I had a terrible experience with my watch lately. It got fog and moist inside after my moving from cold (air-conditioned) to warm (outside the house) condition. I suddenly had a question in mind that how to prevent our lenses from fog and moist under the abovementioned circumstance especailly when I am living in a very humid weather condition in Hong Kong.

-- Parker Ten (unieric@ctimail3.com), October 03, 2001

Answers

Parker:

I live in Alaska and have similar problems. My watch typically does not fog, however cameras and lenses do when moving from -40 celcius to a +18 celcius environment. When shooting outdoors in the winter, I leave the camera outside when I come in to warm up, or wrap it in something to allow it to warm up slowly and not allow condensation on the equipment. Putting the equipment in a case, towel or spare clothing will all work. I have owned Leica gear for 30 years without any problems. None of my equipment has fungus or mold in it. I attribute this to our typically dry climate. Putting on a lens cap will help protect the front elements and a case of any kind (ever-ready or general usage) will keep most of the moisture from the equipment while it warms up.

Mark J.

-- Mark A. Johnson` (logic@gci.net), October 03, 2001.

Parker,

The traditional recommendation is to place your gear inside of a sealed plastic bag prior to moving between temperature extremes; and leaving it in the bag until the gear's temperature equalizes to the ambient temperature.

This way, condensation forms on the bag instead of on your gear.

I know from experience that this works; however, I still forget to do it on occasion.

-Nick

-- Nicholas Wybolt (nwybolt@earthlink.net), October 03, 2001.