Protect your camera gears from humidity

It’s that time of the year once again when the rains would pour in, making the surroundings real humid at times. This not only affects our personal temperament for the hot and steamy weather after the rains but also our camera gears, especially our lenses. Our lenses have loose mechanical parts in them, and what make them move smoothly are lubricants along these parts. With humidity too high, this becomes a breeding ground for fungus to grow or even render some steel parts rusty. Left alone without drying the parts to a relative humidity, the infection on them could worsen, which can be seen on the lenses as a spider web-like pattern or spatter of dirt when we look through.

Cleaning up the fungus inside the lenses is not really cheap and is also a painstaking process that is left for the professionals to do. But like any other illnesses, prevention is far better than cure. It’s a good thing proper storage helps, and that means putting them inside a dry box. Dry boxes have ideal relative humidity of 40 to 60 percent. Take note that humidity is different from temperature as the former is measuring the wetness in the air.

Dry boxes differ in price range and can get really expensive, but it’s a good thing that it’s easy  to make one yourself without spending too much. You just need three things:

• An airtight, antibacterial container
• A desiccant
• A hygrometer

Airtight containers are easy to find at groceries, department stores and hardware. I would recommend Biokips and Lock & Lock since they has a very good quality and antibacterial construction. Why an airtight container? Aside from maintaining the temperature and humidity condition inside the container, it’s also a protection against dust.

A desiccant can be a silica gel or a dehumidifier. You can easily buy one at hardware stores. There are also electronic ones that you can buy and those that you reheat to use. I use a disposable humidifier. A piece is good for more than a month or six weeks use. They are very cheap. You can buy a pack of six at the nearest Japan Home Centres.

A hygrometer is a tool to measure relative humidity. An analogue hygrometer can be bought at Japan Home Center and Saizen stores. One can also a buy a more expensive digital hygrometer at Infomax.

Now in use, just place all your gears as well as the hygrometer and dehumidifier inside the container and tight it shut. In some cases, like when I just got back from a trip or exposing my camera from the rains, my hygrometer would spike to 80 to 90 percent RH. The ideal RH% would be around 40 to 60 percent like in those semiconductor laboratories. Make sure that when the RH drops below 40 percent, you can open the lid and let some humidity in. A too dry temperature may damage or dry up the liquids and lubricants in some of your gears and lenses. You can also remove the dehumidifier and seal it shut again. The temperature and humidity would remain the same for some time as long as it is not opened.