Does sand ruin a waterproof camera?

Ive had my Olympus 720SW for over a year now with now problem when it comes to water. I recently took it to the ocean for the first time ( I think) and now it doesnt work anymore, the inside is fried! Does the sand or saltwater have anything to do with it? And does any of that void the warranty? I guess I learned my lesson...

Neither saltwater nor sand should be the culprit. I think there was probably a crack in there.

Think logically: If water can't get in the camera, how could sand get in? Sand grains can get pretty small, but water is made of particles! If water can't get in, then sand can't get in.


There must be another reason for your camera's demise. But your camera's warranty most certainly should cover that. I mean, if the camera was supposed to be waterproof, and it wasn't, then it's Olympus' fault!

If you know for a fact that your camera did not in any way come into contact with sand and it did not experience any ocean spray, that is not the reason it stopped working. But if it did, however, it is a good chance your camera was affected. That won't be covered under warranty... though you say your camera is over a year old, which would be past the one year manufacturer's warranty period (unless you bought extended warranty) anyway. I believe I would take the camera into a local repair facility to get an evaluation of the damage and an estimate of the repair fee. I would not necessarily mention that "You took it to the beach and now it is not working" as you don't know for certain this is the cause of the malfunction. Let the repair techs disassemble it and determine the problem for themselves. Sometimes cameras just quit working. Good Luck

The waterproof camera have an rubber O-ring that seal around the body. So this O-ring will damage or lack of Elasticity when using it for along time or expose to heat as you kept it in your car or in the beach during the day.
If you want it to work as the new one you have to change the O-ring you can contact olympus asking for repair it.

yes, the sand do effect cameras and video cameras. when the wind blows it picks up particles of sand and it the sand slips into small joints in the camera and ruins the inside.

i had that same camera too, and it was fine in the water. it is made to handle that type of stuff, so it definately wasnt the salt water. the warranty should work to get a new one, but it depends which one you have

Call the Olympus help line and ask them.

I would not surprise me that really fine sand would get into the camera eventually.