NoSocks Loc: quonochontaug, rhode island

Ain't nothin simple no more.

photon56 Loc: North America

Very good topic. I have little gel packs in my cases, but not sure how effective they are. I definitely don't want to wake up one day with fungus.

Riv Loc: SE Michigan

If your referring to the ones that came in the box with the lens/camera, their not. Or at least not for long after removing them from said box.

Side Note: I am wondering about Rice in a sock or nylon however. It's cheap, and you read about people placing wet electronics directly in rice often. It appears to work, I guess.. There's UFO's in the depths of the oceans also... just google it ....some days I wish the internet would implode..

whitewolfowner

If a thief wants in, they will get in. Your key system sounds like the one on my car too. The only thing that might result in is a broken window instead of damaged weather sealing on the windows. Don't forget, a thief is among the bottom of the barrel of the scum of the earth and will not stop at anything if they want in.

whitewolfowner

They are quite effective but depending on how much humidity you have but you do have to put them in the oven on low heat to dry them out when needed. They get saturated and quit working.

Japakomom Loc: Originally from the Last Frontier

The problem with rice is that there is a lot of dust associated with it and you would not want that getting into your gear.

whitewolfowner

You have a very valid point there about the rice. This is only a question here, because the thought occurred to me and I could be totally wrong but what if you washed the rice first and then dried it back out. Would it work then? Does anybody know?

NoSocks Loc: quonochontaug, rhode island

More work than it's worth. Much easier to simply buy some of the desiccant stuff. It's not expensive.

Japakomom Loc: Originally from the Last Frontier

Even washed, as time goes on and the rice rubs against itself will make more dust. I would not suggest it. Others will most definitely have a different opinion.

whitewolfowner

Good point. Was just wondering since the idea was brought up. Personally, I have lived in the southeast US, northeast US and southwest US and have never had a fungus issue with lenses that I have had for over thirty years and they were used when I bought them. I think those that are having the fungus issues are storing their gear in very undesirable places. I remember when I moved from the northeast to the southwest US and I stored some boxes on the farm in Tennessee since I went there in the process of moving and it got the stuff half way. I thought everything I had in the boxes were both weather protected and rodent safe. What I forgot to remember that I had my baseball glove of almost 20 years (a professional model and all broken in; they take years to do so.) in one of these boxes. All it took was a couple of months sitting in a barn during a Tennessee summer to have so much mold imbedded into that glove that I had to trash it; it was beyond fixing. Where you store things and the environment that surrounds them is os important and common sense is the best guard against having a problem.