Does lens condensation lead to fungus?

Crotal Bell

Crotal Bell

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Hi Folks

I've noticed on these cold afternoons that I get condensation on the inside of the glass on my Pana 12-60mm.

Can this lead to fungus?

When I get home I take it out the bag and leave in a room and it's soon gone. I have also started leaving it in the bag on walks, rather than out all the time around the neck.

Any advice and tips gratefully received.
 
When the lens warms up the condensation will disappear but the water has not gone anywhere - it is still inside your lens.

What I would do is keep the detached lens beside me in a warm room of an evening. Every ten minutes or so, I would turn the zoom control from one limit to the other five or six times. This moves the innards to and fro and acts as an air pump. An evening spent doing this will replace the damp air inside the lens with dry air from your room.
 
john.margetts said:
When the lens warms up the condensation will disappear but the water has not gone anywhere - it is still inside your lens.

What I would do is keep the detached lens beside me in a warm room of an evening. Every ten minutes or so, I would turn the zoom control from one limit to the other five or six times. This moves the innards to and fro and acts as an air pump. An evening spent doing this will replace the damp air inside the lens with dry air from your room.
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Thanks John, much appreciated.
 
You must have relatively humid and warmish air inside the lens you want dry air inside it where you normally keep it then there won't be enough moisture to condense.
I think fungus often starts around organic dust particles such as pollen and skin flakes but it won't take hold if it is dry like below 40% humidity.
 
4wd said:
You must have relatively humid and warmish air inside the lens you want dry air inside it where you normally keep it then there won't be enough moisture to condense.
I think fungus often starts around organic dust particles such as pollen and skin flakes but it won't take hold if it is dry like below 40% humidity.
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The trouble is actually using the lens outdoors at this time of year. When you are outside, every time you either focus or zoom you will pump damp outside air into your lens.
 
4wd said:
You must have relatively humid and warmish air inside the lens you want dry air inside it where you normally keep it then there won't be enough moisture to condense.
I think fungus often starts around organic dust particles such as pollen and skin flakes but it won't take hold if it is dry like below 40% humidity.
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Thanks, seems every seller of used lenses mentions "free of fungus/mould" so I assumed it was easy for this to happen and commonplace.
 
john.margetts said:
The trouble is actually using the lens outdoors at this time of year. When you are outside, every time you either focus or zoom you will pump damp outside air into your lens.
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I kept the lens in the bag today and was more choosy about taking shots (I'll still pump the zoom in the spare room though as advised)
 
Crotal Bell said:
Hi Folks

I've noticed on these cold afternoons that I get condensation on the inside of the glass on my Pana 12-60mm.

Can this lead to fungus?

When I get home I take it out the bag and leave in a room and it's soon gone. I have also started leaving it in the bag on walks, rather than out all the time around the neck.

Any advice and tips gratefully received.
Click to expand...
Try keeping the lens (and camera) in the bag when you get home and let it come to room temperature inside the bag this will cut down on the condensation you get. It will need to stay in the bag (depending how well padded the bag is) for several hours.

I go out in all weathers as you can see from my thread here https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/topsys-dartmoor-rambles.733079/ and my blog here https://www.ephotozine.com//user/topsyrm-149719/blog but when I get back I want to get straight on my backing up so I take the SD cards out of the camera outside before zipping up the bag and coming inside. I'll then normally in the cold weather leave the bag packe and zipped up until the next day. BTW all the kit I use in the bad weather is weather sealed for protection from rain/dust etc so I don't worry about it getting rained on or very cold.
 
Topsy said:
Try keeping the lens (and camera) in the bag when you get home and let it come to room temperature inside the bag this will cut down on the condensation you get. It will need to stay in the bag (depending how well padded the bag is) for several hours.

I go out in all weathers as you can see from my thread here https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/topsys-dartmoor-rambles.733079/ and my blog here https://www.ephotozine.com//user/topsyrm-149719/blog but when I get back I want to get straight on my backing up so I take the SD cards out of the camera outside before zipping up the bag and coming inside. I'll then normally in the cold weather leave the bag packe and zipped up until the next day. BTW all the kit I use in the bad weather is weather sealed for protection from rain/dust etc so I don't worry about it getting rained on or very cold.
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Thanks Paul, grateful for the advice.
 
It would be worth getting some kind of humidity sensor for where camera gear is kept, I have one from a cheap wireless weather station which was replaced by a better one ten years ago.
A lot of houses are not really dry enough and summer can be worse than winter with windows open more and no heat on.
The Rolls Royce solution is a dry cabinet you can pack quite a lot in even a smallish one.
I have dry cabinet as this is an old stone farmhouse with exact problems described it can reach 70% humidity this time of year in rooms with minimal heating.
In the cabinet is 35%
 
4wd said:
It would be worth getting some kind of humidity sensor for where camera gear is kept, I have one from a cheap wireless weather station which was replaced by a better one ten years ago.
A lot of houses are not really dry enough and summer can be worse than winter with windows open more and no heat on.
The Rolls Royce solution is a dry cabinet you can pack quite a lot in even a smallish one.
I have dry cabinet as this is an old stone farmhouse with exact problems described it can reach 70% humidity this time of year in rooms with minimal heating.
In the cabinet is 35%
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I hang washing in the spare room and put the heater on to dry it out. I guess that would be a terrible place to leave my gear as presumably the warming of the wet washing will fill the air with moisture?
 
Awfers said:
Ïndeed it will.

Maybe buy a dehumidifier for a room where you can store your equipment. Aldi has them from time to time for not a lot of money, you can set the minimum humidity and it will turn off if it detects the humidity has remained low for a while (5 minutes). It will then come back on when it samples the air and the humidity has risen above the set level.
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I have one in the garage, bit pricey to run though. I may mothball the camera for a short while, maybe even get a cheap compact and only take the G80 on more "special days out" rather than walking with it on a regular basis (I see little of interest this time of year on local walks to be honest so makes sense)
 
Crotal Bell said:
I have one in the garage, bit pricey to run though. I may mothball the camera for a short while, maybe even get a cheap compact and only take the G80 on more "special days out" rather than walking with it on a regular basis (I see little of interest this time of year on local walks to be honest so makes sense)
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Not using your camera seems an extreme solution. Store your camera in a room away from where you dry your washing and if you still have concerns about humidity levels in your house (do you get condensation on the windows?) then maybe just store your camera in a plastic storage box and chuck a dehumidifying bag in with it, such as this.

 
bass_junkie83 said:
Not using your camera seems an extreme solution. Store your camera in a room away from where you dry your washing and if you still have concerns about humidity levels in your house (do you get condensation on the windows?) then maybe just store your camera in a plastic storage box and chuck a dehumidifying bag in with it, such as this.

Click to expand...
That's a good idea, thanks.
 
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