Ikelite Housing Fogging

[Shark Whisperer]

Hi!
I need some help...I have an Ikelite housing for my JVC 30gb HDD video camera. The housing keeps fogging up on the inside which then causes a glare and misty appearance on my video. This has just started happening and I am not doing anything different when setting everything up.
Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[Empty V]

Is there a big temperature change from on the surface to in the water? That is what is most likely causing the condensation build up. Make sure your housing is in a fresh water tank before taking it down, if you're on a boat. Also try using silica gel packs and other desecants to absorb the moisture. I use them in my still housing all the time and have never had a problems, even if there is a big temp shift.

Billy

 

[Gilldiver]

Another trick is to give the housing a few quick flushes with dry tank air. Put the back of the housing on and crack it just enough to use an air gun from your BC inflator. Close the cover, repeat 3 or 4 times then lock down the cover.

WHat I try to do is set everything up at home or in the AC the night before, but sometimes you just have to try the air flushes.

 

[cudachaser]

I had a similar problem with my Olympus 8080 housing. The problem has since gone away. I have 2 theories on what was happening since it only had moisture on shallow beach type dives. Deeper dives it stayed completely dry. I even sent the housing back to Olympus once and they couldn't find an obvious problem.

Theory 1...Wave action was much more prevalent. Since the housing is quite large, I feel the housing was flexing at the major seals due to the wave action

Theory 2...On the beach dives there is much suspended stuff in the water. Fine sand particles could get behind the myriad of control buttons seals the housing has. As the controls are used slight amounts of water passed by seals due to the fine sand particle's presence. I have since started blowing out the control buttons with that compressed stuff used to clean up computer stuff like keyboards.

So far no more problems...Oh yea BTW, I definitely use desiccants on all my dives.

 

[Shark Whisperer]

Excellent!!! Thank you all for the replies. Now that I think about it, the last two trips didn't have fresh water tanks for us to put our cameras in...totally makes sense. I will also put the desecant stuff in my housing too, just in case. Everyone was very helpful...Thank You!

 

[peterbkk]

Excellent!!! Thank you all for the replies. Now that I think about it, the last two trips didn't have fresh water tanks for us to put our cameras in...totally makes sense. I will also put the desecant stuff in my housing too, just in case. Everyone was very helpful...Thank You!

Silica gel desiccant packs will solve this problem. They can be bought in most camera shops. Have one pack for every time you plan to open the housing on a dive trip? For me, this is usually once per day.

A couple of suggestions:

1. You don't want the silica gel desiccant pack moving around inside the housing. Find a place out of the way of all controls and away from any seal. Sticky-tape (sellotape) it in place, top and bottom, making sure you don't cover too much of the porous paper.

2. Silica gel desiccant packs take a while to absorb moisture. Put it in and seal the housing at least one hour before diving.

3. Silica gel desiccant packs can be dried out again in a warm oven but they are less effective. Fresh packs are better. Once you open the housing, especially if in a humid environment, the pack will absorb moisture from the air, limiting its ability to absorb further moisture and, if really saturated, may even release moisture. If the housing is to be open for more than a few minutes, replace the pack with a new one, just before closing the seal.

4. If possible, only open the housing in an air-conditioned place. Usually, in these days of mod-cons, you can find somewhere on the dive boat or resort where the housing can be opened in a cool DRY environment.

5. If possible, let the housing reach the ocean temperature before the dive. The camera rinse bucket is usually the best option. But, if you have done 1 thru 4 above, you wont need to worry too much about point 5.

Regards
Peter

 

[Shark Whisperer]

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I'm loving all this help! Really appreciate it!

 

[sharksdelight]

Usually I am on liveaboards but this trick worked perfectly when shooting a resort demo in Costa Rica several years back. Because we had to bring the vid equipment back to the air conditioned rooms after each day's diving, my partner taught me to put both the cam and the housing in separate zip lock bags and place them outside the room for 10 minutes. Of course, the bags need to be big enough and you need to watch over the gear but we just placed them on the patio as we sat drinking our morning coffee. The trick worked beautifully and we neither of us had a problem with condensation the entire time. While I usually just leave my set up on the cam table on a liveaboard, any time I would bring the cam into the cabins and then need to go back outside I just use this time saving trick. If I didn't the condensation sensor would surely go off and I'd be stuck for an hour or more.
On another point, I believe that some housings are simply more prone to condensation than others and Ikelite seems to be one of them.
Steve:14:

 

[scubadrewvideo]

Also avoid direct sunlight!
even 3-4 minutes in direct tropical sun can heat up the air inside even if it has been sitting in a camera bucket. I often use my body to shade the camera during the last few minutes before getting in the water.
Another helpful hint:
If you have the room, put a Maxi pad...yes a maxi pad, under the camera if possible. In the event of a slight leak, this will absorb enough water to give you a few more minutes to exit and keep the water from splashing around. That trick saved me today!!!

 

[stillhope]

If you're using desiccant more than occasionally, I've found "The Forever Desiccant" to be a winner. It works well and reduces the amount of waste because it re-charges many times. It doesn't use disposable or heat-sensitive plastic containers. The little desiccant beads are contained in small cloth bags that are re-usable many, many times. If the bags wear out, the worn ones can go into the compost heap, and it's easy to find more. I've been using them for a couple of years now. See preservesmart.com