Lens on Life · Guide
Anywhere

Lens fogged up

Durban's trick: a cold camera taken out into warm humid air fogs solid for fifteen minutes — usually during the best light of the day.

18-150No filterHood on
Mode
Av
Focus

Do this

  1. Prevention: the night before an early shoot, leave the camera bag closed on the balcony or in the bathroom, not in the air-conditioned bedroom. The camera warms to outside temperature overnight.
  2. If it fogs: don't wipe it repeatedly — you'll scratch the glass and it fogs again anyway. Take the lens cap off, keep it in the shade, and wait. Ten to twenty minutes.
  3. A ziplock bag helps: seal the camera in it before the temperature change and let it warm up inside the bag.
  4. Sweden is the reverse: a cold camera brought into a warm room fogs. Same fix — bag it before you come in, leave it to warm.

If it goes wrong

Fog inside the lens, not on the front
Same cause; takes longer. Warm, dry place, cap off, patience.