Re: Fungus

[N S Ng <nsnga@pacific.net.sg>]

Clicio Barroso wrote:
> 
> Hi All
> 
> This will sound pretty stupid, but considering I live in hot, humid
> Brazil, is there a *sure* way to avoid fungus in my (expensive) lenses?
> All my experiences seem to fail (been trying many different methods for
> the past 20 years...)
> Cheers, Clicio
> 
>             Best Links to photography sites at:
>             -------------------------------------
>                   http://www.clicio.com.br
> 
>             The Latent Image: don't miss it!
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> 
> 

Hi Clicio,

I think your climatic conditions must be very similar to where I live,
Singapore. The average relative humidity is about 80% plus all year
round and of course we have many rainy days. It's the high humidity
which causes fungus growth. Unfortunately, the hot climate aggravates
the problem. In these conditions, if you were to leave your lenses,
cameras,slides etc. in dark storage in a bag or cabinet, fungus will
develop within 2-3 months. Just for your information, I even have many
computer diskettes ruined by fungus after leaving them unused for a few
months. I have been using clear acrylic "air tight" boxes for storing
photographic equipment with bags of silica gel to keep my equipment dry.
But I find this troublesome as I have to heat up these silica gel every
2-3 months once they turned pink. No, these boxes are not 100% air
tight.

In the end I decided to purchase a dry cabinet which has is electrically
controlled. It is Japanese made and I can adjust the humidity to as low
as 30%. No, it does not use a heater to remove the moisture and I do not
have details on its working mechanism. But my hygrometer indicates I
have adjusted the humidity level to about 40%. Many photographers in
Singapore have purchased these types of cabinets to store their valuable
equipment and slides.

According to the manual which came with the cabinet, fungus will not
develop if the relative humidity is below 50%. It is surprising how many
places around the world have humidities above this value. Therefore,
when I am not using my cameras and lenses I keep them in the cabinet. 


Regards,

N.S. Ng