Re: gear in rainforest?

[Kari Eloranta <eloranta@lammio.hut.fi>]

Thanks for the people that commented on the subject.

Forgot to ask though the specific question of whether condensation  
to the M-Leica rangefinder housing requires special attention.

Got some taste of humid environment a while ago at the Nile falls  
at Tis Abay. Down at the bottom you get totally soaked from the  
vapor in about one minute. Ordinary rainwear does no good there as  
the moist attacks you from all around. Requires some ingenuity to  
take a shot there. It takes no more than a few seconds before the  
front element fogs up but some shots are still doable. Just have to  
do all the preparation, framing, adjustment etc. blindly and then  
flip the bag and the cap off momentarily. It was good for testing  
the short time water resistance of my bags. Extended time in  
rainforest is obviously different. In particular silica gel is  
completely useless as it saturates quickly (as rigorous testing in a  
bathroom shows...;-) ).

As Duane Birkey pointed out zip-lock bags can be water traps as  
well i.e. using them requires extra attention.

Regards,

Kari Eloranta