Silca-gel For Underwater Housing?

[San_Belgium]

Hi!

Does anybody know where in bangkok, or lets say in Thailand, one can buy silca-gel to put in the underwater housing of the camera to prevent fogging?

-or another product or trick that could help?

Only place to get silca-gel I know is the pharmacy, where they will take it out of boxes of medicine.

It would be better to buy new silca-gel I suppose.

I use an ikelite underwater housing for underwater pictures with the nikon coolpix 7900 digital camera.

It works great but I had trouble with the lens fogging after a while, and thus producing blurry pictures.

the housing is quite big compared to the camera, so a lot of air is trapped in the housing that can produce fog in the colder water.

I tried a few things: keeping the camera and housing opened in an airconditioned room for a few hours, then closing it in the room and not opening it again until after the dive, so the dry air is inside the housing. This worked quite well, considerably less fogging, but its not always possible.

As soon as I have to change the battery for example, I have to open and close the housing again, and on a diveboat without airco it means guaranteed fogging of the lens the next dive.

I tried with silca-gel from the pharmacy, it seemed to have some effect, but i think new silca-gel would be better.

So if anybody knows where to buy this in bangkok...

Other tips are welcome too!

regards,

San

[skippybangkok]

in MBK there is a Nikon shop on 2nd or 3rd floor which sells big packets for about 25 baht each. Quite frankly, I dont think thats your problem, although the gel might help. Generally keep your camera in the dip tank when ur not fiddling with it to keep it the same temperature as the water ( and other reasons too ).

I have full metal housing, which is different, but the plastic on the ikellites might work as a heat sink taking time to adjust.

Been taking pics for years, and cannot remember once where i have encountered fog.

Recon storing in dip tank will be your best bet

[smartecosse]

the problem is magnified when using digital rather than film camera's is housing due to the extra heat caused. Its normal to find it fogging towards the end of the dive rather than thge begining.

Most of the dive shops that sell cameras sell the gel packets.

I'm in Phuket so can't reel off a name in bangkok but if you google sea and sea camera's for an agent in bangkok they camn order the packs as a standard "spare" parts for the sea and sea range

[kratindaeng]

Does anybody know where in bangkok, or lets say in Thailand, one can buy silca-gel to put in the underwater housing

I did have to read this post title twice, I thought that you were maybe planning to build an underwater deep sea 5 bedroom mansion, including sexy thai mermaids and a garage for the Jetski.

Apologies, Its been a long day....

KD

[skippybangkok]

the problem is magnified when using digital rather than film camera's is housing due to the extra heat caused. Its normal to find it fogging towards the end of the dive rather than thge begining.

Strange.... have shot both, and never ever once had this issue. Must admit that my housings are metal, so I am not experienced on the Ikelite type.

Generally I always keep the camera in the dip tank, prevents salt drying on it, and if over heated, it may cause some air to purge, creating suction when cooling off in tank.

Although I dont doubt gel will not help, I still think dipping the camera long before a dive will resolve this issue. From an engineering perspective, I would be surprised if the heat of the camera (is SLR) would be so great that the housing could not dissipate it ( maybe video which is on full time might be an impact).

[smartecosse]

digital cameras with screens on constantly and with the flash going off in a small housing go generate quite a bit of heat.

the silica gel normally solves the problem for all but the most trigger happy