possible dumb question

[cajunbandmom]

I live in very south Louisiana and of course we have our a/c on in our house ALL the time... The humidty is so high here in the summer. How do you keep your lens and the mirrors from fogging up. I mean to the point were there is water dropplets. I can't do anything with the camera for a good hour or so. Is there anything you do to help with lens fogging etc.
Thanks so much,
AManda

 

[Josh66]

Seriously? You take it outside and water droplets form?

That's pretty bad...

You have to let the temperature equalize. That's really all you can do to avoid condensation...

You could keep your camera bag on the porch, or in the garage... But I wouldn't want to do that either.

 

[reznap]

Someone posted this link a while back:

Archival Methods - Desiccant Canisters (Metal Case) - 53-001 -

Basically, these will suck the moisture out of your camera bag. Might help a bit, might not - I'm not sure really.

 

[Josh66]

^^^ I don't use those exact ones, but I keep a few small desiccant packs in my camera bag, and larger ones in my gun safe.

I'm not sure that they could really handle the amount of moisture you're talking about though.

When they become saturated, you can heat them in the oven (350 ought to do it) to 'recharge' them.

 

[cajunbandmom]

cool thanks.. I was thinking of cleaning out a spot in my laundry room. It is not as hot as outside but not as cold as the rest of the house.

 

[cajunbandmom]

when I say dropplets. I mean tiny dropplets.

 

[Josh66]

cool thanks.. I was thinking of cleaning out a spot in my laundry room. It is not as hot as outside but not as cold as the rest of the house.

That should work. I don't know if I would keep it in there all the time, but if you know you're going out, put it in there a few hours ahead of time. And open the bag while it's in there - that should help the cold air escape.

It should at least cut down the time it takes the temperature to equalize between the inside of the camera/lenses and the air.

 

[IlSan]

Not too sure about the temperatures and humidity levels in Louisiana, but here in Hong Kong summer is about 32 - 36 degrees (celsius) and a mean humidity of 85% and above (today its 93%).

I do know the problem very well with the fogging and condensation on the camera - what I do (aside from the little silica gel pads in all of my bags) is, to pack my lens in a ziploc bag, then, this ziploc bag in another ziploc bag filled with silica pellets.
I tend to leave this part of the camera in the "winter garden", part of the balcony that is covered, in a cabinet there. This way, the lens is always in the right temperature.

As for the camera body, I keep it in a normal storage unit in my room, but put it out to get used to the outside about one hour before I head out (of course also in a ziploc bag).

The biggest problem I face here is, that when you enter any buidling, or public transport, they have the air con blasting at full power, meaning, that your whole equipment goes through an additional change every time - ziploc bags are the magic word...not sure how other people's experience is, but for me, they have worked miracles.