Opening lens shipments in cold weather - what do YOU do?

So, my 35L is here; I got it used for a great deal, but it didn't come with the retail box, so it was wrapped in bubble wrap and styrofoam pellets. It looks fine, but because it's been cold out and sitting in a sorting facility for a couple of days, it's almost cold to the touch, so I tossed it in a Ziplock bag with some silica gel (I conveniently have been saving all my silica gel in a large ziplock bag for just such an occasion).

My question to you is, how do you handle situations like this? And, more importantly, am I over-reacting or is my caution merited?

I wouldn't worry about it. Just like going outside in the winter and taking snaps.

Haha, responded before I even put my poll up. Thanks Chet!

Remember silica also dries up the rubber and the lubricants. Do not over do it.

Small lenses, like the 35L go under under my armpit to warm them up close to body temperature, larger ones, like the 70-200, have to be put in the nether regions of my body.

Seriously, don't worry about it. Open it, look it over and use it. Let us know how you like it, you've got one of the really good ones.

That's actually really useful info Juanpafer, thanks!

Yeah, I didn't leave it in there for long. Took it out, dusted it off. It's a UU date code that looks fresh off the line (but the lens hood has seen better days).

I received a 100mm 2.8L last week and I waited several hours before I used the lens. Maybe I'm overly cautious? Although, I can understand the "open and use it" crowd.

Shorter focal lengths will need less time to acclimate to temperature variances. This is due to the overall area of glass. Now if you're using a 400 2.8 or 600 4.0, then it'll take about an hour to fully acclimate if you're bringing it in from freezing to room temp. You can still shoot with it while it's adjusting to temp though since the commercially available optics have quite a bit of fudge factor to them and it's not that critical.

With 85mm and smaller, I doubt you'll notice any difference in optical quality. It'll only take a few minutes so that the optic doesn't fog over.

Wide air space supertelephoto designs, such as the 1200/5.6 will take a long time to reach temperature equalibrium. This is because the glass is acting as the buffer for the air between the glass/crystal elements. I would not be surprised if the 1200 took over 1.5 hours to come to equalibrium from freezing to room temp.

Very interesting, thanks PM01

juanpafer wrote in post #13753648
Remember silica also dries up the rubber and the lubricants. Do not over do it.

Never heard of that before, but it makes sense...............I leave on of these in my camera bag all the time, do you think I might have a potential probelm in the future??..............​.http://www.amazon.com …TF8&qid=1327346​998&sr=8-2