Will a lens mist up in a humid environment?

Steelfish

Steelfish

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I'm off on an exciting trip to Thailand & Malaysia in a few days' time and taking my PEN-F + 25mm f1.8 + my newly ordered PL 15mm f1.7 (so excited for the new lens arrival!). Having never taken my kit to such a hot and humid environment before, I'm wondering if I should get a filter on the front to try and ensure I don't get any moisture in there.

Or is this overkill? I've always avoided adding UV filters as I've never liked the optical results, so I'm hoping you've all got experience of this and can respond saying don't bother!

What would you do?

Cheers
 
Condensation only occurs in a humid environment if the lens is cooler than the environment, i.e. entering a tropical greenhouse on a cool UK summer day, or coming into a centrally heated house after a walk on a freezing winters day. If your lens has reached equilibrium with the environmental temperature condensation will not occur.

A lens filter will not keep moisture out of a lens. I'd just be careful about drying the lenses and camera thoroughly when I got home if the trip had been to a very humid environment - sealed box with dry rice or silicon desiccant.
 
I have been to thailand twice and I kept my hotel relatively cool compared to the hot humid outside. Never had any condensation in 17-55, 70-200 vr2. Wouldnt worry at all..
 
I have been to thailand twice and I kept my hotel relatively cool compared to the hot humid outside. Never had any condensation in 17-55, 70-200 vr2. Wouldnt worry at all..
 
I'm living in Malaysia - and the only day to day operational issue is that of going from a cold air conditioned room/car - where the kit has been stored for a while - into the hot air outside. In this scenario the front of your lens will steam up. However as your kit aclimatises to the warmer outside temperature everything goes back to normal. So after being in your cool hotel room overnight - make sure your kit has 15-20 minutes to warm up to the outside temperature once you're out ready to shoot. It's still the wet season here pretty much - so lots of rain means that it cools a little in the afternoons, remember to pack a brolly.
 
I have been to thailand twice and I kept my hotel relatively cool compared to the hot humid outside. Never had any condensation in 17-55, 70-200 vr2. Wouldnt worry at all..
 
Well it's good news that pinco just seems to love Thailand! hehe. Seriously, thanks all for the replies, I like those answers.

Handily (at least for my kit), I'll be staying in hostels with no air con I assume. So hot and sweaty me...but acclimatised lenses. I'll be doing some thai boxing, temples, beaches and islands so I hope to get some variety in. Can't wait.

Thanks all.
 
Steelfish said:
Well it's good news that pinco just seems to love Thailand! hehe. Seriously, thanks all for the replies, I like those answers.

Handily (at least for my kit), I'll be staying in hostels with no air con I assume. So hot and sweaty me...but acclimatised lenses. I'll be doing some thai boxing, temples, beaches and islands so I hope to get some variety in. Can't wait.

Thanks all.
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[emoji23][emoji379]
 
I've been to Thailand a couple of times and will be going again next year :D

It can be very hot and humid and the first time I went I got a series of about three or four out of focus shots at one location and only at that one location where it was very hot and very humid. As my gear (GX7 and 20mm f1.7) has never done anything like this before or since I assume something just got fogged up. I was gutted when I got home as I really wanted those shots but as luck would have it we went to that location again next time and I retook the shot :D

So, my advice is to be vigilant and make sure you take a cleaning cloth with you and if in doubt look at the front of the lens and review your images as well as you can as you may spot any issues and may be able to clean and reshoot.
 
Happy xmas eve!!
I lived in Hong Kong for a few years until recently.
Your lenses and sensors may fog up when exiting AC and going outside. It happened for me almost every-time as i kept my AC fairly cool to counteract the maddening humidity. I found best to pop the camera outside for a bit prior to leaving (if possible) so it kind of warmed up and the condensation evaporated. I tried wiping once and found generally that it was easier to let the condensation evaporate.. (This was typically in the summer seasons in HK, but always happened in Thailand)
I was using a Leica M240 and a Olympus OMD EM1- The Leica was a colder camera due to the amount of metal in both the lenses and body. Plastic bodies and lens housings presumably won't have nearly as much problem due to less conduction. The EM1's sensor used to condensate more than the (weather sealed) lens.
 
This is where weather sealed lenses are useful. I brought my camera into a tropical greenhouse. It was in a nature museum where they had live butterflies flying about and I wanted to get some close ups. I knew I was screwed when i went to take the first shot. The VF had steamed up, along with the lens, but worse, the sensor had also misted up. I went back out, removed the lens, and let it 'air dry' for a minute and replaced with a weather sealed lens. It was fine from there on.

If I'd allowed the camera and lens adjust to indoor temp first, it would have been fine. It was winter and it had gotten pretty cool in the bag.
 
Yep for sure my Olympus 12-40 lens would demist quicker than the others, but unfortunately it's not air tight, so its always going to mist up with condensation. Boooo
 
Well good news and bad. The lens was fine, but during a tropical storm and two days of hard rain and a humid environment the PEN-F has died. Dried it out for two days solid and it just won't recognise any lenses at all. The camera itself never actually got rained on, I was careful on that front. Took it out the bag at the top of Phi Phi, lifted it to my eye and the VF misted up after the 1st shot. Then a quick death ensued.

I'll see if I can get it repaired when I get back, but in the mean time I bought an OMD E5ii which I'm quite liking. At least the body will survive a little moisture.
 
Oh dear. Bad luck and I am surprised at that.

My MFT Panny GX7 and Sony A7 survived Thailand and some very humid days and my Panny G7 survived the Eden project. Guess it's a matter of sealing and luck and all in all a bit of a lottery...

Will the warranty cover this?
 
You could try sticking it in a box of rice for a few days? With caps on of course.
 
woof woof said:
Oh dear. Bad luck and I am surprised at that.

My MFT Panny GX7 and Sony A7 survived Thailand and some very humid days and my Panny G7 survived the Eden project. Guess it's a matter of sealing and luck and all in all a bit of a lottery...

Will the warranty cover this?
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I'm hoping so, if not travel insurance should. From browsing, it seems that losing contact with the lens is a common problem, could very well be not related to the misting up.

frod said:
You could try sticking it in a box of rice for a few days? With caps on of course.
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Might be worth a go when I get back. However it's had 4 days of being laid out in front of the air con, and everything else works ok now.
 
Steelfish said:
Might be worth a go when I get back. However it's had 4 days of being laid out in front of the air con, and everything else works ok now.
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The rice might be better sooner rather than later to avoid any moisture doing any further damage.
 
When I went to the zoo a couple of weekends ago, my FZ1000 steamed up after going in the tropical district - it was useless to use as it would have taken far too long to climatize unfortunately!
 
stickytape said:
When I went to the zoo a couple of weekends ago, my FZ1000 steamed up after going in the tropical district - it was useless to use as it would have taken far too long to climatize unfortunately!
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Saw a tip somewhere, take the camera into the loo and hold it under the hand dryer, should warm it up nicely as well as removing vapour. Haven't yet had reason to try it.
 
ChrisR said:
Saw a tip somewhere, take the camera into the loo and hold it under the hand dryer, should warm it up nicely as well as removing vapour. Haven't yet had reason to try it.
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The looks I would get... would be amusing.
 
Well as expected, Olympus are stating water damage. Seems to have taken them a long time to decide that, just waiting for the estimate for repair now. Hope it's not too slow (or expensive)! Not sure I'm entirely chuffed that such an expensive camera died so easily, and that it's been away for repair two weeks already.
 
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