Humidity, air condtioning, digital cameras or camcorders and laptops

[Worldlife]

On my holiday to Cuba when my camcorder was not in use I had to leave it a safe in our room that was air-conditioned continuously.

At first the video side of the Sony camcorder would not work when taken from the room for use in the outside warm and humid conditions. The coded error message given on the screen when checked against the manual confirmed that there was indeed an internal condensation problem.

The alleged cure was to remove the tape and leave the camera open for an hour in working conditions. This failed to bring the camera back into recording mode and prerecorded camcorder tapes were showing banding that could only be due to condensation. These distortions could only be removed by lengthy cleaning on the tape.

The camcorder has a memory stick for 1 megapixel fine definition still shots and this was still usable provided warm up time was given between storage in air conditioning and working in warm humid conditions.

Eventually this facility deteriorated and the LCD screen itself was affected and the still images would not record.

Unfortunately I left my Minolta 4 Megapixel Digital Camera in the hotel games room and by the time I remembered I had left it there it had vanished - never to return. I did not get a chance to see how that would have survived temperature and humidity issues.

The bright side is that it looks as if my travel insurers will contribute to a replacement digital camera. Is Oldboy's Nikon still top of the pops? I did not like the the Minolta macro facility and Dave's close ups look pretty good. Saw a FinePix on the plane and the screen seemed to have a maximum brightness better than the Minolta - would prefer to use screen composition rather than viewfinder as it avoids the need to remove specs!

Interesting article on similar problems with computers Up the river with heat, humidity and computers

Ended up using back up 35mm camera. Anxiously await results to see if traditonal film is affected by condensation problems (of course we cleaned the condensation off the lens!)

Seems the camcorder is "getting better" after the return aircraft trip and acclimatisation in UK. Wondering if the recorded tapes we took with us (and want to keep) will all need lengthy "cleaning" or that problem will also be resolved.

[Worldlife]

Extract from another interesting article:-

Dew warning

Water also creates a major threat to videomaking in the form of condensation. In hot humid climates, in particular, condensation can cause a daily problem for camcorder users. When the condensation settles on the recording heads, the camcorder will automatically switch itself off - as otherwise the tape could be ripped apart by the increase in friction. Often the word 'Dew' will appear in the viewfinder. The camcorder will only start working again when the water has evaporated. The first sign of trouble will be a mist appearing in the viewfinder, as water condenses on the front element of the camera.

The problem most commonly manifests itself when you cart your camera from air-conditioned hotels to the sunny outdoors. The sudden change in humidity causes tiny droplets of water to form on any suitable surface. The same problem can also manifest itself closer to home, in a glasshouse, for instance.

The only real solution is to wait for the camcorder to acclimatise to the new conditions before shooting. This may mean planning to leave your cool hotel half an hour earlier each day, so that you can start shooting as soon as the rest of your family, or tour, is ready to leave.

Source = "What Digital Camera" - 'Braving the Elements'

[ormus55]

was reading the other day an article about the bbc filming in the jungle. (think it was the bbc).
they took 4 professional cameras. the presenter had her own cheapo camcorder.

all the pro cameras broke down. the cheapo one still worked!