Moisture in camera and lens: Hello all! Looking for some good advice. At the end of a full day of eclipse shooting on Monday, here in the path of totality, I accidentally left one of...

gfox333 Loc: Bloomington In.

Hello all! Looking for some good advice. At the end of a full day of eclipse shooting on Monday, here in the path of totality, I accidentally left one of my camera outfits sitting outdoors on my deck for approximately 5 days, in which four of those days it has rained 😔. Both of them have definitely taken on moisture. What would be my next move on them now? I can come up with some desiccants. Thanks for any advice.

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gfox333 wrote:

Hello all! Looking for some good advice. At the end of a full day of eclipse shooting on Monday, here in the path of totality, I accidentally left one of my camera outfits sitting outdoors on my deck for approximately 5 days, in which four of those days it has rained 😔. Both of them have definitely taken on moisture. What would be my next move on them now? I can come up with some desiccants. Thanks for any advice.

Desiccants do not promote drying. Theyre uaeful as a prevetative in confined containers. But nothing forces you to "containerize" your damp gear.

Just leave it out in the open to dry and hope its working well in 2 or 3 weeks. If its not recovered by then, your next step depends on what your gear is worth vs the cost of repair. For most gear, repair costs cannot be justified :-(

gfox333 Loc: Bloomington In.

Thanks for the advice

PoppieJ Loc: North Georgia

leave the camera open. every door that you can open and no lens or lens cap. and take the battery out

SteveFranz Loc: Durham, NC

Back about 30 years ago, I slipped off a small cliff into Lake Superior. I had an Canon Elan IIe, and it was briefly fully submerged. I was visiting my sister at the time, and took the lens off and put everything into her oven at the lowest heat setting. I took it out of the oven every five minutes or so, and let it cool. After about an hour, I put the battery back in and everything seemed to work OK. Only major problem I noticed was that the 'eye focus' did not seem to be as responsive or as accurate as it was before the dunking. (and I had some pretty good black & blue places from bouncing around the rocks on the way down - but they faded quickly)

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

I (mistakenly) landed my drone in a fountain. It was underwater about a minute. I blew as much water off of it that I could will compressed air. Then I covered it with rice in a sealed bowl for a few days. I now works fine.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

PoppieJ wrote:

leave the camera open. every door that you can open and no lens or lens cap. and take the battery out

And leave the camera and lens somewhere warm that has good air circulation.

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R.G. wrote:

And leave the camera and lens somewhere warm that has good air circulation.

It should also be noted that a contained space even if accompanied by plenty of desicant (or smothered in rice) does NOT constitute "good air circulation".

The rice trick has sometimes worked, but only in cases that would have sooner recovered if just left out in dry open air.

Don, the 2nd son Loc: Crowded Florida

Craft stores sell containers of desiccant for drying flowers, that would be my first choice, with the other tricks of lens off, doors open, etc. I would make sure the desiccant does get inside the camera. In a sealed container. of course, at least here in humid, warm Florida a closed container is required as I can't suck the moisture from the ambient air.

Sidwalkastronomy Loc: New Jersey Shore

Don't turn it on until you think it's dry

tcthome Loc: NJ

gfox333 wrote:

Hello all! Looking for some good advice. At the end of a full day of eclipse shooting on Monday, here in the path of totality, I accidentally left one of my camera outfits sitting outdoors on my deck for approximately 5 days, in which four of those days it has rained 😔. Both of them have definitely taken on moisture. What would be my next move on them now? I can come up with some desiccants. Thanks for any advice.

I second the rice in something sealed. Container, zip lock bag. I t will soak up the moisture. Might want to keep it form getting on your sensor or AF module if it is a DSLR. Anywho, it worked with a Samsung S4 Android phone back years ago, twice!

Bill_de Loc: US

My opinion :

Inexpensive camera, follow above advice.

Expensive camera, get it serviced as soon as possible.

Four days with some showers is a lot.

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Canisdirus

The rice trick is not really a trick...the rice is drier than the gear, so it absorbs it.

What you want is dry air...hot dry air...moving throughout your camera...open it up as much as possible.

I would not contain gear that has a ton of moisture in it...keep the air hot dry and moving.

Sidwalkastronomy Loc: New Jersey Shore

Hair dryer on low

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

gfox333 wrote:

Hello all! Looking for some good advice. At the end of a full day of eclipse shooting on Monday, here in the path of totality, I accidentally left one of my camera outfits sitting outdoors on my deck for approximately 5 days, in which four of those days it has rained 😔. Both of them have definitely taken on moisture. What would be my next move on them now? I can come up with some desiccants. Thanks for any advice.

Place your camera in a sealed bag of rice and let it rest for a few days depending on how wet it was. To be safe you're probably best leaving it for up to a week!