Short update on the leaking official YI housing / dead Yi4K saga.
I contacted YI customer services directly and they basically said that unless the camera was bought from Amazon or YI directly (
http://www.yitechnology.com/) that they would not provide any support because 'we cannot guarantee the products authenticity'. They just said I should contact the retailer, which I already had done.
So, apart from the whole leaking-housing issue, I wouldn't hold out much hope of getting support from Yi CS if you have issues with the camera itself and have bought it from anywhere other than Amazon or Yi. You will be directed back to Gearbest or Banggood or wherever and have to rely on their support. This seems very different to the customer support provided by Gitup, who have fixed or replaced a number of faulty or damaged cameras purchased from other retailers. Gitup have also stated publicly that in the case of a leaking case that 'If it is not used in wrong way or mistaken opened, our warranty will cover the the leaked issue and broken camera.' (
https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/is-the-gitup-git2-diving-case-reliable.19317/#post-251383 )
The retailer asked me to take some close-up photos of the case. During the course of taking these I noticed a small hairline crack in the catch/safety lock on the top of the case (photo attached below). So, this may possibly be the cause of the problem? Anyway, the case has been returned to the retailer who says that they will test it (6 hours underwater at a depth of 3 metres, which they tell me is an 'industry standard' for testing - sounds more like the maximum available depth of their local swimming pool...). The fact that they will not test it with a camera inside also strikes me as making the test completely invalid as it is not replicating the 'in use' condition in which it failed. They say that they will place something inside which 'has the same dimensions' as the camera, but I can't imagine what they could find which would be the same, given the reasonably fine tolerences which these things are supposedly manufactured to.
They appear to be trying to be helpful, and have said that they will take up the matter with YI customer services on my behalf - however they have also made a number of statements in emails which are trying to distance themselves from any liability for damage to the camera itself.
Even if the gap between the case and the rear door is not the cause for the leaking, the crack in the plastic surely is an indication of a manufacturing defect (it failed on first usage remember). I hope that YI will show some good customer service and 'do the right thing' by replacing both the case and camera.
I'll update more here as things develop.