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inside of camera fogging, even when climate acclimated

KellyLynne1968
Contributor

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?

26 REPLIES 26

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?


@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?


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.

Bob
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA

good advice thank you!

Should we go so far as to suggest it be stored in rice? 8^)

 

I guess some of the silica gel packets can't hurt.


@kvbarkley wrote:

Should we go so far as to suggest it be stored in rice? 8^)

 

I guess some of the silica gel packets can't hurt.


I try to use the original plastic bag, inside of a zip-lock, with a silica gel pack inside the zip-lock, too.

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"The right mouse button is your friend."

You might want to bake the silica gel every once in a while, too. And make sure you have the indicating type that change colors when "full".


@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.


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.

Bob
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA


@KellyLynne1968 wrote:

well my camera stays in my car overnight if i have a beach shoot, or i put it outside hours before. So does it make sense that it could be the zoom lens just pulling in moisture by the simple act of zooming?


There is some of that but the fact remains that if the lens is of the same temperature as the ambient air, there should be no condensation.  In high humidity condition such as described, usually people put the camera/lens in a sealed plastic bag and wait until the temperature equalizes.  The temperature in the car is a lot cooler than outside and by leaving it there overnight you effectively have cold-soaked your equipment big time...

================================================
Diverhank's photos on Flickr

im going to try a prime down there. i ran this past some other pros, some said "that shouldn't happen" and some said "yeah i had that issue with zoom but not with prime. And I do not use prime so ive ordered a nifty fifty just to see if that solves the issue. It is very frustrating!! i use silica packets and everything, have just not found an answer.


@KellyLynne1968 wrote:

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?


Condensation collects on objects that are cooler than their surroundings. So cooling down the camera in your car overnight, then bringing it into a very humid environment, may be exactly the wrong thing to do. Try leaving it in the house all night, then warming it in the sun before the shoot to drive off any moisture that's in it. You want it to start off as dry as possible and warmer, not cooler, than the environment at the beach.

Bob
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA
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