Hi all,
Yesterday I was out flying after a short time there was light rain so I pressed RTH and packed up for the day.
Today I was changing the settings the drone was on the table switched on for 15 min’s I noticed the picture was foggy when I looked at the camera the centre of the lens inside was misted up.
I have placed it in a plastic box with a bed of rice it can stop there for a few days as the weather is going to be poor.
Is there a better method than this I have some drying bags in my car?
Hi the last thing you do is bag up any camera when it’s wet it needs to be acclimatized to the atmosphere it’s in, or you get what you got a foggy lens, which can leave water marks on the inside depending on the severity of the fogging if my Mavic Pro gets damp I leave it in the car on the seat with the heating on low but saying that I have never had any problems, don’t know if it because I use filters on the front or I’m just lucky
The Mavic Pro pulls a lot of air in, from the front to the back of the drone when flying, to cool the electronics down, and by the sounds of it, you may have pulled a little moisture in with it.
I would put the drone in a dry place, remove the gimbal protective acrylic dome and gimbal transport “wedge”, then power up the drone for a few minutes, as if ready to take off.
When you put it back in the bag or case, put a couple of silica bags in with the drone.
Most electronics suffer from condensation when taken from a cold environment to a warm place, so leaving them to acclimatise for 30mins before powering them up is always a good idea.
DJI recommend you don’t fly with the protective dome in place as the drone will overheat.
I can’t remember, but on most of the Mavic series drones the front of the camera is removable to allow the fitting of ND filters - I’ll have to dig my Mavic Pro out to check.
There is the possibility that your 3mm patch is just between the camera proper, and the removable front glass.
This is grate news, I put it in a warm place 30Deg for 3 hours then in a plastic box with 2 silica gel bags overnight so hears hoping, thanks @Wintermute
virtually every camera lens will fog up when the unit is cold and it’s taken into a warmer environment, it’s just atmospheric condensation. As others have said just put it on a table indoors and allow air to move freely around it - it should acclimatise fairly quickly.
Look’s like the fog has gone, I placed two Silica Gel bags in a tudelwhere box with the Mavic Pro on top of them sealed the lid and left it alone for two days, I hovered it in the house for 20 min’s pictures were clear after I looked at the lens it was clear, flying tomorrow hoping it’s fixed. I will be storing it in the box when at home in the future.
Glad the fogging has gone, but there really isn’t any need to store it in a box. I’ve flown both my drones in light rain and through mist, in and around waterfalls. They always come back a little damp. When returning to the car they get put on the floorwell and the heating fans get turned on in that direction for the drive home. Once home they just get left sitting out on the table, battery and gimble cover removed. As has been mentioned above, when taking any of my camera gear out of the bag and into a cold environment, the lenses always fog up for a few minutes but it soon disappears and nothing to worry about. I do agree with the silica gel however, I always keep a couple in the camera bag.
Thank’s for the input I will dry it out in the car on the way home and air it at home in future, if it comes back a day in the box will clear it! a lot of good help in this forum! Thanks
Something I have noticed generally with all my camera lenses is that, due to a combination of work being slow this year and thus my camera kit sitting unused for longer periods between jobs, and my reluctance to put the heating on (because I’m tight) my kit is being subject to more damp air than usual - a couple of lenses have developed tiny fungus spores on the glass, one is only 2 years old. They live in a metal cabinet in the house, in a spare room that’s typically 12-15 degrees C.
So now, after careful cleaning and airing, each lens is sealed in a bag with silica gel bags, plus every shelf now has a couple of damp-catcher dehumidifier bags - they’re not cheap but they remove a LOT of water from the air: Amazon.co.uk
It’s a short term solution until I can rethink my storage and it’s a lot cheaper than sending lenses off to be professionally cleaned. The dehumidifier bags may also be a good solution for larger camera / drone bags because of their ability to absorb so much moisture.
Silica gel is very good at removing moisture but it doesn’t last forever. You will need to regenerate the silica gel regularly to remove the moisture it absorbs - otherwise it becomes completely ineffective.
Try a Google search for methods to regenerate.
Something I have yet to try and build, is a lens UV exposure tray or box. The idea being to rotate all my lenses through the unit periodically, and expose them to UV light through 1 or both ends of the lens. At the moment I stick them on the windowsill for an hour or two with the lens caps off to let sunlight do the work.
Not sure how effective the modern UV LEDs are, but I don’t envisage anything too powerful being required to prevent spores building up.
