three.

I immediately unplugged the camera and the red light went out. I retrieved the box in which the camera came, and searched the instruction manual for some troubleshooting advice. In the box was a small ziplock bag with a piece of paper and two silica gel packets. The paper said that if there was suspected moisture, to place the modules in the bag, with the packets. They would turn from blue to red when moisture was taken from the camera.

I cursed, having forgotten about this bag. I shouldn't have added the camera to rice.

I now disassembled the camera, yet again, and this time I could smell smoke on the core module. My heart sank but I sealed up the bag with my fingers crossed.

More than 12 hours later, I opened the bag, the packets now a pinkish-red. The moisture was out of the camera but it was too late. Reassembling the camera for the last time and plugging it in, no light came on the camera. I pressed the Power button: nothing. I left it for a couple of minutes, still plugged in, but nothing happened.

The camera is pooched.

Less than two months after receiving the camera, it's now useless. I'm going to contact Insta360 to see what they can do: my fingers are crossed but my hopes aren't high.

Yeah, I'm going to be miserable for some time to come. I loved that little camera. In the short time that we were together, we had a lot of fun.