Canon R7 got tiny splash of water and now shutter button is stuck on and firing

[Brendanmaher67]

My R7 has been significantly more wet in the past than this moment. I got home to download my photos and noticed that when I turn my R7 on, it rapidly fires photos and I can't access any of the settings or anything. The buttons won't respond because the camera is firing off 30 fps. What can I do to save my camera?

[normadel]

Send it to Canon for evaluation. Good luck.

[stevet1]

Brendan,

First thing is to take your battery out.

You could take a hair dryer to your shutter button and see if you can dry out the "tiny splash of water", but to be honest, I don't see how a drop of water could cause your shutter button to stick. I think it's something else.

I think I would follow Normadel's advice and send it in for evaluation and/or repair.

Steve Thomas

[shadowsports]

Greetings,

These types of accidents are always unfortunate.  The chance of recovering from any type of water exposure is always a gamble, 50/50.  

The most important thing is remove the battery immediately and do not try to operate the camera.  

I would not recommend using a hair dryer or anything that might force water more deeply into the cavity or controls of a camera.  

Popular methods for extracting moisture are putting the camera into a bag of rice.

**Placing the camera onto a heating pad set low on a towel.  

(In your scenario, I would set the camera shutter button facing down on the towel and pad).  

I have a dry cabinet so that would be another possibility.  

Again, however, recovery from water exposure is usually very low.  Weather sealed models do better than those that aren't, but you never know for sure.  You can be in the rain one day and be fine and then have a minor splash like yours where water goes right where it shouldn't be (unfortunately).

It's not the water itself that usually does the damage. It's what's in it.  Both fresh water and ocean contain microscopic minerals and debris.  These are what ultimately cause corrosion and / or failure.  So even if you are able to get something dry, the damage is typically already done.  ☹️. Every situation is different.  

The best advice is send the unit to Canon as my colleague mentioned.  

Start by registering your camera and your MyCanon account.

https://myprofile.americas.canon.com/us/signin/oidc

From there, you can initiate an inspection/repair request.  Describe the problem and what happened in as much detail as possible.  You will then be provided a repair estimate and shipping instructions.  Make sure you pack your camera well and insure it.  

For this type of issue, the repair typically involves a top assembly replacement.  I have no idea how much it'll cost and Canon won't know until they inspect the camera.  

For future.  This situation is a perfect reason why I recommend CarePaks. They protect against these types of accidents.  They're well worth consideration.  Sorry this has happened and good luck with it.

[ebiggs1]

"It's not the water itself that usually does the damage."

Oh contraire my friend, It is the water itself that does damage. You could spill distilled water on a camera and do severe damage. It is the fact water is a conductor that does the damage. Salts in the water may do future damage but never think water itself doesn't.

I agree to call Canon 1 (800) 652-2666 but you might try a qtip with a small amount of denatured alcohol to see if it will free the button up. At this point you aren't going to hurt it further.

BTW, yes, remove the battery.

[ebiggs1]

One additional tid bit on this topic is never turn on any electrical device to see if it still works after its been wet. The water itself may not have damaged anything but turning it on will . As stated in my above post water is a conductor and powering up your wet device can short out the circuitry. Perhaps not appropriate in this case but if your camera gets wet the best remedy is a warm, not hot, heating pad. The camera left on it for perhaps days even a week to dry it out. And of course no battery!

[normadel]

The bag of rice treatment for drying things out has long been debunked.  Do you know how long it takes for dry raw rice to absorb water? 

[shadowsports]

Let's not beat the horse ‌🐴‌ guys.  The why, what and how's, what to or not to do, etc.  The camera needs to go to Canon.  On that we all agree.  ‌😉‌

[ebiggs1]

"The camera needs to go to Canon.  On that we all agree."

Hold on there mon ami. Not so fast, yes, perhaps it does need to go for service but a few little troubleshooting techniques are in order. A little denatured alcohol on a qtip applied around the shutter button won't do further damage but it might unstick a stuck shutter button.

Granted the OP's definition of a "tiny splash" could have a different meaning to the rest of us. And then there is, "My R7 has been significantly more wet ...", seems like an ongoing issue for the OP. What we can all agree on is water and cameras do not mix well.

[shadowsports]

👍 You are so right. A splash could be a drip or a tidal wave.  For buttons, my choice is the corner of a business card dipped in alcohol, then work it gently around the button.