AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Talk Belize Photographs Chat Care of photographic equipment

Yes, but who?

if a photo discussion area pops up, I'll participate.
or maybe allow posts without photos in the existing photography area?

I let it steam over some boiling Formaldehyde and it seems to have worked . I counted the spots and measured them if they grow anymore its off to that guy Barn suggested. right now they are all on the edge and don't effect the image are.

How did you know you had fungus? My Nikon is not taking good pictures - they come out dim and can't be livend up. I'm not planning a trip to the states for awhile so am stuck using my little camera.

Do you have more than one lens? Does it perform the same on each?

ScubaLdy,
fungus is common in lenses that live in high humidity. Often, the damage is irreversable because the fungus damages the coating. You check for fungus or haze by shining a bright light through the lens while holding the aperture open. If you see an even film, you have haze. Haze is often caused by the migration of lubricants onto the optics and is fixed by a routine clean-lube-adjust. Fungus looks like frost or a spider web. Leica guys recommend Focal Point for these repairs.

Preventing fungus is difficult if you live in a humid climate. Collectors store their lenses in sealed containers with silica gel packets to absorb the moisture. I read of a collector in Australia who kept his display case supplied with a dry air purge.

Nikon makes a few excellent inexpensive lenses. I'd stick with those for work in the tropics. You can find ut about them at Ken Rockwell's website. The late Galen Rowell had some interesting perspectives about throw-away lenses, too. When he shot what might be his signature photo, a rainbow over a temple complex in Tibet, he ditched his camera bag and ran to get the right angle while the light was perfect. His philosophy was that gear was expendable, while a perfect image could not be passed up. See the shot here, and see some more of his work at Mountain Light gallery.

Dan

Lovely picture, but I suspect his (Galen Rowell's) view was coloured by the money he expected to make from the picture. If that was far more than the value of his gear then he made a sensible choice.

For amateurs who do not expect to make their living from photography it's rather different, and I personally don't subscribe to the view that my gear is expendable.

I clearly chose wisely for Belize when I bought Canon "L" lenses. They are sealed against dust & moisture, to the extent that when mounted on a suitable body they can apparently even be submerged in water briefly! They weren't cheap, but nor was the Nikkor 80-400 that Elbert uses. Having said that, I've just bought a non-"L" lens, and based on Elbert's experience I think I will keep that hermetically sealed when I'm not using it.

Meant to ask - are silica gel packets available anywhere in Belize? I know they can be refurbished in a microwave, but I just don't have many of them anyway.

i get my desiccants from Pelican through B&H photo. recharge them in the oven as they are metal. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/242571-REG/Pelican_PC1500D_Silica_Gel.html

my newest lens has an 'O' ring seal around the mount. don't know how much that helps?
i am in agreement about not missing the shot, but,,, like right now, if i am not shooting or if i am traveling, my gear is in the Pelican cases. a few silicas each, a yearly gasket change, and i am getting longer life from my investments.