lens condensation - tips anyone?


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sehsuan

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hey folks, yesterday i spent a fair lot of time at the rink where the conditions were about 18 degrees celsius, and 60% humidity for at least four hours straight. after that i'd kept my long lens in my lens bag, and the idea of exposing the lens back to ambient outdoor temperature didn't hit me - so when i was shooting later in the evening, when i changed lenses, there was a whole load of condensation on the recessed rear element of the lens. effectively, i had a "free" soft focus lens, like what you can see below... :p

img_1855_std.jpg


question posed to everyone: do you use a blower to help evaporate the condensation, or do you use another lens to shoot in the meanwhile, or do you do something else, if you had to shoot the event?
 

sehsuan said:
hey folks, yesterday i spent a fair lot of time at the rink where the conditions were about 18 degrees celsius, and 60% humidity for at least four hours straight. after that i'd kept my long lens in my lens bag, and the idea of exposing the lens back to ambient outdoor temperature didn't hit me - so when i was shooting later in the evening, when i changed lenses, there was a whole load of condensation on the recessed rear element of the lens. effectively, i had a "free" soft focus lens, like what you can see below... :p

img_1855_std.jpg


question posed to everyone: do you use a blower to help evaporate the condensation, or do you use another lens to shoot in the meanwhile, or do you do something else, if you had to shoot the event?


what i tot would be the ritz way would be to put your lens into a airtight bag, and place it inside your camera bag b4 going to a different temp surronding, after half an hour it will be fine to take out the lens to shoot, the idea is to have your lens experience a slower change in the temp differences.
Thats wat i did during my winter stay in UK and it seems to work fine.

from what i know once watervapor got into the lens, it easy to get this 'fog' out effect again (dur to the amt of water vapour trap inside). But i am not sure if tat is your case. Take care of your lens dude =p
 

I use an anti-condensation fluid to coat my lens and filters. This fluid is available in most spectacles shops. I comes in a little plastic bottle with a felt tip. Just give a thin coat over the lens, no more condensation.

If condensation re-occurs after some time, re-coat. So far there does not seem to have any ill effects on my lens coatings.
 

Jus_A_Nick and nokin, thanks for your feedback.

actually... would it be just the temperature difference that brings about the condensation, and ambient humidity playing a much lesser role in doing so? i'm guessing this way though the ambient humidity last night would probably be 70% (from the 60% at the rink), and about 26 degrees celsius (from 18 in the rink)... i may be really off the mark, but i guess if the lens i had was to have its temperature to be the same with the ambient temperature, then it would only be non-condensing humidity to "seep" into the lens... hmm.

any other views, folks?
 

yup, it is usually a problem, especially if you're going out from a nice cool comfort of a hotel room into hot humid tropical environment. I don't have a quick solution but an improvised get-around-it. I'm using a CP5700, and I did tried using a micro-fiber cloth and swipe away the condensation from my lens. Able to remove it for awhile to catch a shot. So, each time, I swipe before I shoot. Not sure if that's bad for the camera or not. After a while, the camera would have warmed up nicely and the condensation would go away.

/wk
 

here's my DUH 'not-really-a-prevention' method. after using the lens, keep the lens cap back on (duh?). if you removed it from the body, keep both the front and rear lens cap on (double-duh??). Chances are, if you are quick (and lucky enough), condensation won't form that quickly or that much for a couple of seconds after you remove the rear cap. (if possible at all, change within the confines of your bag.) keep a cloth handy for wiping off the condensation that form on the body of the lens, especially on the barrel if you are using a zoom. and wiping the UV filter. constant circular wiping might scratch or spoil the coating (depending on how paranoid you are), but it does help to warm up the lens.

im sorry if my 'method' is painfully obvious and 'duh'. hope it helps though :cool:
 

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