vanhulsenbeek Posted June 5, 2007 Share #1 Posted June 5, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) Quote: Originally Posted tuesday 05/06/07 by punktum: I can´t believe that. I have a black one that gave up due to humidity. I send it to service, called the Leica professional stuff, that I want to buy a chrome one. I had it the next day. Frank: Can you tell more about this? What sort of humidity? Cold/Warm? I am planning to take my M8 to Indonesia in August. Volcanoclimbing. BTW: lost a Canon 20D to - extreme - humidity in Borneo two years ago. __________________ Sander Amsterdam Holland Pictures with Leica and Canon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted June 5, 2007 Posted June 5, 2007 Hi vanhulsenbeek, Take a look here M8 gives up due to humidity.. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
jaapv Posted June 5, 2007 Share #2 Posted June 5, 2007 Very surprising. I had my m8's in 100% humidity-warm-salt air onboard a boat in the Bahama's last week and they didn't flinch. I took some precautions though: pelican case and silicagel, air them in the airstream of an airconditioner from time to time etc. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Photoskeptic Posted June 5, 2007 Share #3 Posted June 5, 2007 Since I live at a very humid coastline I have always kept little packets of silica gel in my camera cases. My biggest problem is de-fogging lenses which have been inside air-conditioned rooms and then taken outside. Sometimes it can take 30 minutes to de-fog. I try to remember to take them outside well ahead of the time I'll need to use them, but due to old-timer's disease I often forget:o Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RSL Posted June 5, 2007 Share #4 Posted June 5, 2007 Since I live at a very humid coastline I have always kept little packets of silica gel in my camera cases. My biggest problem is de-fogging lenses which have been inside air-conditioned rooms and then taken outside. Sometimes it can take 30 minutes to de-fog. I try to remember to take them outside well ahead of the time I'll need to use them, but due to old-timer's disease I often forget:o If your lenses are fogging when you take them outside, take them outside in plastic bags and wait 30 minutes or as long as it takes for them to warm up before you remove the bags. What you're describing is a perfect way to rust any steel parts in the lenses. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skippy Sanchez Posted June 6, 2007 Share #5 Posted June 6, 2007 Very surprising. I had my m8's in 100% humidity-warm-salt air onboard a boat in the Bahama's last week and they didn't flinch. I took some precautions though: pelican case and silicagel, air them in the airstream of an airconditioner from time to time etc. ok, i may be a dummy here, but how does the camera finish affect humidity issues? whatever, i agree with jaapv. i was in honduras a few weeks ago & the pelican cases/silicagel (find some on on Ebay) was the ideal solution. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
punktum Posted June 11, 2007 Share #6 Posted June 11, 2007 Can you tell more about this? What sort of humidity? Cold/Warm?I am planning to take my M8 to Indonesia in August. Volcanoclimbing. [/url] Hi, let me say it like this, I assume that it was the humidity. It was a 14h rain on a northsea Island. I had the camera in a tent, in my LowePro bag and wore it under the jacket. Sometimes the water hit the back of the camera with the buttons. When I went in a dry, warm place, the viewfinder got steamed from inside, I couldn´t focus anymore. I put it in the bag, after a while I tried it again. The camera felt pretty, pretty warm at the right side, and it was dead. That´s it. I sent it to Leica, they repaired it for free. They did not tell me what they did exactly. But they told me, that the camera is not sealed like the canons. So just take care if it comes to humidity or water. By the way, the professional service is really excellent! 4 days incl. shipping. Great custom service! And I couldn´t resist to buy a second one in chrome. Without the M8 I felt so naked... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
vanhulsenbeek Posted June 11, 2007 Author Share #7 Posted June 11, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) When I went in a dry, warm place, the viewfinder got steamed from inside, I couldn´t focus anymore. I put it in the bag, after a while I tried it again. The camera felt pretty, pretty warm at the right side, and it was dead. That´s it. I sent it to Leica, they repaired it for free. They did not tell me what they did exactly. But they told me, that the camera is not sealed like the canons. So just take care if it comes to humidity or water. Ah! Here is some VERY IMPORTANT ADVICE! Whevere you suspect humidity to affect you camera, like when something like the viewfinder fogs: first thing to do is rip out - yes, as fast as possible! - the battery and the sdcard. Why? Because even when the camera is switched off there is still some current running, and that is enough to erode humid contacts. It happened to my 4 weeks old Canon 20D in Borneo, and the Canon service was not as liberal as the Leica service: took me 4 months talk to get a new one. So again: rip out the battery and the sdcard in case of suspected humidity problems! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
howard_cummer Posted June 12, 2007 Share #8 Posted June 12, 2007 I have had my M8 now for about 4 months and have used it in India, Indonesia (Bali) and Hong Kong - all high humidity locations without a problem. Touch wood. I have moved from air conditioned rooms to outside temperatures in the 30's centigrade with humidity in the 90's and my lenses have steamed up - but not the camera. I think the problem with the M8 in this thread is that it got water in through the buttons on the back. That's not really a humidity question - that's a "not sealed against water" problem. :-) Cheers Howard (in HOT and HUMID Hong Kong) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sean_reid Posted June 12, 2007 Share #9 Posted June 12, 2007 I've been encouraging Leica to include weather seals in the digital M since 2004. Maybe we'll see it in the M9. Weather seals aren't a panacea but they're a real advantage in rain, etc. Cheers, Sean Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest stnami Posted June 12, 2007 Share #10 Posted June 12, 2007 ....... there a M9!........... or is it only life after death Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob_x2004 Posted June 12, 2007 Share #11 Posted June 12, 2007 I took some precautions though: pelican case and silicagel, air them in the airstream of an airconditioner from time to time etc. Soft travel hotel room camera. I hate Leica for doing that. The thing should be bullet proof. With the opportunity to tuck everything beneath an O ring sealed base plate the only thing that should not be waterproof could be the lens. It is because people buying Leica are far too accommodating in accepting rubbish from Leica. An R9 fills up with water in the rain. So what can you expect. Leica equals optics, not good cameras. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted June 12, 2007 Share #12 Posted June 12, 2007 Waterproof will not help you. A Canon 1 series camera -and its lenses- will be corroded internally by salt humid air just as much as a Leica - that means when you go sailing Pelican case and Silcagel and precautions against salt humidity.....Weathersealing is no excuse for maltreating tools. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest stnami Posted June 12, 2007 Share #13 Posted June 12, 2007 Lived smack on the equator by the sea for 3 odd years never used a pelican nor silica gel or any of that crap........... never had a problem with a camera, even the leica survived....................... no wonder people have problems with gear they wrap it in cotton wool and then take it out and give it shock treatment.....................keep jaapv Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted June 12, 2007 Share #14 Posted June 12, 2007 I am...You're a lucky guy, but I won't buy used stuff from you:p . Pampered my stuff is not, I use it in all conditions, I live by the sea and at home it does indeed not live in Pelican cases and such, more like on my shoulder, but I can assure you that on a boat on sea nothing ever dries out - your clothes nor your camera. The owner of the boat went through laptops like though a tin of cookies due to salt corrosion..... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted June 12, 2007 Share #15 Posted June 12, 2007 Jaapv we are talking about humidity not the North Sea , you know sweat, tropics. wringing wet humidity, not the cold blast of the arctic ......all the world does not live in aircon and central heating........ lots of cameras functioning quite sweetly in the tropics ........... I knew you wouldn't understand No I wouldn't.... I spend two months a year in the tropics... My camera's eat sand and dust and salt and heat.....Leica was happy with me - yearly overhauls of my R cameras....Killed some Canons as well.... Btw Arctic - went there too. Had an M3 frozen to my hands at - 45 centigrade Not nice, camera kept working... You wouldn't like it;) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest stnami Posted June 12, 2007 Share #16 Posted June 12, 2007 arctic too bloody cold for this fairy penguin:p : ............ my cameras seem to work without the medical gauze........but you knew this........just like you already knew what I wrote but you did make a few changes.. Jaapv we are talking about humidity not the Dead Sea: D , you know sweat, tropics. wringing wet snow, not the hot blast of the arctic:rolleyes ......all the world does live in aircon and not central heating........ lots of cameras disfunctioni quite sweetly in the tropics: p ........... I knew you would understand: D Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted June 12, 2007 Share #17 Posted June 12, 2007 Yep- took out the smilies to make place for my own --meanie:p. The rest was a straight copy - I like your final version better :D Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sean_reid Posted June 12, 2007 Share #18 Posted June 12, 2007 Waterproof will not help you. A Canon 1 series camera -and its lenses- will be corroded internally by salt humid air just as much as a Leica - that means when you go sailing Pelican case and Silcagel and precautions against salt humidity.....Weathersealing is no excuse for maltreating tools. Hi Jaap, Weather seals do indeed help. Obviously, condensation can still form in the camera but they make it resistant to rain, etc. Cheers, Sean Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted June 12, 2007 Share #19 Posted June 12, 2007 Yes, Sean, you are right, obviously they do help, but they are not magic; you cannot take a 1D swimming,and even that camera can succumb to adverse conditions and weatherseals can lead to a false sense of security. I seem to recall a warning against salt water in the Canon manual, if memory serves. As Mark showed, the M8 is not all that badly protected; we have seen users taking it into dusty and wet places without problems. Sensible precautions seem to overcome a lot of difficulties. For the really bad stuff, when will we see a digital Nikonos? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sean_reid Posted June 12, 2007 Share #20 Posted June 12, 2007 I've used a 1Ds in all sorts of conditions which I would not currently trust the M8 in. I wrote about this in the first review, but Leica specifically cautions photographers against using this camera in the rain, snow, etc. They can do better with respect to weather sealing and should do so with the next model. I told them this in 2004 when they asked for my input on the camera but they didn't do it. What we're seeing so far, anecdotally, is that M8s are sometimes tolerating water well and sometimes not. That's not exactly setting the bar in this respect. Obviously, that means that Leica might also choose to sell sealed lenses - for those who want them. Cheers, Sean Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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