High Temps! HELP !!! ...Any and all ideas welcomed!!!

[N2Film]

I've recently moved to a country where the weather is VERY hot and VERY HUMID!!!!, especially in the summer. Sometimes, humidity levels can reach 80%! My problem is of course fogging and condensation on my gear. I leave my cold, ac flat and as soon as I walk outside if my gear is in hand, the lens will immediately fog and the body of my gear will become damp and clammy. Of course, if I keep it in the bag no problem but eventually it will have to come out and when it does, it is hit with these awful conditions. Does anyone have any ideas or remedies to prevent damage to my gear. THANKS!!!

 

[Roger Hicks]

(1) Don't over-AC the flat. I'm serious. Where are you? What's 'very hot'? How far down on ambient are you running the AC?

(2) Store the equipment in a humidity-controlled cabinet, in the warmest room in the house, to minimize fogging on leaving the house. I use Wonderful Dry Cabinet (Chinese-made).

For a cheaper solution, build a box with a low-wattage bulb in it. Store your equipment in there.

Cheers,

R.

 

[N2Film]

I'm in the Middle East and I keep my AC running at 22 C. Hot here is normally 41 to 43. Thanks for your reply Roger.

 

[newspaperguy]

Use the reverse of the cold weather or mountaineering tactic... close your equipment in an airtight plastic bag before you leave, let it come up to the
ambient temp outside before you remove it from the bag. But as Roger
advised, ease the problem by keeping your gear in the warmest location
to begin with.

 

[wgerrard]

I'm in North Carolina. The summer temperatures are often in the 90's, sometimes higher, with humidity not too far behind. I am not about to crank down my AC just to keep my lenses from fogging when I take them outside. (Sorry, Roger. My comfort is more important than the comfort of my lenses.)

Water vapor will condense on anything that is cooler than it is. Just be patient. Go outside 15-30 minutes before you plan to shoot. Your hardware will warm up. If really necessary, wipe away the condensation with a microfiber cloth.

Remember, the same things happens when you leave the outdoors and enter a cool indoor environment.

You're not muggy until the temperature and the humidity are both above 90.

 

[35mmdelux]

Let the camera aclimate before using. On the street keep camera away from your body or it will start to "sweat." The baggy technique works well.

 

[rbiemer]

I'll also suggest a big "ziploc" type bag. They are cheap and the condensation will collect on the outside of the bag, not your gear. You'll still need to wait a bit until your stuff reaches ambient temps before you take it out of the ziploc.
Rob

 

[peterm1]

A bigger issue can be fungus growing in your lenses / cameras and damaging them when they are out of use. How do you store your camera gear when you are not using it? In these conditions special care is needed even if you use an air conditioner - unless it runs literally 24 / 7 and even then it may not remove all the humidity. . I noticed when I have been in Singapore and in Hong Kong, where of course humidity is a big issue in the wet season, that pretty well all camera stores sell large clear plastic bins designed for storing optical equipment. The bins come with a rack in the lid for silica gel bags or boxes. Silica gel absorbs moisture and keeps the interior humidity low. I would imagine you can buy these on ebay today. If not you could just buy some suitable bins and bags of silica gel (its quite cheap) and do it your self. For longer term storage I personally store most of mine in individual tupperware boxes (which in turn go into a larger plastic box) each with silica gel bags inside. I had a scare two years ago when an upstairs apartment had a burst water heater flooding the room where I store my cameras. Now I take no chances. And I do not live in the tropics. I know other who do the same.

Here is a link to a thread on the issue

http://photo.net/nikon-camera-forum/00S3oV

and here is a link to an Adorama advert for a high tech version of the sort of bins I spoke about. They come in various sizes.

http://www.adorama.com/ZZVPL.html

And a couple of interesting links on storage of camera gear in the tropics

http://www.photoethnography.com/blog/archives/2005/03/keeping-cameras.html#_logout

http://www.beyondphototips.com/2008/10/19/humidity-fungus-and-cameras-problems-solutions/

 

[Tin]

Don't forget to store your processed film or slides in sealed containers with silica gel. Fungal growth can start on those if you are staying in that kind of climate for more than a few years.

 

[Roger Hicks]

I'm in North Carolina. The summer temperatures are often in the 90's, sometimes higher, with humidity not too far behind. I am not about to crank down my AC just to keep my lenses from fogging when I take them outside. (Sorry, Roger. My comfort is more important than the comfort of my lenses.)

Absolutely. But I am frequently astonished at how far some people go with a/c in quite mild weather (even the low 30s). The old Royal Navy guidelines were a maximum of 10 degrees (F) -- call it 5C -- down on ambient. If you go in and out of doors, 10 degrees down can feel like your shirt is freezing on your back and going outdoors can feel like stepping into a warm bath.

Acclimating yourself to the maximum you can comfortably stand will save electricity; is almost certainly better for your health; and will mean that you can use your cameras sooner. An intelligent combination of a/c and cooling fans is far better than a/c alone.

This is not just idle theory: I've spent a fair amount of time in India, often without a/c, and I am quite sure that a/c is addictive, like a drug: you use more and more of it to get the same effect...

Of course, with low humidity, you can often get by with a fan alone, even at quite high temperatures (38C/100F +).

Finally, I'll heartily endorse the Zip-Loc idea because it also protects the kit against dust as well as taking the condensation on its outside surface.

Cheers,

R.

 

[wgerrard]

Acclimating yourself to the maximum you can comfortably stand will save electricity;

R.

Acclimation is a wonderful thing, especially the impact it has on how people dress. I've lived here for several years. When I arrived, I thought nothing of going out for a long early morning walk when the temperature was barely 50F (10C) wearing shorts and a tee shirt. Now, I wear jeans and put on a light jacket just like all the born-and-bred types. (Of course, people here run around without coats in the winter when it's below freezing, too. Gotta be a wonderful place to be a flu virus.)

I lived a few years in Berkshire, west of London. When I first arrived, I couldn't get over how people stripped down and started sunbathing when the temp hit the low 70's. That was marginally cool for me. Next year, not so much.

I set my AC at 75F. That means it usually stays off until the outside temp pushes the mid-80s, which is when I close the windows. The sun is hot here, as well, (about the same latitude as Las Vegas).

It's now 8:22 am and the temp is 76F and the humidity is 79%. It will push 95F by late afternoon.

In any case, this thread has got me thinking about how to care for my lenses in this climate.

(Note: There are plastics bags of some sort sold into the travel market that purport to collapse clothing as much as possible by removing most of the air. Might be useful for cameras and lenses, too.)

 

[Pickett Wilson]

Here is my corner of Texas, summer temps are consistently in the 90's with high hummidity. But the air conditioning keeps the indoor humidity between 40 and 45 percent, so camera storage has never been a problem.

 

[MartinP]

Maybe I'm weird, but 40C isn't that drastic. Turn off the airco, buy an electric fan and a de-humidifier. End of problem.

 

[wgerrard]

Maybe I'm weird, but 40C isn't that drastic. Turn off the airco, buy an electric fan and a de-humidifier. End of problem.

40C (104F) in the Netherlands? 🙂

 

[Al Kaplan]

Here in hot humid south Florida I use the AC a bit, mostly in the daytime, and I use it in the truck which gets awfully hot parked in the sun. I keep my photo stuff out in the air and light, scattered on tables in the house, usually with no caps on the lenses. Fungus hates light. A bit of dust can be blown off.

The worst thing you can do is store them in closed aluminum cases or in camera bags, especially leather. If I go out after the cameras have been in AC I might put them on the car seat where the sun can hit them, or hang them on my shoulders with my arms against them so they pick up some body heat.

I'd never keep cameras in an "ever ready" fitted leather case or put lenses in those tubuler leather cases with a fitted lid. Not even with the lids open!

 

[MartinP]

40C (104F) in the Netherlands? 🙂

Haha, not here, though it did get to 38C a few times. This is the ninth country I have worked in though.

The highest regular temperatures where when I worked in southern Morocco. Outdoors all day (40-46C), in a site-tent all night - you get used to it quickly. Oddly, there were sometimes morning mists, then the humidity was uncomfortable for a couple of hours, until it burnt off.

 

[rbiemer]

Acclimation is a wonderful thing, especially the impact it has on how people dress.

A few years ago, I went to Las Vegas. It was February and the day time temps were mid-sixties (Fahrenheit) and I was coming from upstate NY--temps were in the low teens the day I left--you could get a fair idea of where the other tourists were from by how they were dressed. In the elevator up to my room I met a couple from Singapore who were wearing down jackets and another couple from, I think, Minnesota who were dressed much like I was: shorts, short sleeved shirt and windbreakers.
Rob

 

[raid]

I recall how it reached each summer 55C in Baghdad [in the shade], but it was very dry there. The UN had suggested to give the day off whenever it reaches 50C, so we would get on TV a weather report with 49C day after day. The tar on the street would melt, and the shoes would be messy with tar.

Now, back to life in the USA; I use a ziploc bag for all film, and I keep the photo equipment in a cooler [without ice] for constant temperature. Even insulated cool/hot bags for frozen food can do well here. I ended up having 4-6 such cooler bags. Each bag covered 1-2 cameras,and another 1-2 bags covered the lenses.
When driving around in humid and hot weather, I used AC, but as I got closer to my target desitination, I rolled down the windows to slowly aclimate the photo equipment to the humidity.

After returning to an AC'd room, I wipe off the exterior water condensation.


Now I find 100F very hot, but when I lived in Baghdad, I recall that my tongue would turn white from the heat and lack of cooling available due to power cuts. With 145F, this was not easy.

 

[kshapero]

Gosh here in South Florida we have two seasons: hot and hotter. I have never had any of these problems. Gear is keep in the canvas bag or on my desk in an A/C home. Then I just go outside and shoot. So far never any fog, wetness. I guess I am lucky.

 

[charjohncarter]

Fungus, ??????????????????