PeteHall
Moderator
Earlier in the week, I posted on the lost and found thread, to report my Olympus TG4 lost in Swildon's Hole.
I nearly forgot my camera as I set out from Upper Pits on New Year's Day and having returned to the car to fetch it, stuffed it into my wetsuit pocket instead of putting it away properly in my tackle bag.
Needless to say, I got to somewhere beyone the 20' and discovered it was gone. With little hope of finding it given the sporting water levels, I continued my trip but did keep a watchfull eye out, both down and back up the cave, to no avail.
I couldn't believe it when I had an email on Friday morning saying it had been found, even less could I believe it when I saw a reply to my post on the forum saying that it still worked!
Caver post at its best saw it deivered to my home by Saturday morning and Les told me he'd heard it had been found in Swildons 2! If the finder (whoever you are?) could confirm this, I would be very interested.
The camera seemed fine and when I opened it up there was no moisture inside anywhere and all the pictures were still on it, plus a little bonus... As well as a couple of test shots taken by the finder, was a 22 minute long video which has given considerable insight into the adventures that occurred.
The timestamp tells me I was about 10 minutes into the cave when it started recording in my pocket. You can here how wet it is as the roaring of the water all but mutes the clanking of diving cylinders on rock.
The last clank is heard at about 14 minutes in, shortly before the camera clearly drops into the water. This would correspond to just before I reached the 20' as I checked my watch while rigging the ladder.
The camera can be heard being washed along, sometimes under water, sometimes not for a couple of minutes. At about 16 minutes the camera goes briefly under water before a sudden roar of a waterfall a load crash and the continued roaring of a waterfall. At this point I assume the camera had descended the 20', without the aid of the ladder that I was probably still rigging at the time!
Now the story I heard is that it was picked up in the streamway of Swildons 2 and if this really is the case, it must have had quite an impressive journey as the stream dissappears down through boulders at several points.
I guess the neoprene pouch it was in helped protect it to some extent and helped to float it along, but I'm pretty sure whatever it survived is well beyond what the manufacture would rate it for!
There have been enough posts singing the praises of the "live composite mode" on the TG4 and all the evidence shows it is very capable of producing some fantastic pictures in the right hands. In the wrong hands however, this camera seems pretty indestructable!
Perhaps the ultimate cavers camera?
I nearly forgot my camera as I set out from Upper Pits on New Year's Day and having returned to the car to fetch it, stuffed it into my wetsuit pocket instead of putting it away properly in my tackle bag.
Needless to say, I got to somewhere beyone the 20' and discovered it was gone. With little hope of finding it given the sporting water levels, I continued my trip but did keep a watchfull eye out, both down and back up the cave, to no avail.
I couldn't believe it when I had an email on Friday morning saying it had been found, even less could I believe it when I saw a reply to my post on the forum saying that it still worked!
Caver post at its best saw it deivered to my home by Saturday morning and Les told me he'd heard it had been found in Swildons 2! If the finder (whoever you are?) could confirm this, I would be very interested.
The camera seemed fine and when I opened it up there was no moisture inside anywhere and all the pictures were still on it, plus a little bonus... As well as a couple of test shots taken by the finder, was a 22 minute long video which has given considerable insight into the adventures that occurred.
The timestamp tells me I was about 10 minutes into the cave when it started recording in my pocket. You can here how wet it is as the roaring of the water all but mutes the clanking of diving cylinders on rock.
The last clank is heard at about 14 minutes in, shortly before the camera clearly drops into the water. This would correspond to just before I reached the 20' as I checked my watch while rigging the ladder.
The camera can be heard being washed along, sometimes under water, sometimes not for a couple of minutes. At about 16 minutes the camera goes briefly under water before a sudden roar of a waterfall a load crash and the continued roaring of a waterfall. At this point I assume the camera had descended the 20', without the aid of the ladder that I was probably still rigging at the time!
Now the story I heard is that it was picked up in the streamway of Swildons 2 and if this really is the case, it must have had quite an impressive journey as the stream dissappears down through boulders at several points.
I guess the neoprene pouch it was in helped protect it to some extent and helped to float it along, but I'm pretty sure whatever it survived is well beyond what the manufacture would rate it for!
There have been enough posts singing the praises of the "live composite mode" on the TG4 and all the evidence shows it is very capable of producing some fantastic pictures in the right hands. In the wrong hands however, this camera seems pretty indestructable!
Perhaps the ultimate cavers camera?
