My camera keeps getting Fogged!!!

[BHB ScubaTroll]

Great tips from everyone.

If you've been keeping your camera housing out in the heat between dives... STOP IT!

I went to Wally World and bought a container big enough to hold my camera setup. I take it on boat dives and slide it under my seat (not all dive boats offer a camera bucket). It gets filled with water and the Dive Sherpa's are happy to place the camera in your container when you surface. It's always in the shade and in the water to keep it at a stable temperature. That really helps when you got it all setup at home in the air conditioning and tested it in the sink before you left for your dive

 

[sylpha]

Ditto, and those bags are good for only one use.

N

i find that if you store them in an airtight box the last longer. I also dry them out by putting them on a plate on top of the oven whilst it's cooling down, they get warm, but not too hot.

 

[fppf]

Actually, the camera heating up would help prevent fogging. Air can hold more moisture as it get warmer. Fogging happens when the air inside cools and can't hold the moisture load it has, it then condenses.

That's why I have way more problems in the summer time up north than in the tropics down south. I put my camera together and its 80 degrees with 90% humidity. Then I cross a thermocline and the water is 38 degrees. Its like a cold beer in summer.

 

[BHB ScubaTroll]

Actually, the camera heating up would help prevent fogging. Air can hold more moisture as it get warmer. Fogging happens when the air inside cools and can't hold the moisture load it has, it then condenses.

That's why I have way more problems in the summer time up north than in the tropics down south. I put my camera together and its 80 degrees with 90% humidity. Then I cross a thermocline and the water is 38 degrees. Its like a cold beer in summer.

You just contradicted your own statement. The initial heat up is the precurser to cooling down quickly in the water...

"Fogging happens when the air inside cools." This is exactly what happens when you take a camera that has been out in the heat and sun into the cooler water

 

[Nemrod]

i find that if you store them in an airtight box the last longer. I also dry them out by putting them on a plate on top of the oven whilst it's cooling down, they get warm, but not too hot.

You misunderstand, they are single use but you can save them and then place them in a container of Damp Rid and renew them. I find that the small bags or tubes, in tropical climates, if I attempt to reuse them, are completely pink by the second use. Of course the bags don't change color so apparently but they are likely depleted as well. It seems that after making the effort to get someplace with a camera that risking it fogging up because I am cheap on the desiccant bags is like going to any expense to save a dollar. YRMV.

N

 

[fppf]

No, I did not contradict myself.
Read it again, if you can keep the air in the housing from cooling, it will help fogging issues.
It all comes down to 2 things, the temperature and humidity level when you assemble your housing, and then the temperature the air in the housing is at during the dive.

If the temperature of the air in the housing drops below the dew point temperature of the air that was around the housing when it was closed, you get fogged. A camera generating heat in the housing would help keep the air above the dew point.

 

[jpassov]

Number one rule, never open the housing on a boat!
Someday, it will haunt you!

So what happens when you need to change the battery between dives?

 

[fppf]

Why do you need to change your batteries?
With today's cameras and batteries, and the size of memory cards you should be able to shoot all day long without worry. My wife (Canon A640) and myself (Nikon D100) have never had an issue with batteries or memory during the dive day. I can take over 1000 shots without a recharge, I have memory for 400 shots. My strobes are the shortest lived at about 250 shots.

If your taking more than about 200 shots over 3-4 dives, your just shooting crap anyway. Most dives I only take about 30-40 shots, if that, and my dives last on avg about 1.5 hours in the topics.

 

[BHB ScubaTroll]

No, I did not contradict myself.
Read it again, if you can keep the air in the housing from cooling, it will help fogging issues.
It all comes down to 2 things, the temperature and humidity level when you assemble your housing, and then the temperature the air in the housing is at during the dive.

If the temperature of the air in the housing drops below the dew point temperature of the air that was around the housing when it was closed, you get fogged. A camera generating heat in the housing would help keep the air above the dew point.

I'll let it go... But, I am unaware of any camera that generates enough heat underwater to keep the ambient temperature inside the housing from lowering in water.

If you place your camera in it's housing at home in air conditioning (78 F), take it on a boat in south Florida, keep it in the sun (so it heats up) and take it into water (78-80F) then your chances of fogging are pretty good

 

[fppf]

I would never keep a camera in the sun, period.
And I would agree the camera does not generate enough heat to warm the housing, I was just trying to point out to a previous poster that even if it did, heat would help not hurt.

And if you put your camera together in a 78 degree AC room, then dive in 78 degree water, there should be no fogging issues. The humidity in an AC room is much lower than outside. Again its all about dew points.