Help Needed

[canonrt]

OK, I ran into this situation & was wondering if anybody had any ideas!
I was on vacation, it was a very hot/humid day. I sat my Canon 50D with its 28-135 lens on the night stand when we got to our motel room. The room was freezing cold & stayed that way. 3 hours later I go to take some sunset photos & forget it! Everything fogged up, the viewfinder & the entire lens!
Would this have happened if I left the camera in the camera bag?
Should I have left the camera in the car?
I never had this problem with my point & shoot!
I was just glad that it wasn’t a scheduled shoot, I would have been out of luck!
I will definitely keep my point and shoot with me as back up from now on, it would still be better than nothing!
How do I prevent this from happening again?
Is there a fast fix in the event that it does?
Thanx for your help & ideas in advance!

[lputman]

I have certainly heard of ht is happening. You might have done better to leave it in the bag. That always happens with my eye glasses under the right conditions, I can't stand it.

[Enrique Gonzalez]

Canonrt
That happended to me long ago when living in Canada, and shooting outdoors in winter!
To avoid fogging the lens, I used to store my camera within a plastic bag. That way, the condensation (cold air over a warm surface or the opposite) ocurred on the plastic and not on the lens. But before taking the camera out of the plastic bag, wait a minute for the lens to adapt to the outside temperature.
And of course, keep your camera close to your body, covered by your jacket, and carry an extra battery...

[Chip]

I've had a similar problem: I've been outside, with my camera in my bag, and within 5 seconds after taking the camera out, the lens fogged up.

I think it has to do with the lens being sudenly placed in a more humid (or just different) environment. In your hotel rooom, the AC likely did a great job dehumidifying the room, and my camera bad was likely less humid than the outside air.

But after a few minutes, the lens should adjust to the new environment and the fogginess should go away.

Only way I know of to prevent this is, for at least a few minutes before you need to take a photo, have the lens in as close to the same environment as it will be when you're taking the photos.

I don't know of a way to get the fog off once it starts condensing on the lens. Patience is my only solution.

[milosh]

The problem you are talking about is condensation, which happens because of the difference in temperature. In your case, the camera and the body were cooled down and when the warm air outside came in touch with these cold surfaces, the moisture from the air condensed. It the same thing that happens when you blow air from your mouth onto a cold window glass. The solution is to wait for the temperatures to normalize and the condensation to disappear. If you left your camera in the bag, maybe it would help, maybe it wouldn't. If the whole bag and it contents was cooled down so much, it would happen again. But a bag certainly helps to keep the camera protected from sudden temp. changes.