Have I compromised my lens?

I use a Tamron 16-300 which is welded to my camera

There have been a couple of occasions when travelling in humid South East Asia that upon arriving at the hotel I have taken my camera out gone outside and had the lens fog up. Stupidly I have zoomed the lens thus sucking in this humid air. Will this have caused any contamination to the internal optics & should I have it cleaned?

I have been looking over old photos lately & they seem sharper than my current results.

No. Short term exposure to humidity (on holiday) isn't going to damage your kit if you then return home to less humid conditions. Sure your lens will have sucked in a multitude of mould spores but that happens anyway. No damage will occur unless it spends months in humid conditions suitable for mould growth.

Lenses aren't sealed, so it doesn't matter if you zoomed the lens or not, the humidity was already in the lens.

TeamSpeed wrote in post #18793728
Lenses aren't sealed, so it doesn't matter if you zoomed the lens or not, the humidity was already in the lens.

Yes but it was condensation I was concerned about. Sucking the humid air into the lens with cold optics. The condensate then clears leaving a mineral residue? Or am I concerned about nothing?

Humid air does not hold minerals.

I'd be more worried about the welding damaging your lens......... and camera

66FAIRLANE wrote in post #18793903
Yes but it was condensation I was concerned about. Sucking the humid air into the lens with cold optics. The condensate then clears leaving a mineral residue? Or am I concerned about nothing?

When you are in these conditions again and are concerned, just pack a gallon freezer bag with about 1-2 cups of rice. Put your lens in the bag (with lens caps on of course) when you have used a lens in these conditions and are packing up. It will help dry out the lens. The only issue is if you leave humidity/damp conditions with the lens for a period of time and over time things will grow in that moisture. No worries about minerals...

Actually as it is a push zoom lens I wouldn't put it in a bag of rice. There is a lot of dust in rice and there is a chance chance that that would get into the lens.

If you want to avoid the issue on future holidays take some large ziplock or similar plastic bags and make sure you seal the camera/lenses in them (when in the cool aircon environment). Then when you go outside give the equipment enough time to warm up to the external temp before removing from the bag.

If that is a concern, desiccant packs are quite cheap as an alternative. And both ideas can be combined to really provide protection.

Well Ive always kept my gear in the bag when Changing invironment letting it acclimate so condensation is minimal.

soeren wrote in post #18794091
Well Ive always kept my gear in the bag when Changing invironment letting it acclimate so condensation is minimal.

Happened to me in Mexico once stepping out of the air conditioned room. I also keep it in the bag for a while. Same as winter when coming in from the cold.

Happens to my glasses quite often in the summer here at home. They fog up...then dry. No harm. I think you're worried about nothing.

66FAIRLANE wrote in post #18793903
Yes but it was condensation I was concerned about. Sucking the humid air into the lens with cold optics. The condensate then clears leaving a mineral residue? Or am I concerned about nothing?

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The humid air was already in the lens. . Your lens isn't sealed AT ALL, so no matter where you are, the surrounding air is exactly the air that is already inside your lens. . Whether you zoom it or not has no effect whatsoever on what type of air is inside your lens. . Ever.


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Your gear will be just fine. People live in these conditions all the time, use cameras, and its ok. Cameras are a lot less delicate than people think they are. This happens to me regularly. At swim and dive events it happens necessitating me to arrive 30 minutes early so I can allow time for it to clear. I also do a ton of winter outdoor shooting, and the same event happens as the cameras/lenses are in my car on the way there and the second I go outside they fog/ice up.

As to your lens being less sharp.... look through your lens when it is unwelded to your camera body and see if you can see anything on the optics. It is possible that over time you have gotten dust and gunk sucked into the lens. If you can't see a coating of dust inside, it is unlikely that is what is causing that much softness over the entire image. If it is bothering you, send your lens in for a cleaning and service.

Of the dozen or so lenses I have, I've had one diagnosed with fungus in the body. It's a lens i bought from eBay. How long its had the fungus, don't know, and from what I can tell, it hasn't effected the optical performance.

Tom Reichner wrote in post #18796513
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The humid air was already in the lens. . Your lens isn't sealed AT ALL, so no matter where you are, the surrounding air is exactly the air that is already inside your lens. . Whether you zoom it or not has no effect whatsoever on what type of air is inside your lens. . Ever.

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Yes but my point was moving from cold to hot humid and then pulling it all in on cold optics. If you just let it sit, agreed in time the air will be the same as outside and by that time the lens would have normalised. Probably what I should have done. Just excited when I reach my destination & whip the camera out straight away!

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I will do some investigations as suggested.