lens optics and humidity?

emeraldrose

So I went on a shoot yesterday (luckily with just a friend to try new things out with) and we get out to the beach and my glass is all fogged up. Ok happened before just wait a minute or two and it'll be fine. Well the 2 min passed and the outside lense pieces were fine, but the internal glass (mainly the one that's facing the camera) was still REALLY fogged and 10 minutes later no change at all. This has never happened before and that camera and lense has been through freezing temperatures and florida heat and humidity. and honestly it really wasn't that bad of humidity since there was a really strong breeze. When I got back home 45 minutes later and into the ac I looked at my lense again and everthing was fine!
Does anyone have any suggestions on what happened (verses other times of going from in to out) and how to prevent it again? This time it wasn't that big of a deal b/c a) it was a good friend that was just helping me out and b) it started raining and lightning so we had to leave anyway.


thanks

ziggy53

emeraldrose wrote:

... Does anyone have any suggestions on what happened (verses other times of going from in to out) and how to prevent it again? This time it wasn't that big of a deal b/c a) it was a good friend that was just helping me out and b) it started raining and lightning so we had to leave anyway.


thanks

That sort of internal condensation occurs because you traveled from a cooler storage to a warmer and moister environment. Since the outside was around 100 percent humidity (you said it started raining) the trapped humidity didn't have an opportunity to evaporate or dissipate until you got back inside in a lower humidity.

When I did a lot of outdoor shooting in the summer I would keep the lenses, and sometimes the camera too, wrapped in a plastic bag until the items equalized to the ambient temperature, then they were safe to remove and use without fogging.

An automotive defroster with the heat turned on will rapidly clear internal moisture in a lens. Be sure to rotate the lens frequently and don't let it get actually hot, just warm.

emeraldrose

ziggy53 wrote:

That sort of internal condensation occurs because you traveled from a cooler storage to a warmer and moister environment. Since the outside was around 100 percent humidity (you said it started raining) the trapped humidity didn't have an opportunity to evaporate or dissipate until you got back inside in a lower humidity.

When I did a lot of outdoor shooting in the summer I would keep the lenses, and sometimes the camera too, wrapped in a plastic bag until the items equalized to the ambient temperature, then they were safe to remove and use without fogging.

An automotive defroster with the heat turned on will rapidly clear internal moisture in a lens. Be sure to rotate the lens frequently and don't let it get actually hot, just warm.

those are some good suggestions i'll have to remember that for next time, especially as i mostly shoot outside and it is SC afterall