In from the cold

[JayJay]

Hope I've posted this in the right section.

I've noticed when after shooting in the kind of temperatures we have outside at the moment, when I bring my camera back indoors, condensation immediately forms on the front of my lens and the screen.
Not too concerned about these two areas but I'm more worried that the same thing could be happening inside my lens and inside my camera, possibly causing unseen damage.

I've made sure I've left the camera switched off until it has warmed up and the condensation disappeared, and have even tried immediately putting it in the coldest room in the house, so as to minimise the condensation forming in the first place.

Two questions:
1. Could I do anything else to protect my camera and lens from it happening in the first place?
2. Am I worrying about nothing?

 

[Splog]

Put the lens cap on outside and leave it on once you've brought the camera inside.

If you are really bothered about it you could put it into a plastics bag and seal it before bringing it inside.

 

[CanonEOS]

I agree with your "question" number 2, IMO

 

[artyman]

Condensation is caused by warm moist air hitting cold surfaces. Don't remove lenses and I leave mine inside the camera bag to acclimatise for a couple of hours, never had a problem.

 

[andyred]

If I've been out shooting in the cold, I'll leave the camera and lens attached sealed in the camera bag in the house for a couple of hours to slowly come up to temp. Leaving your camera bag closed stops any condensation forming on your camera.

 

[towershot]

Condensation is caused by warm moist air hitting cold surfaces. Don't remove lenses and I leave mine inside the camera bag to acclimatise for a couple of hours, never had a problem.

 

[ohara]

have even tried immediately putting it in the coldest room in the house, so as to minimise the condensation forming in the first place.

It's not heat which causes condensation, it's the humidity. It just so happens that the warmer the air, the more moisture it can hold. Moisture in the air will always condense on the coldest surface it can, so when you take your camera in to a warm house from the cold outside, this is why condensation always forms on the lens. Exactly the same reason why your kitchen windows might steam up when you are cooking pasta, the water which evaporates from the pan will condense on the coldest surfaces in the kitchen which are normally the windows as they are directly exposed to the outside air (whereas walls have thick insulation).

As said above the best way to avoid it is to not take off your lens, put the cap on BEFORE going in to the house, and preferably keep the camera in a sealed bag until it has acclimatised to the conditions inside the house.

If you have a dehumidifier or air conditioner in your room then use it to dry the air and keep the humidity down, it will lessen the effect greatly. I find this a real pain as I do a lot of nightclub photography and as soon as I go from the cold outside into a busy club which doesn't have air conditioning, my camera is unusable for the first couple of minutes due to the constant condensation build up on the lens. In air conditioned clubs it's not a problem, I can walk in and start shooting straight away, but in those which aren't I have to wait a couple of minutes for my camera to warm up to the temperature of the room before I can do anything, and it's also usually unbearably hot too!