Foggy front lens, what to do?

[Mafiaman]

I'm diving with a Equinox propak-6( the HC1PRO) and a Sony HDR-HC1 camera, after 30-40minutes underwater the front lens starts to fog up just a little, but it can be seen during play back.

What do you all to to stop this?

 

[paulpost]

I'm diving with a Equinox propak-6( the HC1PRO) and a Sony HDR-HC1 camera, after 30-40minutes underwater the front lens starts to fog up just a little, but it can be seen during play back.

What do you all to to stop this?

What lenses, sorry, I'm not familiar with your housing, the lens on camera or on housing?
If the lens of the housing are the one that get fogged up, in my opinion do what you do with your mask, spit on it or use the stuff they sell in the dive shop.
On the other hand depending where you're diving, if the humidity of the area is very high like 85 to 95% and you have to open your housing in between dives, the moisture gets in and after the temperature in your housing starts to lower the moisture that you've captured when you've closed your housing will start to condense.
Another way to go around this problem is to set up your rig in an air-conditioned controlled environment, (like your hotel room).
From your post that states that you get this problem when you are 30 to 40minutes in to the dive, this is really weird.

 

[alcina]

You have dessicant packs in your housing already, right?

 

[Mafiaman]

You have dessicant packs in your housing already, right?

No, do you need'm in a video housing?
I found it strainge that it took 30-40 minutes for the fog to appear.

 

[Mafiaman]

What lenses, sorry, I'm not familiar with your housing, the lens on camera or on housing?
.

Yes the housing lens

 

[alcina]

Yes...heat can build up inside a video housing and that's why you're not seeing it until later in the dive. It might not happen right away. The dessicant packs do work wonders. That would be my first trial - add a good pack and see if it happens.

 

[TeddyDiver]

Like Alcina mentioned theres some heat build with uw videos. If your battery has the capacity have the power on all the time. Have you noticed fogging when it's been on all the time?

 

[diversteve]

I've noticed that the Poly and PVC housings seem to have this problem more than the aluminum ones. I think the reason they fog more is that they're more susceptible to heat and temp. changes.

I used to shoot with a Poly housing and these steps kept it from fogging - and I shot on mostly humid tropical islands.

Seal the housing in the room, preferably in the A/C stream. Ever notice the water dripping off an A/C unit? it's a de-humidifier. So the drier the air the better. Don't use a hair dryer though as it will heat the air causing it to fog as the air cools down and condenses.

Drop the housing in the tank once on the boat.

Leave it in the tank between dives. Cover the tank if in the sun.

btw, I never had to use a dessicant either.

How do you like shooting the HC1 in the Pro-pak? I've got the EVO and it's great, good balance and I'm getting excellent results.

 

[Mafiaman]

How do you like shooting the HC1 in the Pro-pak? I've got the EVO and it's great, good balance and I'm getting excellent results.

Man! I am Loving it!, Got about 15 hours of film, when I hook the camera to my HD TV the fish look like they are going to swim out of the TV!. I lose a little when I burn it to DVD but it's still better than DV, I can't wait for Blueray!!
As far as housing handling, Underwater I offten move it around using two fingers, nicly balanced. The mistake I made (and the one thing I don't like) is I got every availible conrtle button and knob, If I could do it over it would only have a power lever.

 

[paulpost]

Man! I am Loving it!, Got about 15 hours of film, when I hook the camera to my HD TV the fish look like they are going to swim out of the TV!. I lose a little when I burn it to DVD but it's still better than DV, I can't wait for Blueray!!
As far as housing handling, Underwater I often move it around using two fingers, nicely balanced. The mistake I made (and the one thing I don't like) is I got every available control button and knob, If I could do it over it would only have a power lever.

I'm glad to hear this because I'm looking to move up to HD too.
I was looking today at Circuit City at an HC3 model and I've noticed that when panning the camcorder, the picture has a kind of a jitter, did you see it with HC1?
Another problem that I've noticed is a delay in focusing, for example, if I put my hand 2 to3" in front of the camcorder and after a few seconds I'm moving off my hand it takes approx 1/2 of a second for the picture to get clear, that is really bad in my opinion. My question is : did you have any drift dives and how the picture looks like on those dives if you've recorded them and to conclude my post I'd like to know what software do you use to edit and burn your DVDs.
Thank you