Camera getting moisture inside housing

[Nemrod]

I use the MM and have had no issues with them, but they must be blue when installed and you need to load the camera and install them preferably the evening before the dive so that they have time to absorb the moisture from the internal housing and from INSIDE the camera. The camera get's warm during use driving off moisture and as well warming the air inside the housing. If there is free moisture in the housing there is the opportunity for fogging.

An air conditioned room or even a blast of dry air from a tank can help just before closing up. (Oh, when I say blast, I don't mean an explosive "blast" OK).

Good luck.

N

 

[bvanant]

Hi
Regards to using the A/C to “dry” the camera and housing…would the A/C work better in blow drying ones wet hair after a shower, instead of using in hot hair dryer? Would this not defy the thermal states of matter? Meaning that heat will turn a liquid into a gas or vapor state and the cold turns the liquid into a solid state. It seems like the water will blow off a surface when heated by a hair dryer and the A/C will just cool the water in place, only to turn into a vapor or fog when the camera heats up. Please explain.

State of matter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Regards

Relative Humidity is the ratio of the vapor pressure of water in air divided by the saturation vapor pressure of water. Since the vapor pressure of water is temperature dependent (an approximation at normal temps is 1mm Hg per degree C) the amount of water in a given volume of air at a given relative humidity increases with temperature. For example at 50% relative humidity and 30C there are about 12 grams of water in 1 kg air. At 10C there are about 4 grams of water in the same kg air. What this means is that in the same volume of cold air there is less water than in the same volume at higher temperatures. Since diving in the tropics means that the water is usually warmer then your air conditioned room, and your camera heats the housing as well, no condensation can happen if you take your cold housing into warm water. Of course you will get condensation on the outside of your housing when you take it from your room outside but that should be OK.

This doesnt work well if the water temp is colder than your room. Saturday we were diving in California, bottom temps were 51F/11C and if you had put your camera together in a 74F aircon room you might get condensation.

 

[H2O Photo Pros]

Nice shot Bill! Hey you forgot Nauticam in your equipment signature.

51 degrees??? WHere was this?

 

[bvanant]

The yellow fringehead was at Christmas Tree Cove in Palos Verdes. Beautiful day but the water was really cold. I will fix my signature, thought I did already, love the Nauticam housing for the 7d
BVA

 

[BigAirHarper]

Thanks for all the replies. To further detail my situation, I placed the MM in the housing in my A/C room @75 degrees about an hour before the dive. I dive here in Ft. Lauderdale so water temps are around 84 degrees. Camera did get exposure to brief amounts of sun in the parking lot so I will have to watch that. However, I still don't think I have a leak because I don't see bubbles or water accumulating in the housing. Only after 30ish minutes I see fogging beginning to occur. Now the dive also lasted for 70 minutes which I assume is part of the problem all together as the LCD heats up the housing. But the LCD is only on when I am shooting as I have it preset to turn off after 30 sec. I'm going to keep an eye on it when I dive later this week. Anything I should be looking for as far as detecting if I have a tiny leak of some kind???(Gasket is brand new a clean) Should I try switching to the second gasket they included in the kit?

 

[papapro]

Hi Everyone:

I had that fogging problem for last couple of years I have Sony camera with Sony underwater housing. I tried fluids ETC. I installed camera in housing in the cool airconditioned room with the silica sachets. Some time worked sometime did not.

Before last my vacations I got an idea to test the sachets itself if they contain any moisture.
My findings were right ALL THE SACHETS CONTAIN MOISTURE! I did a simple test, I put them in microwave for one minute I got a lot of steem so another minute more moisture came out but some were burnt.

For my trip I prepared as follow put the sachets on cooking sheet and set the oven @ 120Deg C
or 250 Deg F and cook them till they are dry cool them to easy handling temerature and quickly
put them into thich freezer bags. At this point they will contain 0 - 10% of moisture.After the test they were dry as pepper.

Go to a dollar store they get them a lot and they throw them away. Find size you need and reuse them. Worked for me for two weeks the only test I did not do this on the boat or at the water level. Also can help the big sachets from printers, computers ETC dry them and use for dring your cammera overnight in big freezer bag. Good luck and let me now how it helped.

John papapro@sympatico.ca

 

[Jun Lao]

best solution, silica gel pouches (the packs you see in medicine bottles, shoes & purses when new)

to be effective, place the silica gel in a toaster (preferred) or microwave and pre heat 30 sec-1 min, prior placement inside cam (b4 used to place 2-3 inside my wp-dc21 housing which fogs a lot, after the silica gel inserted, fogs are gone. this is highly effective

a friend once misunderstood me and put his housing in the microwave, this is not what you do hehehe, flooding followed...

during instant trips and silica gel not available or left behind, place thin layers of tissue, this will absorb moisture but not as effective, but quick solution.

 

[kfilly]

Herman,

Thanks for the tip about running camera and housing over an A/C vent. I am a newbie to underwater photography. Sometimes I, too, miss things that should obviously work well. Much appreciated.

Kfilly