Internal lens fogging up when breathing

[Suzie71]

Hi, just wondering if anyone can help me please. I have just purchased a new camera and tonight when I have tried to photograph inside my internal camera lens has fogged up while I have been focusing and obviously breathing. It is not the viewfinder or the external lens that the cap goes over but the internal lens and when I remove it from the camera it is obvious to see. I tried with a different lens attached and the same thing is happening? Please can anyone help?

kind regards


Suzie71

[Suzie71]

Hi, no it was not outside, but it was in a colder room in the house.

[ricktas]

the internal lens should not fog up due to breathing, the camera should be reasonably sealed, it may not be waterproof, but it has to be a light proof box, so you should not experience internals fogging up due to breath. What camera?

As said above, moving a camera from one place to another where it is warm and then cold, or cold then warm can cause this. Breathing should only fog up the rear viewfinder if you breath close to, or on it.

[arthurking83]

This is strange.
Normally fogging will occur, but at quite massive temperature changes ...... usually from cold to hot, but not limited too that temperature shift.

The other week, I was at the gardens, where outside was about 10° and inside the glasshouse it was more like 30° and 99% humidity too ... all clear panels on the camera were fogged up within seconds, and condensation then was easily noticeable on the camera body too.
A quick step back outside into the cold had everything clear up almost instantly .. except the actual condensation on the metal and rubber body ... all clear/glass bits instantly cleared up tho .. LCD screens and lens elements.

The temperature shift was in the order of 20 odd degrees, and most people struggled with that temp shift both into and then out of the greenhouse.
One thing I did make sure of tho(with a new lens) was that none of the internal lens elements had fogged up during the excursion.
As far as I could tell, all internal lens elements were fine. I reckon it took about 5 minutes of waiting wiping .. waiting .. etc, etc.... before I could take any images(of non totally fogged nothingness) before I rattled off 6 images in succession .. and of those six, three ended up being fogged up anyhow!

I really don't know how to assist you with your internally fogging lens, and you said that you have also tried another lens with the same results.
I think that realistically ... time is your only hope. You simply need to acclimatise the camera/lens to the warmer conditions for some time prior to needing the camera/lens operational.

In my situation the other week, no amount of wiping the lens would stop the fogging from happening during the 10-15mins or so that we were in there. Wiping the lens down did seem to slow the process(but not by much) .. as I said, I reckon I had about 10sec from when the front lens element was 'cleaned' to get any shot before the lens was fogged up again.

[Suzie71]

Hi, thanks to all for your replies, I will just monitor it over the next few weeks and see if it continues to occur. The camera is a Nikon D5200 and only a month or so old.

[ricktas]

I also wonder if it is not the inside of the lens, but the mirror or the focus-screen that is fogging up, when it happens, take the lens off and see if the back element is foggy, if not, try again, and this time when you notice it is foggy, quickly remove the lens and then look through the viewfinder, and see if it still foggy. It could be the mirror, focus-screen or viewfinder that is fogging up