Last Saturday I attended a festival in an outside location nearby. It was a cold, windy and rainy day but I had decided to have a photo session. So I took my Nikon z 6_2 geared with my Nikkor Z 24-200 mm f4-6.3 VR and I did my best to protect them from humidity and raindrops. And I thought I had succeeded.
Two days later I wanted to shoot some flowers and bugs in my garden. It was a bright hot sunny day. After 20 minutes in the sun waiting for bumblebees to be interested in a common foxglove, my viewfinder became foggy. I wiped it out and nothing happened. It even became worse in the following minutes. I checked my lenses on the outside, nothing. And then I found out it was inside my lens. Humidity had formed fog on one of the optical elements. And that’s when the bumblebee showed up…
Panic grew inside me. Had I ruined my lens by not protecting it enough? I started scrolling through forums on the internet but found no serious recipe.
So, before I store my lens caps free and barrel extended in a sealed plastic bag with silica gel, or in a sock surrounded by rice, here is my question: what is the best way to remove humidity from inside my Nikkor Z 24-200mm?
Here is a shot taken during the rainy day:
Nikon Z 6_2, Nikkor Z 24-200 mm f4-6.3 VR, ISO 360, 76 mm, f6, 1/80 s
Mexicane fleabane (erigeron karvinskianus) and Serbian bellflower (campanula poscharskyana), chapel Saint-Mathurin, Quistinic, France
Vergerette de Karwinski et campanule de Poscharsky, chapelle Saint-Mathurin
Here are two shots taken on the sunny day, a couple of minutes before the fog appeared in the lens:
Nikon Z 6_2, Nikkor Z 24-200 mm f4-6.3 VR, ISO 500, 130 mm, f11, 1/160 s
Iris and its little bugs, Drukpa Plouray, France
Iris et ses petite bébêtes
Nikon Z 6_2, Nikkor Z 24-200 mm f4-6.3 VR, ISO 320, 300 mm, f6.3, 1/500 s
Rhingia campestris on a fern, Drukpa Plouray
Syrphano de Bergerac (wordplay based on the long nose of the bug refering to the famous main character of Cyrano de Bergerac, a play written by Edmond Rostand) sur une fougère
Hi Frederic. Quite intriguing. Usually, storing lenses in a dry and not too cold area for a time is enough to eliminate any moisture inside.
For silica, I'd only add one little sachet in my current carrying bag, and won't use a sealed plastic bag, as long as the athmosphere is not too humid.
@prg-lagarde, thanks Pierre. Guess I'll just let it dry when it's sunny and warm (weather tends to be pretty humid in Brittany, as you know).