Preventing condensation

Not yet a problem and I hope it won't become one .

A week today start my Hurtigruten trip.

My camera will be subject to extreme changes of temperature a lot - outside on the boat to inside on the boat and the same on excursions.
This is a recipe for condensation.

How can I prevent this becoming a problem - not just lenses steaming up but condensation on/in the body which is potentially far more of a problem
Or is that not the case with a weatherproofed camera?

I have plenty of little bags of silica gel to take with me.


Oh and I don't normally use a protective filter on my lenses - would one be a good idea given the maritime climate, or will cleaning the lens thoroughly suffice?

It shouldn't be a problem with a weatherproofed camera as long as you don't remove the lens until the camera has warmed up. You will get a lot of condensation on the outside of the body and lens and can avoid that by wrapping the camera and lens in a sealed plastic tight fitting bag whilst outside. You want as little air as possible in the bag. Don't remove the bag until it's warmed up and you shouldn't get any condensation.

I tend to keep a number of reusable desicant cartridges in my camera bag. Ideally the optics should be in a air tight container with the desicant.

If the silica gel bags have been in the general atmosphere for some time they may have little effect (they do get saturated).
Silica gel can be dried in an oven at >100°C, but the normal bags get unstuck (A vacuum oven set at 70 works OK but I doubt you have one). Molecular sieve (& I think Calcium carbonate) absorb more water than silica, but are more difficult to dry - and I suppose not so generally available.

Weather sealing should reduce the prioblems with condensation considerably, but if you've got moist air inside the seals it could still be a problem, with extreme temperature shifts.

If there's a chance of a lot of salt spray I think it's worth adding a filter, but otherwise I wouldn't bother.

Thanks for the reminder - it's high time I recharged my desicant - this time I'll add an indicator card as well

Doesn't warm air hold more moisture than cold air? In which case the problem is the warm air inside hitting a cold surface and condensing in which case desicants wouldn't really help unless you can wait long enough for them to absorb the moisture which could be hours.

I've done loads of receptions etc. where I've taken my camera out of a cold car boot in winter and I always used a plastic bag and held it on a radiator inside for about 2 mins by which time it was warm enough to use without getting condensation.

keep it warm or keep it cold....

seriously...

Condensation occurs when the temp changes... as in warm meets cold...
so if you got your camera out in the cold, keep it cold until you are done shooting, wipe dry, then seal it (with your desicants if you want) in a ziplock bag with no air before taking it into a warm environment and let it acclimatize to the new temp before you open it.

Just had a thought about this - shoot me down if I'm wrong please.

Gwyn wondered about a filter

wouldn't this actually give more problems as there is a gap between the actual lens and the filter ?

There would be a temperature difference between external air [ acting on the Filter ] and internal air [ between filter AND lens ] and then in the lens itself.

I can see the point of using a filter to keep the salt water spray off the lens .

Do my thoughts [ yeah I know expressed very badly ] make any sense ?

I think that's why Gwyn is thinking of using the filter, not to prevent steaming-up.

There won't be any condensation between the filter and lens IF YOU DON'T REMOVE THE FILTER. Actually, if you go out for very short period of time (5 min. or less), it might be a good idea. The air gap in between the lens and the filter will keep the front lens from cooling down, so removing the filter AFTER YOU GO IN A WARMER AREA will allow you to take pictures inside immediately. It won't work if you are out in the cold for a long period of time where the front lens element will have time to cool down.

Now, for the shooting...

Ziplock bag added to my packing list :

I shan't bother getting a filter, just rely on my cleaning skills. If it is blowing up a storm I doubt very much I'll be out on deck getting wet and frozen .

You can always shoot from within the bag

Thanks Yves - that makes good sense to me

Desiccants reduce the amount of water that's dissolved in the air, and start to have an effect fairly rapidly, even if they don't reach equilibrium for hours.
Warm air certainly holds more moisture, but if you can dry the air whilst warm you don't get it thrown out of solution (condensing as droplets) when it's cooled.

Condensation occurs on an object when it is cold and the air around it is warm and moist.

not always. even at thirty or forty below zero, here in canada, if there is fast moving water, like at the dam near my house, the cold water will steam up like a fog and settle on everything as hoar frost.... no real warmth at all...
cold water, cold air and cold everything...

just so happens the water is a bit warmer than the air so it vaporizes into a fog then settles everywhere, as the cold air won't hold moisture for long... so it settles on everything the immediate vicinity no matter how cold it is.....

on the coldest nights (we had -48 last week) the fog on the bridge over that dam is sooo thick you cannot see...

trust me there is no warm, moist air involved.... goes from liquid water to vapour in cold dry air and back to ice crystals in seconds...

I would love to live in that part of the world!