Posted by Eric Frasco on August 20, 2001 at 10:20:39:
In Reply to: Fogging camera lens posted by Jonah Mulski on August 17, 2001 at 17:40:23:
Jonah:
I get condensation on the inside of my camera lens when I take the camera from the surface into cold water.
There are no droplets of water inside my camera, instead the moisture comes from moist warm air on the topside. The warmer the day, the higher the humidity in the air and the worse the fogging of the lens. The fogging does go away after a while in the cold water, but sometimes it takes 20 minutes. Until that happens, all my photos will be blurry.
I have found that after I load (or reload) my film, then place the camera in a bucket of cold water (most boats provide this for photography and videography divers), the camera will cool down gradually and this will prevent the fogging from being a problem.
The worst thing you can do is to leave your camera out in the hot sun before taking it into the cold water. Keep your camera out of the sun and cool it down as much as possible prior to entering the water, and you should notice a substancial decrease in this problem.
Also, immersing your camera in the dunk tank prior to taking it on a dive allows you to check for leaks. Flooded equipment is your worst nightmare, so a pre dive check is your best insurance against damage. And a small leak in a fresh water dunk tank is infinitely better than a full flood in salt water!
-Eric-