Need tips for defogging lens in the morning

[Brianskivvy]

Was out with Jeremy our fellow pentaxian for some sunrise shots this morning. And due to packing of my gear prior to the outing and leaving it out in the cold in my aircon room, my lens was fogging like crazy during this shoot making all my shots blur and dreamy which was not my intention :bheart:.

Can anyone share a tip or 2 in defogging the front elements during a moist morning if preventative measures like leaning gear in room temperature was not taken? I've tried wiping with a lens pen but the element keeps fogging up immediately....

I wish this is the only time happening to me and hope I am able to defog it successful should it happen again.... Wasted a sleep deprived morning for this stupid mistake I made.....

Hope to share my bad experience and may god forbid this from happening to another pentaxian...

 

[darrrrrrrrrr]

suggest you avoid using lenspen as far as possible, only use it to clean oily smudges/fingerprints. never did trust rubbing an abrasive powder compound all over the lens.

anyway what i do is breathe my warm breath on the lens to warm it up, then wipe off the condensation with a lens cloth. do it a few times to get the lens surface to body temp and it should not fog anymore. anyway i'm not sure why u wasted the whole morning as it should have stopped fogging after a while, no?

one situation i learnt not to do breathe on a lens is at sub-zero temps (for cleaning, the lens wouldn't fog going from a warm room to the cold outside), since the condensation will immediately freeze! luckily it was just the UV filter that froze so i removed it and continued shooting.

 

[Brianskivvy]

suggest you avoid using lenspen as far as possible, only use it to clean oily smudges/fingerprints. never did trust rubbing an abrasive powder compound all over the lens.

anyway what i do is breathe my warm breath on the lens to warm it up, then wipe off the condensation with a lens cloth. do it a few times to get the lens surface to body temp and it should not fog anymore. anyway i'm not sure why u wasted the whole morning as it should have stopped fogging after a while, no?

one situation i learnt not to do breathe on a lens is at sub-zero temps (for cleaning, the lens wouldn't fog going from a warm room to the cold outside), since the condensation will immediately freeze! luckily it was just the UV filter that froze so i removed it and continued shooting.

Yes I was very skeptical in using the lens pen as well but I did not have my lens cloth with me at the point in time thus I am not able to remove the mist. I guess it's time to get an extra one for field use.

Wow, thanks for the tip on sub-zero temp, would prove useful in my upcoming planned ski trip to Korea.

 

[maxtmhz]

i suppose you should avoid exposing your gear to sudden changes in temperature by leaving it in your bag before taking the camera out when you step out of an aircon room.
should the lens filter turns misty due to condensation, avoid taking it off and exposing your front elements.
because your front element will end up fogging as well.

btw, when are you going to korea?
i will be travelling to Seoul in august as well. =)

anyway, you may want to prepare spare batteries when u visit cold places, i have heard from my friends that cold batteries dont last long.
may have to keep alternating between different sets of batteries to continue shooting. not sure if this will happen to your kx.

 

[Brianskivvy]

i suppose you should avoid exposing your gear to sudden changes in temperature by leaving it in your bag before taking the camera out when you step out of an aircon room.
should the lens filter turns misty due to condensation, avoid taking it off and exposing your front elements.
because your front element will end up fogging as well.

btw, when are you going to korea?
i will be travelling to Seoul in august as well. =)

anyway, you may want to prepare spare batteries when u visit cold places, i have heard from my friends that cold batteries dont last long.
may have to keep alternating between different sets of batteries to continue shooting. not sure if this will happen to your kx.

Yeah, prevention is always better than cure. Will take extra note of this in the future, too bad I do not have a filter on my uwa yet, still pondering if I should get one...

Hey I'm planning to go in January since that will be the time the snow will be thick enough to cushion my heavy fall :lovegrin: Btw was at one of the tour agency at Chinatown on Friday and they mentioned that the winter package will be out this weekend, have yet to check it out since.

Yup, I still have the energiser lithium battery with me and that will be the battery I will be using it there

 

[meyaka88]

halo! i'm going korea end aug since i have a one week break... just wanna ask... what shld i bring along? example like lens cloth etc... hope i wun miss out any impt thing T_T thanx!