Yeah. You guessed it. That professional photographer had the air conditioning set on "Antarctic" in the hotel last night, drove to the shoot in a big SUV with the air conditioning set cold enough to chill beer, pulled into this rural gas station to get gas and decided to pull out a camera to capture the facility's rustic charm. I pulled an ice cold camera and lens out into the hot, humid air outside of Tampa, Florida and it immediately condensed and the whole front element of the new Panasonic/Leica zoom when into massive "fog filter" hysteria. It quickly dissipated and I looked hard to make sure I hadn't done any lasting damage.
Lesson relearned. I left the camera bag outside for the rest of the day. It just makes sense since we were shooting outside all day....
What a dumbass move. Grrrrrr.
Minutes later....
9 comments:
And as it cools down ere in the northeast the reverse situation occurs. Yesterday as Bella Warrior Princess and I came in from our morning walk my glasses fogged up. I can hardly wait until I have to scrape the rime ice off them when I come inside.
Haha! Eyeglass wearers are very familiar with this. Huge problem here in Canada when shooting in the winter. I think that's ultimately what killed my RX100. I used that camera extensively in all four seasons and I think the build up of condensation and moisture-rapidly going in and out of hot/cold places-probably rotted out the sensitive components inside the camera. This is when the argument for weather sealing becomes valid. It's not the ability to shoot in the poring rain, nobody does that unless you are a storm chaser or something equally stupid. Condensation and rapid expansion/contraction due to extreme temp variations will prematurely kill your gear.
Good thing that Elvis wasn't getting into a departing UFO parked at that mini-mart. Those of us who live in hot, humid climes have all done it. Your only out would have been no AC in the truck.
Better Tampa than Iceland :-)
Cheers,
Not THAT Ross Cameron
This is why when in cold places like...Iceland, for instance, people put gear in "Ziplock" bags before going indoors where it's warm and moist, so condensation forms on the outside of the bag instead of the gear.
Welcome to Florida!
Been there, seen that, have the rub marks on my glasses lenses as souvenirs. Fortunately, my lens filter fared far better.
Cheers
I've made a habit of keeping a big zip-lock bag in my camera bag, large enough to hold the camera and any lens I might happen to have mounted. After shooting in Canadian sub-zero temperatures, just walking inside is enough to cause a massive amount of condensation on any metal or glass, so keeping it in the sealed bag until its temperature equilibrates seems like the prudent way to prevent heartbreak.
Add some large desiccant packs to the plastic bag for insurance. They’re cheap from B&H and I keep several in my camera bags and packs.
Rich from Tacoma
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