Those of you who have lived in Darwin, New Guinea, Singapore, or Hong Kong will know what I mean when I say that humidity is not a friend to either your wardrobe or your camera equipment. It might be warm and romantic, but it grows fungus like crazy. You eventually end up taking pictures through the bottom of a petri dish...
We see it in lenses and camera bodies that have been in these climes - see it on the surfaces of lenses and smell it in the mustiness of the equipment. It is bad news, ruining the coatings on optical surfaces and rendering the lenses useless as far as definition or contrast. Getting rid of it once it has attacked the lenses is sometimes not possible - even if they can be cleaned the cost is considerable.
Well, what to do? Stay away from the naked tropics is one answer. So far it has worked for me - my one trip to Singapore was spent in the dehumidified air conditioning of cocktail bars. I can thoroughly recommend the idea, but it played hell with the liver.
B+W, the German filter makers, have come up with a sober solution. They have put out a device called UV-Pro for Nikon, Canon, and Sony shooters who have DSLR or mirror-less cameras. It generates UV light that kills the fungus spores and prevents the development in the first place.
The component that does this is a special UV-LED. It is powered from a USB port and mounted in a detachable housing. The housing itself is held in a Nikon, Canon, or Sony adapter by magnets.
The adapter is darned clever - one end is for the lens mount and the other lets the adapter clip onto the camera body. Apparently fungus can also get onto the surfaces of glass associated with the sensors of the cameras - they need an occasional zapping as well.
It must be powerful medicine - there is a warning sign on the LED unit itself not to look directly at the light.
The price of the unit is well under the $ 200 mark and at that is a bargain for the tropical photographer. We might mention that Camera Electronic has supplied especial drying cabinets for this same problem - the Legend cabinets come in a large range of sizes and facilities - both these and the new B+W UV Pro should be worth their price in protection - and for classic lenses they may be the only way to preserve them for the collector.
In-store now. Be sure to check out our on-line store as well for tis an other fine B+W filter products.
