Tropical rain & M11

[PeLu]

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Hi all,

I will visit Seychelles in January which is their rainy season. I haven’t been there previously so I’m not sure how moist it will be. But probably occasionally heavy rains and humid air. How much can the M11 take? It’s not sealed so obviously will try to keep it safe but as you all know it’s hard to avoid getting it at least a bit wet. Will bring the q2 as well.  

[PhotoCruiser]

I did and will not expose any of my cameras to rain as i see absolutely no reason to do so.
The Q2 is weather sealed but not water/dustproof and if you search you find some users here who damaged their Q2 by rain or dust.
There are several solutions to protect cameras from the elements, a umbrella and a waterproof bag, EWA-Marine plastic bag for snorkling or rain caps, a scuba dive housing. Buy a waterproof backpack or messenger bag to store the camera when you are walking around, you find many when searching on Amazon for example.
Air humidity is not really a issue for the Q2 and if you don't change lenses nor for the M11. As soon you are back in the accommodation take your gear out of the bag, dry it if necessary and leave it on a table with A/C on to dry it. If i changed lens under very humid conditions then i would leave the body without attached lens with opening downwards to dry also the sensor cavity.

Use A/C on dry if available, if not the don't cool your room below approx 24°C/75°F as the considerable colder gear will get covered by condensation as soon you get outside. Option would be to switch off A/C in the middle of the night to allow camera to warm up to avoid condensation.

I lived and worked for 14 years half year in Costa Rica and had all my cameras with me, compacts for scuba diving and D90/D7000/D800 and had no other problems than all lenses got infected with lens fungus. Not really sure if the lenses caught some lens fungus spores somewhere in the tropics or if the first lens infected passed the spores to the other lenses. After that i bought a dry cabinet for my cameras but thats not feasible for travelling but the A/C is basically the same.

For a new trip in the tropics i probably would take my Q2 and the SL2 with only the macro lens, or only the Q2.

However, don't overthink it, there a zillions of photos shot in the tropics, just protect your camera from the rain and let her dry as soon you are back in your room.

Chris

 

 

Edited 14 hours ago by PhotoCruiser

[PeLu]

36 minutes ago, PhotoCruiser said:

I did and will not expose any of my cameras to rain as i see absolutely no reason to do so.
The Q2 is weather sealed but not water/dustproof and if you search you find some users here who damaged their Q2 by rain or dust.
There are several solutions to protect cameras from the elements, a umbrella and a waterproof bag, EWA-Marine plastic bag for snorkling or rain caps, a scuba dive housing. Buy a waterproof backpack or messenger bag to store the camera when you are walking around, you find many when searching on Amazon for example.
Air humidity is not really a issue for the Q2 and if you don't change lenses nor for the M11. As soon you are back in the accommodation take your gear out of the bag, dry it if necessary and leave it on a table with A/C on to dry it. If i changed lens under very humid conditions then i would leave the body without attached lens with opening downwards to dry also the sensor cavity.

Use A/C on dry if available, if not the don't cool your room below approx 24°C/75°F as the considerable colder gear will get covered by condensation as soon you get outside. Option would be to switch off A/C in the middle of the night to allow camera to warm up to avoid condensation.

I lived and worked for 14 years half year in Costa Rica and had all my cameras with me, compacts for scuba diving and D90/D7000/D800 and had no other problems than all lenses got infected with lens fungus. Not really sure if the lenses caught some lens fungus spores somewhere in the tropics or if the first lens infected passed the spores to the other lenses. After that i bought a dry cabinet for my cameras but thats not feasible for travelling but the A/C is basically the same.

For a new trip in the tropics i probably would take my Q2 and the SL2 with only the macro lens, or only the Q2.

However, don't overthink it, there a zillions of photos shot in the tropics, just protect your camera from the rain and let her dry as soon you are back in your room.

Chris

 

 

Super, thank you! I have been using sealed Canons with sealed L-lenses (of course not bullet proof either) previously so I’m a bit more conscious about weather now with my Leica. This after reading posts about sensor corrosion, non weather sealing and so forth.

I certainly plan to bring some weather protection. God advise to make sure not to get condensation after to much AC in the room. Thanks for that. Very useful!
 

I guess one additional solution could be to put the camera in an airtight zip-bag when going out until it’s warm enough?  

[PhotoCruiser]

vor 7 Stunden schrieb PeLu:

I guess one additional solution could be to put the camera in an airtight zip-bag when going out until it’s warm enough?  

Not sure if that is a good idea.
I sleep in summer at around 23°C and thats ok for not creating condensation, however that depends on humidity and it's called Dew Point and you find tables to see when it would occur. But i know that others sleep at 18°C and if camera has same temp condensation ill happen at considerable lower humidity at a give outside temperature. I expect that the camera warms up enough while you take a shower and have breakfast.
The main problem with that is in underwater photography where the camera heats up on the boat or when switched on and the humidity inside the housing condenses and fogs the cooler glass dome. The PITA is that you realize it when you are back in the boat as the light fog is not easy to see thru the viewfinder/EVF and then one realize that the awesome photos he thought are actually looking like David Hamilton would had shot them. Thats a common problem on action cameras inside a closed/dive housing if the left recording all the time. Same fogging could happen on the lens on the exposed front element what is obiously not good.
The good thing of A/C is that the air is drier than normal so the air in the room will "fill" the camera if lens is off with drier than outside air.

However, don't overthink it, i was in many tropical places on the beach or on boats with my D800 rig and did not have problems with, or without A/C
But i had problems with fogging many times till i figured out how to avoid fogging on my aluminum dive housings or the action cams.
This leads me to give you another hint what does matters for cameras inside a housing, however it's a good habit on non housed cameras as well.
Avoid to leave your cameras for a longer time exposed to the sun when not in use as she will heat up very fast, on the boats i had a bag and the housing with camera was wrapped in a fluffy towel to protect her from heating up.

Chris

 

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