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Silica Gel Desiccant

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Finner

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More a question for Chuck Colburn or Matthew Duclos but does anyone know if it is a good idea to put desiccants in lens cases or even body and hard drive cases?
 
ARRI recomends it for just about anything. ARRI makes a PL mount body cap with a little bottle of silica gell attached to it. The idea being, it's bad if moisture condenses between the sensor and the cover glass with extreme humidity/temp changes (d-20).

Moisture isn't good for most things filmic.

Nick
 
I think its a great idea. The way I see it, moisture traps can't hurt. I've seen quite a few cases come in with those little packets. They aren't going to help if your case is or lens is soaked (seen it several times.) but it will definately help prevent fungus or condensation stains. Especially if your lenses spend a lot of time in transit. The back of a Fedex truck can exceed 120 degrees, mixed with a little bit of moisture in the case, you have a potential problem...

All in all, its such a cheap investment that can potentially save your ars..
Why not use it?

Any more questions? Bring em on.
 
Purchased some of these online yesterday....

http://www.zorb-it.com/scripts/prodList.asp?idCategory=2

I don't know - they might be magic beans but I thought I'd try them anyway as they're not overly expensive and those little silica packs can get used up pretty quickly in high humidity climates. The Zorb-its claim to keep a constant humidity level and have an indefinite life...we shall see!

Anyone used these?
 
I put the aluminum, perforated, reusable variety in my cases. But you need to be careful because the two halves of the case are only press-fit together and sometimes they will come apart. Then you have 654,548,786 little Silica balls floating around your case. Not good.
I usually put them in a little nook where the gear won't bash them around too much.
I was thinking of putting them in little cotton bags, like the shoe-shine kit bags, that would let moisture in to be absorbed, but keep the silica in place in the event of a blow-out.
Cheers,
Harry
 
Thanks guys.

I thought it would be a good idea but had not seen it done before.
 
I bought a bulk container full of silica gel packets at Home Depot about a year ago. I could claim I was smart and did it for my camera gear, but no, it was for another purpose. Also these guys look like an easy resource: http://silicagelpackets.com
 
Just a tip.. All the desiccant in the world won't help your gear if it's submerged. ;)
This was a brand new Zeiss Ultra Prime that wen for a swim. No worries, it's fully functional again.
Picture%201.jpg
 
My dads a TV repairman and he's got an awesome set of tools... I can fix it...
 
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