For those of us that live in dryer climates humidity can be a mysterious factor to account for when traveling. Significant moisture in the air around us can impact equipment in a variety of ways in some instances quite drastically. Not all cameras have the same level of weather protection. Many professional bodies are weather/water resistant, but not water proof thanks to the presence of rubber gaskets. Most cameras lack this type of protection increasing the risk of catastrophic equipment failure if exposed to too much moisture. With that in mind the following 10 tips should be considered when using a digital SLR in high humidity environments.
1. Use Desiccant Packets
Desiccant packets are often found in new product shipments to absorb moisture. As I can, I save these packets to reuse in my camera bag when traveling. If you’re not the saving type it is possible to order new desiccant packets online. While its impossible for these packets to absorb all the moisture in a camera bag that you’re in and out of often, they can make a difference on segments of trips where a camera bag is not opened or opened infrequently.
2. Minimize Lens Changes
In an ideal world having one lens per camera body would the best solution for high humidity environments. In this situation you’d have one lens on your camera body the entire length of your trip so that humid air never enters your camera. Few people outside of the professional circle have this luxury, so it is important to minimze the number of times you change lenses when in the field.
3. Keep Moisture Out of the Camera Body
If keeping one lens on your camera is not possible think about keeping a teleconverter / tele-extender on your camera body at all times ensuring that no moisture enters your body when changing lenses. Teleconverters / tele-extenders are often used with longer focal length lenses and seldom with other shorter focal length lenses. If you’re shooting wide this tactic may not be very practical.
4. Change Lenses At Night
If Tip #2 or #3 is not a possibility reduce the introduction of moisture into your camera body by changing lenses when atmospheric moisture is at its lowest point. This happens when the temperature is coolest often late at night or early in the morning.
5. Avoid Fogged Lenses
Keep your camera gear at the same temperature as the ambient temperature of your shooting environment to avoid fogging. Fog can appear on the front of your lens and in less than ideal cases on the rear element of your lens if your gear is cold and brought into a warm and moist environment. If keeping your gear with you is a necessity (such as being brought into an air conditioned hotel room as opposed to being left in a car) wait for your camera gear to warm up before use.
6. Regularly Wipe Down Your Equipment
The most common ways moisture accumulates on ones gear is from high atmospheric humidity, rain or your own breath as you use your camera. Regularly wipe down your gear in order to minimize long standing moisture on your camera that might seep into unsealed openings of your camera body. Keeping on hand and using a super absorbent camp hand towel can help a great deal.
7. Keep Sensitive Equipment in Ziploc Bags
While not perfect, keeping sensitive equipment in Ziploc bags can also reduce the negative effects of high humidity. Ziploc bags do wear out if opened and closed often, so this tactic might be best for equipment that is used less frequently. Combining the use of desiccant packets and Ziploc bags could be a great hybrid approach.
8. Carry Multiple Lens Cloth
Even with the best of planning fogged lenses happen. If you’re in the field for an extended time lens clothes quickly become damp. For this reason its a great idea to have multiple lens clothes on hand, using one while the other dries out in the sun
9. Don’t Let Your dSLR Slip From Your Grip
Use a wrist or neck strap to keep slick cameras from working loose of your grip. In hot and humid environments the human body will release a great deal of moisture in the form of sweat. With sweaty hands it will be very easy to accidentily drop a lens, camera body or camera body with a lens on it.
10. Dry Your Hands
Dry your hands before changing batteries and CF cards. This will minimize introduction of moisture, inside the camera, that might later condense upon returning home. Keep in mind this will be particularly true the sweatier you are.
Bonus Tip
Toward the end of your trip utilize a hotel room air conditioners to dehumidify your gear. No need to place your gear too close. Having your equipment out and your camera bag open can be enough to help pull away a build up of moisture.
Do you use your digital SLR in high humidity? Have additional tips? Be sure to add them in the comments and thanks for reading.
Some great tips. Thanks Jim. But I don’t entirely agree with all of them …
“Minimize lens changes”
Hmm. Is there any point? Unless, that is, you’re going to keep a single-focal-length prime lens on all the time.
If you use a zoom lens – as most people do – you’re pumping humid air in and out of the camera every time you zoom in and out. So changing/not changing makes no difference at all.
In fact, less moisture may get in if carry a selection of primes and change them as little as possible rather than using the ‘zoom pump’
Good points. I live in a high humidity country (Taiwan) and would just like to point out that the desiccant packets you mention in 1. can be easily and cheaply bought in pretty much every camera, computer or electronics store here. For other similarly developed places (Singapore etc), this also holds true. If you’re in rural India though you might be out of luck.
Hi Jim, I live in the tropical rainforests of far north Queensland – you don’t get much more humid than this place! Those little dessicant bags are not bad for light stuff but for heavy duty humidity you would be better going to a chemical store and getting some moisture absorbing beads.
You can get a pretty big tub of the stuff for $20 or so. Then get yourself some short stockings and fill them up and chuck them in a Pelican case. You’ll know when they’ve run out because they change colour. Then to dry them out again you can either use a microwave (if you can get access to one in your hotel room) or a fry pan. The little dessicant bags will mostly last for about half an hour tops in really humid environments, otherwise they’re pretty useless.
Thanks for this post. I know I will be able to use it, and the helpful comments, on a possible upcoming trip to Panama.
@Alistair Scott The point of minimizing lens changes is to keep moisture out of the cameras main opening where it might adversely impact the electronics. Your comment highlights an assumption made in my write up. While in the field on my recent trip to the Costa Rican jungle I opted to use fixed focal length lenses. If I do use a zoom lens it is one where there is minimal inflow of air from the zoom mechanism. While in Costa Rica if I was using a zoom lens it was with a 1.4x TC which eliminated any degree of inflow of air to the camera body. The point you raise is a good one knowing how your lenses work and understanding the mechanisms potential impact is an important aspect to minimizing the inflow of humid air to your gear.
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@Craig Ferguson Thanks for the comment. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge from life in a humid environment.
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@Paul Dymond Fantastic info. I wish I knew about these moisture absorbing beads before my trip. I agree the desiccant bags can only go so far in extreme humidity. Do you have a link to the beads you’re referencing so I and others can learn more about them?
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@laanba Glad to hear you liked the post. I hope the post helps in your planning.
Great tips!! Has anyone tried the Eva-Dry Mini Dehumidifier? I’m moving to the rainy side of the Big Island of Hawaii and was thinking of picking up one before the move. The mini one is only $25.
Another tip: if your filters get stuck together from working in the hot humid environment take them back to the hotel and stick them in a freezer for a few minutes, and then try to unscrew them. It really helped me on a previous Hawaii trip where my one polarizer kept getting stuck on.
Hi there Jim,
seeing as your readers are most probably all over the world there’s probably not much point linking to the tiny little shop I get them from here in Cairns. The stuff is called Silica gel and often camera stores here in town sell it as well but it’s cheaper to buy it in bulk.
I store all my gear in a big yellow Pelican case with it inside back here in the office. I find that in the middle of our wet season (November to May) I have to dry out the gel every couple of weeks or so even when it’s in the case.
Unfortunately it’s just a fact of life in this part of the world. Humidity has even more of a dire effect on slides. They get mould on them pretty easily.
Great insight into protecting the camera from humidity. Thanks for the helpful hints!
This will help to prevent the camera from the humidty at asian contry.
Hi Jim,
Just back from 12 day shoot in a very humid Belize. The biggest problem is going from an air-conditioned hotel room to the street…a no no. I turn off the air-conditioning for that reason.
Also, I have found the desiccant packets problematic with the very fine dust they sometimes create. Instead, I keep all my equipment at home in a small air-conditioned, dehumidified room at about 30% humidity and 78°F. Then before going in the field I will take the gear out and let it get to air temperature before exposing to the humid air.
Wiping down is a must. Especially if you are near the saltwater. Tripods are an absolute must to maintain if you are in damp or muddy environment. I take mine apart each night if they get wet or dirty.
Not too concerned about minimizing lens changes. Doesn’t even factor into my thought process when shooting. I use the lens I need without thought to humidity.
A big thing is to be careful with your lens cap. If it gets damp and you put it on your lens, your stuck with a fogged lens. I try to keep my hands and breath away from the lens cause they fog so easy.
Finally, sometimes there is nothing to do. On this recent trip, I was shooting in the Belizean rainforest, and no matter what I did, lenses got fogged. You cover your camera and lens when it rains, and then you have to find a spot of sun to burn of the fog.
Thanks for the great blog Jim.
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Excellent tips. I hadn’t even thought about the humidity problem, but I’ll be taking my new DSLR on a trip to South Carolina in June, and will definitely be using these tips – starting with collecting those little silicone packs that come with so many shipments.
in our part of the world (living and working in Philippines) moisture is a daily thing. camera lens everything gets fungus and molds in months.
all serious armatures here keep a Dry Box, its a dehumidifier that maintains the moisture level close to 40. I use this one http://www.eurekadrytech.com/pro01.aspx from the last 3 years, no problem.
so the deal is after coming back from the shoot to put everything inside the box. of course while in the field your 10 tips are find, though not all can be used always (lens change etc)
re: Paul Dymond’s post, I’ve been researching desiccant for an upcoming trip, and thought I’d share a couple links:
http://www.tedpella.com/desiccat_html/descant.htm
http://desiccantsonline.com/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=287
@Tony Rath Fantastic tips! Thanks for commenting. While I took extreme precaution on this trip I’ll likely loosen up some on my next. I was in an area that had extreme humidity and didn’t have a back up camera with me. While I missed out on some opportunities not changing lenses very often I was able to capture other unique perspectives. Know you live in Belize I was looking forward to your take on the subject. I hope that those reading this thread make note of your comments as much if not more than my write up. Thanks again for the insight.
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@Arup Maity Great tip on the Dry Box. If I’m in a humid location for extended time I’d definitely consider this. It might not be the most mobile though if you’re on the road.
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@Joy Thanks for posting the links to the desiccant products. Great to have on hand.
Nice. We don’t often have high humidity here in Sweden but often the problem with going from really cold outside to warm indoors.
One thing I get angry about sometimes is that the viewfinder gets … vapory (not sure it’s the correct word), but then the viewfinder on the EOS 350D is really bad. The screen also get this problem from my breath.
One option might be to choose an old mechanic SLR from the 60’s 😉
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I have lost 3 digital camera’s due to exposure to high humidity. The CCD sensors tend to fail, which are expensive to replace, which has meant that I have had to purchase a new camera every time. I live in a very high humidity area near the coast in a sub-tropical climate of South Africa. I spoke with the owner of my local camera outlet, and he says that what he does with his expensive equipment, is that he stores his equipment in a custom built box. This box has a built-in single light bulb/globe inside, and the box is sealed. The light stays on 24 hrs, and keeps the humidity in the box very low. A small price to pay to keep the humidity out of your expensive equipment.
@Mattias sadly even older gear is prone to the condensation issues you’ve noted. Even if not traveling to the tropics these tips should help. I hope 🙂
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@John Great comment and thanks for the recommendation. Amazing how humidity can wreak havoc on camera gear.
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Does anyone have experience with anti-fog solutions, as used on glasses and scuba gear, to prevent fogging?
I just returned from 6+ weeks in SE Asia. The biggest issue I had was going from my air-conditioned room to the outdoors and wanting to shoot within the first ten minutes (which was almost every morning.) As soon as the lens cap came off, the lens would immediately fog up. What I started to do was leave the camera in the bathroom, door closed, which was far less cool than the rest of the room. This way the change in air temp (and moisture) was far less when stepping outdoors.
Still working on processing photos, but should have some on my site shortly – http://www.mackieimages.com. Check it out and let me know what you think!
i have a canon powershot as well as a rebel xsi, i was just wondering which would be better to take to southern china near vietnam. Its beautiful and would like to take my slr, however i would rather take the cheaper point-and-shoot … is this a good idea?
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I live in Cairns as well and the used 5D that I bought from the states lasted about a month before it died. My 7D seems fine but i need the FF for extreme macro with the mpe65. Thought about the 5DII but even that isn’t that well sealed it seems.
You can get silica gel in bulk on the net that changes colour and can be recharged in the oven btw.
Andy
wish i saw this before i went to mexico…that idea of trying to keep the bag in the same temp environment til it warms up is a good one as i def had to do this as everything got fogged up atleast once…the inner sensor did as well so i immediately closed the lens back onto the body and let the room temp take its proper time and it may have been too late but after a 2 minutes it cleared up but thank goodness it was very little…but ac to humidity is crazy and u will get some type of fogging but try and warm up the equipment before using and i even wrapped a few small towels around the equipment when i stored it away…it helped a little but i did what i think i could…good tips u have here….
This is a very interesting article. Thank you!
I am looking forward to seeing more stuff like this!
nikon d5100 review
Very helpful tips. I’m going to try it later for my workshop. I’m training right now and this will be a big help.
EB
Great inof… thanks for the effort in explaining all of this!
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Great inof… thanks for the effort in explaining all of this!
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thank you I am traveling to texas and will be taking video as well as taking multiple pictures this advice is very helpfull
go to ebay and buy a ‘reusable dehumidifier’. you can get little ones that are reusable, once they’re spent you just put them in the oven and they’re good to go again. when you’re not using your electronic gear, just throw it all in a big plastic tub with a lid. in my studio i keep everything in a big tub with 2 dehumidifiers. it’s a great way to protect them when not in use, and to remove any moisture after shooting (I’m in QLD Aus, so if it’s not winter, it’s VERY humid).
Has anyone used a portable food saver to protect electronics? Suck out the air and hence the moisture?
I visit Singapore 2 times a year for 3 months at a time. I utilize a dehumidifier box (electrical) for my camera body. Some advice on using such a box would be welcomed. One must be careful not to have it set too high, as this will dry out lubricated parts within the body.
I have my gear in plastic containers, with those dry packs inside, I found it useful and better than keep my stuff in my backpacks.
A desiccant (or sometimes misspelled as a dessicant) is a material that removes moisture from the air. It does this through a process called adsorption. No, not absorption. There is a tiny difference: materials that absorb water literally take it into themselves, but materials that adsorb water just have the water molecules stick to the surface.
Activated alumina is manufactured from aluminium hydroxide by dehydroxylating it in a way that produces a highly porous material; this material can have a surface area significantly over 200 m²/g. The compound is used as a desiccant (to keep things dry by absorbing water from the air) and as a filter of fluoride, arsenic and selenium in drinking water.
you can also find more about this @ : http://activatedaluminaballs.com/
No so much stopping the moisture but drying gear out quickly.
A couple of years ago on my last day in Prague, I wanted to keep shooting despite the rain. In the 4-5 hours of rain and protecting my gear as best as possible I still ended up with significant moisture between lens elements.
That afternoon I needed to board a flight back to Sydney. I knew my gear was going to be closed up for about 36 hours without further chance to dry out.
I did 3 things.
1. I took my camera and lens apart and opened all openings on the camera (D800)
2. Thankfully as I was in a apartment I had an oven. I turned the oven on the lowest setting. placed my camera and lens in there with the door closed.
3. After about 3 hours there was no visible moisture. I then placed it in a ziplock bag with a couple of packs of silica gel (25g) and then sealed in my camera bag.
I still use the same camera and body and there were no long term effects on either from the heat or moisture.
Pretty sure at least my lens would have been fried without the oven trick.
John
https://johnlechnerart.com.au/