Must I buy a dry cabinet or box?


Status
Not open for further replies.

lszomb

New Member
Jun 22, 2004
52
0
0
Have bought camera one week ago. Since my room is too small to put in another cabinet, I dont buy that. Currently, I keep my camera in my office with 24 hours air-con. Must I buy a dry cabinet to put my gear in? Does the air-con is helpful for prevent the fangi to grow on my lens? any comments?

Thanks in advance.

Alex
 

lszomb said:
Have bought camera one week ago. Since my room is too small to put in another cabinet, I dont buy that. Currently, I keep my camera in my office with 24 hours air-con. Must I buy a dry cabinet to put my gear in? Does the air-con is helpful for prevent the fangi to grow on my lens? any comments?

Thanks in advance.

Alex

harlo! eh... i dunno abt u. but, keeping in an air-con room will cause your camera to have condensation when u bring it out of the air-con room to a normal, room temprature environment - ie. fungus will grow and not to mention corrosion to your electronics. at the minimum, use an air-tight tupperware with silca gel to store your camera.
 

Thank you for you advice.
I am definitely a newbie here and the photography.
So, I need learn lots of things from the forums.
Thanks again.
 

nightwolf75 said:
harlo! eh... i dunno abt u. but, keeping in an air-con room will cause your camera to have condensation when u bring it out of the air-con room to a normal, room temprature environment - ie. fungus will grow and not to mention corrosion to your electronics. at the minimum, use an air-tight tupperware with silca gel to store your camera.

I think condensation only forms if you take your camera through quick temperature changes (ie cold room -> warm room or vice versa). If you want to avoid condensation when you're gonna take your camera between places with large differences in temperature - place it in a camera bag, and when you go to the new environment, allow the camera to slowly aclimatise before pulling it out of the bag.

Having it in an air-conditioned room 24hrs is actually alright, since the humidity is usually around 40% in such environments. Just make sure the is enough air circulation and you take your camera out often to shoot pictures !
 

gooseberry said:
I think condensation only forms if you take your camera through quick temperature changes (ie cold room -> warm room or vice versa). If you want to avoid condensation when you're gonna take your camera between places with large differences in temperature - place it in a camera bag, and when you go to the new environment, allow the camera to slowly aclimatise before pulling it out of the bag.

Having it in an air-conditioned room 24hrs is actually alright, since the humidity is usually around 40% in such environments. Just make sure the is enough air circulation and you take your camera out often to shoot pictures !

yup, true. a bag might help a bit. but, since u've already invested so much $$$ in a camera, a $90-$100+ dry box is the least u can spend to protect ur investment? ;)

anyway, sometimes u won't have to time to aclimatise ur cam. there's once when i took my cam out from my car into a mulitstorey car park and found condesation on the lens. and my cam was in a bag, my car aircon wasn't dat cold either. so, IMO, dun risk damaging ur cam lah.
 

actually depends on wat kind of camera also...if dc....juz put it in ya drawer or something ..... if slr then get a dry box haha...
 

lszomb said:
Have bought camera one week ago. Since my room is too small to put in another cabinet, I dont buy that. Currently, I keep my camera in my office with 24 hours air-con. Must I buy a dry cabinet to put my gear in? Does the air-con is helpful for prevent the fangi to grow on my lens? any comments?

Thanks in advance.

Alex

wat camera u brought n wat accessories u have currently? any plans for future expansion ?
 

I am currently using 2 x Ziploc Bags + Silica gel tied in a Sock. It works for me so you might want to consider that.
 

Ratio the $ you spent on your equipment and see if 5-10% of the cost of all your equipment warrants and justifies for a dry cabinet or not.

Some money cannot be saved. I know of people who has one at home and one in office. :)
 

thanks you all for your help.
Currently, I only have one set of D70 with kit lens and a lowepro camera bag, no other equipments.
In the further one year, maybe I will buy one or two new lens.
For the condensation, I think it is a topic that every one should concern about whether you have dry cabinet or not. I will take care when I get my camera out from the air-con room thanks :). For the problem of dry box, I concern the humidity more than the temperature. After thinking over, maybe my problem is not a "problem", since nothing can stop me to buy a dry cabinet other than my small room...
Thanks again for your professional advice :)
 

Besides the whole condensation thing, there's a small matter of FUNGUS?

This is really nasty stuff, you'll know when you see it - it looks like a spider web is forming on your lens. So best to invest the money to protect your equipment.
 

lszomb said:
Have bought camera one week ago. Since my room is too small to put in another cabinet, I dont buy that. Currently, I keep my camera in my office with 24 hours air-con. Must I buy a dry cabinet to put my gear in? Does the air-con is helpful for prevent the fangi to grow on my lens? any comments?

Thanks in advance.

Alex


Friend, if you only have one camera. buy a "lock an lock" air tight tupper ware like container from cold storage. $10+ and i bottle of silica gel from camera shop. the blue bead will absorb the moisture... microwave it when it turn pink and it can be reuse. silica $3.5....

always closed your tupperware immediately after you take out or out in your stuff.

My $13.50 lasted me 2 years.

you can keep the tupperware in a cupboard or something.... most important, save space.
 

Yes, a dry cabinet is always advisable to prevent fungus growth - since you can get a 30L one for $70-100, quite cheap, but a dry cabinet alone won't prevent fungus - need to make sure your equipment is taken out regularly and used.

I was commenting more on the condensation forming when taking the camera from an air-conditioned room and outside, and just suggesting a way to prevent it from happening with the use of a camera bag.
 

Status
Not open for further replies.