Re: [Paddlewise] RFI Opinion on waterproof camera

> Not a lens or camera expert, but I would be leery of any of the
materials
> designed to "shed" water off windhsields (such as "Rain-X,"
etc.).  The
> coatings of lenses are specially made to minimize glare.  Other
stuff on top of
> the anti-glare coatings is likely to make your pictures
inferior.
>
The Rain-X type products are mostly silicone oils that form a
film on the glass and function by not letting water wet the
surface of the glass.  The hydrophobic silicone oil film makes
the water bead up on the windshield, and the 'wind' generated by
the car moving through the air push the water droplets off the
windshield.  I wonder if the silicone oils might affect or
solvate lens coatings on optical lenses, as these products are
designed to be used on automobile windshields which usually don't
have any coatings on them.


> OTOH, I can endorse the chamois method -- have used this with
satisfaction for
> a couple years now (on an Olympus WR-90).  Like Erik Sprenne's
"wiper" method,
> the chamois minimizes damage to the coating.  I was impressed
with Erik's **10
> years** of wiping, with minimal damage to the lens coating.
>
The 10 + years of wiping *has* worn off some of the coating, but
it doesn't seem to affect the quality of the pictures as much as
the presence of a water droplet on the lens.

In taking a closer look at my camera (a Nikon AF  "Action
Touch" - waterproof to 3 m/10 ft), what I'm calling the lens is
really a flat piece of optical glass that forms an outer housing
for the real lens.  The real camera lens (35 mm, f2.8) is 15 mm
in diameter, and the outer flat glass is 40 mm in diameter.  I'm
guessing that the coating on the outer flat glass is probably an
anti-reflective or anti-glare coating and its removal is not
critical to the operation of the camera - unless the camera is
being pointed towards the sun.

Using a chamois might be a more lens-friendly means of removing
water droplets from a lens, but like Gabriel, I like to be able
to take photos on the spur of the moment and without a lot of
futzing, and the micro-squeegee is for me the quickest means of
removing water droplets that would otherwise result in blurry
spots in photographs.


Erik Sprenne


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