inside of camera fogging, even when climate acclimated

[KellyLynne1968]

hello!! I have a Canon 7D, and typically use my sigma 24-70 lens on it.  I moved to NC from MI six years ago, and I do a ton of beach shoots. This time of year, same thing...i put my camera in my car overnight before a shoot, make sure no AC, typically get to the shoot early and set the camera outside next to me for a half hour. Should be good right? NOPE. Getting low to the sand is like putting my camera over a pot of boiling water steam. instantly fogs up on the inside and out. Yesterday, i was standing doing a family shoot. started out okay, I could tell by zooming in on the images that the skin was a bit grainy from the moisture in the air. Then half way through the shoot, camera was totally fogged up on the inside, even more than the outside of my lens. Humidity was 80 percent yesterday and this coastal area of NC often gets "waves" of high humidity and ocean mist that the camera only tends to pick up. But nothing subsided the inner fogging of my camera, until i walked back up to the parking lot. This happens every summer and quite honestly, this never happened in Michigan and im about fed up with it, lol. any advice?

[diverhank]

Weird is right...no clue what could have caused it.  Usually the inside of a lens gets heated up a lot quicker than ambience therefore there should be no condesation unless it's been cold soaked.

[KellyLynne1968]

 humidity at almost 90 percent, and dew point super high, it was high tide, so those major waves were probably sending their own moisture into the air.  But like i said the minute those storm clouds rolled it, bam...total fog up in lens. ill have this cheapie little prime in a few days, man i have high hopes, thanks yall for trying to help me tho!!

[RobertTheFat]

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@KellyLynne1968 wrote:

no, trust me its outside for a long time . yesterdays shoot, it was in the MIDDLE of the shoot that the inside of the lense started fogging up. now clouds were moving in, and covered the sun, it happened right after that. ive been shooting professionally for 13 years, so im good about giving a camera time to acclimate to temps. But this stuff, this is weird.

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I guess I'm gonna go with KVBarkley's idea, then: the lens must have standing water in it. When the lens heats up, the water evaporates; when it starts to cool down, it condenses again. You'd better hope it isn't salt water.

That's why Canon's bigger lenses are light-colored, isn't it? To keep them from changing temperature as fast? But even Canon doesn't expect a 24-70 to have that problem.

[KellyLynne1968]

Well if it was 'saltwater' I would think my lens would have died a long time ago as this has been happening every summer lol. It's a mystery. Just going to try what my camera repair guy said and try a prime instead of a zoom down there and see what happens. Incidentally, after the beach shoot was done they wanted some shots in front of the beach house... concrete... inside digging cleared up for that.

[Waddizzle]

Does this happen with other lenses, too?

A lens, or a camera body, that seems to full of moisture is probably a prime candidate to develop mold and mildew.

[Waddizzle]

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@diverhank wrote:

Weird is right...no clue what could have caused it.  Usually the inside of a lens gets heated up a lot quicker than ambience therefore there should be no condesation unless it's been cold soaked.

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Spending a day in a car trunk, parked in the hot sun, on a humid day could do it.  I keep al of my cameras and lenses inside of sealed plastic bags when not in use.

[KellyLynne1968]

exactly that is what scares me, im going to have it looked at today.

[KellyLynne1968]

yeah i was thinking about that when you guys mentioned the car thing. On the shoot i did the other day, i actually took it from the house, from back in the bedroom which is not air conditioned, then placed it outside to acclimate for quite a long time. So I have no clue why it would fog up internally half way thru the shoot. But is there a possibility, that the times i leave it in the car, especially when im on photo tours and my main "hotel" from place to place is campgrounds, that the warming and cooling that happens in the car has indeed left residual moisture in the lens like the other gentleman said? If so , how do i remedy that? Also, I read that putting it in a ziplock while acclimating outside is a bad idea, creates another thermal barrier. So i literally just set the camera on a table outside. What are your thoughts on that?

[RobertTheFat]

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@KellyLynne1968 wrote:

yeah i was thinking about that when you guys mentioned the car thing. On the shoot i did the other day, i actually took it from the house, from back in the bedroom which is not air conditioned, then placed it outside to acclimate for quite a long time. So I have no clue why it would fog up internally half way thru the shoot. But is there a possibility, that the times i leave it in the car, especially when im on photo tours and my main "hotel" from place to place is campgrounds, that the warming and cooling that happens in the car has indeed left residual moisture in the lens like the other gentleman said? If so , how do i remedy that? Also, I read that putting it in a ziplock while acclimating outside is a bad idea, creates another thermal barrier. So i literally just set the camera on a table outside. What are your thoughts on that?

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I'd be more concerned about the plastic bag as a vapor barrier than as a thermal barrier. If you're going to put the camera into a sealed container, it should be when both the camera and the surrounding air are dry and the camera is at the same temperature as the air. If you get condensation inside the bag, the bag can be doing more harm than good.

But the real problem is that the condensation seems to be inside the lens. Lenses are designed to try to keep dust and moisture out, but the suction created by zooming can drive them in. And once they're in, it's hard to get them out. It may help to try to always store the camera in a warm, dry place when it's not in use. Conceivably it could help to zoom the lens a few times when it's indoors. If the zoom action sucks moist air in outdoors, maybe it will suck dry air in indoors.

[KellyLynne1968]

good advice thank you!