Shooting in Tropical Weather

D

DVX100Shooter

Veteran
I ran into a condensation issue the last time I did a shoot down in the Carribean. I am heading down there again next weekend and don't want to run into the same problem. I think what is was, was that I had the AC on in my hotel room and when I took the camera outside in the humidity the lens fogged up! Other than leaving the camera in the bathroom where it would have less AC getting in there, are there any other things I can do to prevent condensation? If the lens does fog up, how can I unfog it quickly? Last time I removed the tape and left the door open and took the view finder piece off and allowed the camera to warm up so to speak and I was fine after about an hour or so.

I could have sworn there was some sort of product that you could spray or put on your camera that would prevent condensation fogging up the lens but I could be wrong.
 
I haven't tried, but there's a simple trick to avoid humidity in the equipment. Bags of rice! Rice has the hability of absorbing humidity, Be careful, though, closing very well the bags (tissue bags would work) to avoid grains falling into the camera.

I saw a TV show where they put a mobile phone into water, then into rice. It worked after a few hours (at least, they said so). I hope this helps.
 
Where are you going? Anywhow, here is the deal.

Air conditioning cools the air and causes moisture to form from the hunid air. Similar to a cold drink forming water on the outside of the glass. The Demon is moisture, and either the tape or the camera heads or both are the target. If moisture is introduced it causes instant friction that the spinning heads will take off the coating and clog the heads with the iron oxide (or whatever tape formula) particles. The point here is that if you acclimate the camera but keep the tapes in the air conditioning, or vice versa, the same condition exists.
By the way, if you live in a cold climate this situation exists also. I've always allowed at least an hour for things to settle down but I don't know if that's a standard. Oh and the dew light only tells you if the camera is too wet. If you put in a tape right in from an air conditioned environment and plop it in the camera . . . poof clogged heads.
 
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