Dreaded lens fungus and silica packs

shani

TPF Noob!
Joined
May 15, 2013
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Location
Byron Bay, Australia
Can others edit my Photos
Photos NOT OK to edit
Hi all,

I've had a very wet summer here in Northern NSW Australia and as a result all of my lenses got lens fungus so I had them repaired at a hefty $1700 and now have bought a heap of 50g packets of silica gel from hong kong and have them all stored in (hopefully) air tight tupperware and am praying that it doesn't happen again. The silica packets have alluminium containers and the beads turn from orange to green when they have absorbed all the moisture they can. After a couple of weeks I took them out of the airtight container for a wedding and put them in my camera bag with the lenses and they all turned green overnight. Up until this point, in the airtight containers, they hadn't changed colour. So I put them in the oven at 250 degrees celsius for about 3 hours and when I checked on them, some of them had warped and some had turned black and the rest were orange. I later realised that the instructions were for Fahrenheit not celsius and as such I had over cooked them by about 100 degrees.

Does anyone know if you can burn these and if they will still work after overcooking? Or do I need to buy new ones?
 
Usually you can reuse them. I say usually the manufacturer may not and they'd probably know their product better than me.

If you can't control the moisture then you should try controlling the UV light going through your lenses. I say controlling but i mean that UV kills fungus and if you use the lenses every day or two fungus won't be a problem. If you can't get them out that often you might look into a UV light that will do the trick along with some New silica packets. (having the silica flake off and get into your lenses wouldn't be good either ;))
 
Thanks Mike, the UV light is a good option and I could also use it for alternative processes. It isn't always possible to take the camera out everyday or second day especially when there wasn't any sun for 2 months anyhow. This sounds like a less messy option then trying to dry out the silicon. I put one of the bags in the oven yesterday and the bag just melted leaving the silicon balls sitting in a pile on the tray.
 

Most reactions

New Topics

Back
Top