cold weather

[inyourface]

Evening all

when we have a good clear night sky im going out to try the star trail, found a nice spot on the beach with beach huts etc

but obviously its going to be cold, so i was concerned about condensation on the lens.
will hand warmers stop this and do i simply just lay one over the lens?


thanks all

mat

 

[OldCarlos]

Condensation will happen when you bring it back home into the warm, so no need to keep it warm outside.

It will soon dissipate at room temp, but you can lessen it occurring by putting it in a bag before bringing it into a warm environment & leaving it for a while to warm up/equalise.

 

[inyourface]

thanks
i read something about lens warmers so just assumed it was for outside on a cold night/day

 

[pingu666]

maybe if its cold and damp? not sure. keep batteries near your body heat when u can they lose power in the cold

 

[inyourface]

thanks for replies

appreciated

 

[StewartR]

You can certainly get condensation on your lens when you're out at night. I found this out the hard way when I spent 3 hours making a star trail / meteor shower time-lapse, and only the first hour was usable because of condensation.

Condensation forms on a surface (such as a lens) when the temperature of the surface drops below the dew point. Materials like glass and metal cool down quickly at night, so they are the first to attract condensation.

Attaching disposable hand warmers to the lens can definitely help.

I found an excellent blog article about this, with more details and tips on combating it, here:
http://photographyblogger.net/fighting-dew-during-night-time-photography/