Moisture in my Raynox lens. Suggestions?

Have questions about the equipment used for macro- or micro- photography? Post those questions in this forum.

Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau

MarkSturtevant
Posts: 1946
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2015 6:52 pm
Location: Michigan, U.S.A.
Contact:

Moisture in my Raynox lens. Suggestions?

Post by MarkSturtevant »

I did a dumb thing by getting wet in the field (lying down in a fen to take pictures of pitcher plants. You would have done the same thing!), but I forgot to put aside one of my Raynox lenses. Now there is condensation between the glass. This is btw the Raynox 150. I also have a Raynox 250 (and that's the one I use 99% of the time now). So the possible loss of the 150 is tolerable.
Anyway, I've kept it under a warm light and its had little effect. I am thinking of trying to open the housing to separate and clean the glass, then epoxy the housing together. There are no screws or design features in the housing to open it up, but I do have Dremel cutting tools that I think can slice into anything except really hard metal. I think the housing is mostly very hard plastic (not sure). If this fails, as I said no real big deal. But I thought to ask the folks here if they have suggestions before I start. Here are pictures.
Raynox1.jpg
Attachments
Raynox2.jpg
Mark Sturtevant
Dept. of Still Waters

rjlittlefield
Site Admin
Posts: 23564
Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:34 am
Location: Richland, Washington State, USA
Contact:

Re: Moisture in my Raynox lens. Suggestions?

Post by rjlittlefield »

How about drilling a vent hole through the side, then putting the lens in a sealed container with dry silica gel for a while?

--Rik

MarkSturtevant
Posts: 1946
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2015 6:52 pm
Location: Michigan, U.S.A.
Contact:

Re: Moisture in my Raynox lens. Suggestions?

Post by MarkSturtevant »

I've thought of that. But under the circumstances, with the source of water that got into it, I think there is a good chance I'm going to get mold unless I crack it open and clean completely.
Mark Sturtevant
Dept. of Still Waters

Macro_Cosmos
Posts: 1511
Joined: Mon Jan 15, 2018 9:23 pm
Contact:

Re: Moisture in my Raynox lens. Suggestions?

Post by Macro_Cosmos »

Try putting a bag of pennies in the oven to heat them up, then put the pennies and this lens together in a tupperware box.

MarkSturtevant
Posts: 1946
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2015 6:52 pm
Location: Michigan, U.S.A.
Contact:

Re: Moisture in my Raynox lens. Suggestions?

Post by MarkSturtevant »

I could just put the lens in a very warm space, right? Not sure what the pennies are for. Maybe the idea of drilling into the side to open up things a bit more for forced evaporation is worth a try. But I would be surprised if its pure water. Most likely lake water, and even after evaporation I can get mold.
Mark Sturtevant
Dept. of Still Waters

chris_ma
Posts: 570
Joined: Fri Mar 22, 2019 2:23 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Moisture in my Raynox lens. Suggestions?

Post by chris_ma »

If it condensed water (ie pure water) then just putting it on a heater radiator for a couple of days could help a lot. I got rid of water droplets in an expensive big zoom lens this way.

If it‘s dirty water then you‘d have to dismantle the lens and clean the lens elements, chances are that it wont perform the same after assambly unless you‘re a trained lens technician.

One thing which might be worth a try is to immerse it in pure alcohol (Isopropyl?) and hope the dirt dissolves into the alcohol and so that after draining and drying stays clean. This is risky though and I’ve never attempted this myself.
chris

Scarodactyl
Posts: 1619
Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2018 10:26 am

Re: Moisture in my Raynox lens. Suggestions?

Post by Scarodactyl »

I would try using a proper dessicant first and go from there. It got in, it has to be able to get out too.

Lou Jost
Posts: 5948
Joined: Fri Sep 04, 2015 7:03 am
Location: Ecuador
Contact:

Re: Moisture in my Raynox lens. Suggestions?

Post by Lou Jost »

The standard trick that tropical biologists use is to put it in a bag with very dry rice, and seal it.

MarkSturtevant
Posts: 1946
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2015 6:52 pm
Location: Michigan, U.S.A.
Contact:

Re: Moisture in my Raynox lens. Suggestions?

Post by MarkSturtevant »

These are helpful. I can try to expose the side glass a bit to increase the rate of evaporation, and then apply dry heat. The wife also just handed me a bunch of desiccant pouches that she collects from pill bottles (Why does she collect this? I dunno, but she's a treasure).
Mark Sturtevant
Dept. of Still Waters

Scarodactyl
Posts: 1619
Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2018 10:26 am

Re: Moisture in my Raynox lens. Suggestions?

Post by Scarodactyl »

Drierite is only like 20 dollars for a pound.

Lou Jost
Posts: 5948
Joined: Fri Sep 04, 2015 7:03 am
Location: Ecuador
Contact:

Re: Moisture in my Raynox lens. Suggestions?

Post by Lou Jost »

Those dessicant pouches are jokes, they saturate almost immediately unless the package is airtight (that's why dessicant with indicator dyes are so useful--you can tell when the dessicant is useless). You will have to heat them gently for along time (if they are silica) before you can use them again.

lothman
Posts: 959
Joined: Sat Feb 14, 2009 7:00 am
Location: Stuttgart/Germany

Re: Moisture in my Raynox lens. Suggestions?

Post by lothman »

you could rinse it in pure alcohole in order to dillute/wash off the dirt water. But for such a lens that might not be worth the effort.

I just finished a tube setup for the Mitutoyo lenses I have and was thinking off cutting out the dcr-150 lens in order to insert it in a custom setup without the need of adapter rings. But your pics suggest that they will fall apart when cut open and then are no longer adjusted to each other. So thanks of saving me from this experience!

rjlittlefield
Site Admin
Posts: 23564
Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:34 am
Location: Richland, Washington State, USA
Contact:

Re: Moisture in my Raynox lens. Suggestions?

Post by rjlittlefield »

lothman wrote:
Sun Sep 06, 2020 1:27 pm
I just finished a tube setup for the Mitutoyo lenses I have and was thinking off cutting out the dcr-150 lens in order to insert it in a custom setup without the need of adapter rings. But your pics suggest that they will fall apart when cut open and then are no longer adjusted to each other. So thanks of saving me from this experience!
What you want may be doable. It depends on how far you want to cut the housing.

See viewtopic.php?p=186594#p186594 and my post two up from that, for some more information about inner structure of the Raynox DCR-250. I'm guessing that the DCR-150 is the same.

--Rik

grgh
Posts: 372
Joined: Sat Mar 09, 2013 4:55 am
Location: Lancashire. UK

Re: Moisture in my Raynox lens. Suggestions?

Post by grgh »

To reiterate Lou Jost posting..The standard trick that tropical biologists use is to put it in a bag with very dry rice, and seal it.

try this first, just leave for a few days.
used to do astronomy.
and photography.
Zeiss Universal Phase contrast.
Zeiss PMII
B&L stereo zoom.

Ichthyophthirius
Posts: 1152
Joined: Thu Mar 07, 2013 5:24 am

Re: Moisture in my Raynox lens. Suggestions?

Post by Ichthyophthirius »

Dessicant + time!

A few weeks in dry rice or fresh silica gel at moderate temperatures (20C or below, even in an airtight container in the fridge, so you don't encourage mold).

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic