Cold temps to warm temps and condensation

R

Reggie Brown

Member
Winter is almost upon us! What do you guys do to prevent condensation from building up inside, and outside of your camera bodies and lenses after shooting outside and then bringing your equipment inside during the winter months? How do you guys bring your equipment from the freezing temperatures to the warm temperatures inside?

I've heard of ppl putting their equipment in plastic Ziplocs along with silca gel so the condensation will build up on the outside of the bag instead of on and/or inside the gear.

Any other suggestions? Thanks my fellow cinematographers!
 
I find it best to let the equipment heat over time. So that if i have the camera in a bag, i might partially open the zipper, if at all, and let it sit over night. Same with say a pelican case, open the lid just barely, and let it heat up over time. It has worked for me here in Norway during winter in many years, and was a trick i learned in my early days of shooting outside wintertime.
 
The absolute best way to keep condensation off the camera is to keep it in a sealed container while it acclimates.

It is as simple as a plastic bag, as you mentioned.

When I did some work in the arctic, we had to go from inside a heated basecamp to our heated vehicles and then to our shooting location. So we were going from 65* to -15* to 65* to -15*.... Operating tempertures were not a concern since I had fed our Red camera ventilation/fan system into a closed circuit, so instead of sucking in -15* air, it was sucking in the air it was blowing out, so it maintained a warm operating temperature even in the cold outdoors.

Long story short, condensation will form on the outside of whatever is adjusting so by simply putting the entire camera into super large zip-lock type bag I custom ordered, I could take the camera from extreme different temperatures and the condensation would always form on the outside of the plastic bag and never on the camera inside.

It was pretty simple but required time, because you can't take it out of the bag until most of the adjusting period has elapsed... otherwise condensation can form on the camera and if you go back outside, especially in negative temperatures, you'll not only have wet gear but wet and frozen gear. :(

I found sub-zero temperatures easier to work with than super humid climates. That's a slightly different story though.

Never had to use silicon packs... that's better for long term storage. IMO, it won't suck that much moisture from the air that quickly, unless you are talking long term storage, not simply the time to acclimate.
 
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