Camera Preflight Check: Ignore at your peril

Hitting the water and finding a camera problem can range from frustrating (TAKING PICTURES THROUGH A LENS CAP DOESN’T WORK!) to expensive (WHY IS MY HOUSING FULL OF SALTWATER?). Fortunately, a simple preflight check that takes 15 seconds can save you on the frustration front. It’s easy to get complacent, but just do it! It’s quick and easy. (I’m writing this for myself as much as you, reader)

Mistakes I’ve made

There are a bunch of ways cameras fail. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of my personal mistakes:

• Forgotten flash trigger (most recent, prompted this post)
• Flash trigger not connected
• Flash trigger cable blocking the lens
• Flash trigger not charged
• Camera not charged
• Dead strobe batteries
• Lens focus limiter set incorrectly
• Full SD card
• Forgotten SD card
• Camera fills with saltwater (not entirely clear why this happened, RIP E-PL9)

The cover photo is a rare double fail: the flash trigger is not plugged in, but is also blocking the lens.

Preventable failures

Fortunately, a very quick test can knock out many of these failures. The setup is easy: turn your camera, flash trigger, and strobes on, take the lens cap off, and take a picture.

Things to check:

• Review the picture: If you can review it, your SD card is working and the camera is charged. If it’s a picture and not just a dark screen, your lens ports are clear.
• Did all strobes fire? If yes, flash trigger is connected and functional, strobes have at least some charge.
• If you focus on something at roughly the distance you intend to shoot, you can also check to make sure the image is in focus.

Wrap up

My last dive prior to writing, I drove all the way up to New Hampshire to capture pictures of the plentiful nudibranchs only to find that I had entirely forgotten my flash trigger. I reconfigured on the fly and adjusted my settings to shoot with video lights instead of strobes, but ugh.

For the umpteenth time, I re-learned the same lesson: don’t skip the preflight check.