Hi.
After weeks of waiting for stable-ish sunlight, I rushed outside and took some pictures. The first ones came out OK, but then (when I started trying portrait orientation rather than landscape?) I started getting blurry results. I stopped my session in a panic, came back into the house, and it kept getting worse up to the point when AF could not even work and the camera refused to take pictures outside of MF mode. Here i a progression from left to right (with crops). The last picture (nearly uncropped) is supposed to be the kitchen:
Full thumbnails, showing a degradation that starts at the portrait-orientation attempt:
- The temperature difference was not that big between my (arguably wet-aired) bedroom and outside: 17–19 °C → 18–21 °C, roughly.
- I laid down under a tree, and there was dew on the vegetation at its foot, sure, but I personally was on non-vegetal ground, on a gym mat specially laid out for the occasion.
I therefore suspect the main culprit is the fact that, when I shoot, I put so much pressure on myself (so to speak) that I open the mouth and mostly breath through it rather than through my nose. I dunno, it helps me concentrate I guess?
I was using the viewfinder, so all the fog from my mouth was crashing directly into the camera – it quickly became apparent on the screen itself, but I thought it would stop there so I did not panic at this point. I suspect that this, combined with the portrait orientation, allowed the moisture to enter from god knows where. The battery-slot side was up, though, so on the opposite side of where my mouth was, so I’m surprised as I thought this area was the most sensible one in such matters.
- Shouldn’t a nearly-brand-new Canon R6m2 be sealed well enough to prevent this, though?
- Am I the only idiot who breathes like that while shooting? And do you think, too, that this breathing is indeed the core of the issue?
- Speaking of being an idiot: in my panic, I removed the lens for a couple of seconds, to check whether condensation was indeed the issue. I saw nothing on the external end of the lens, but indeed there’s a round watery area here:
… but atfer this I read everywhere on the web that in such cases it was really important not to remove the lens 
to avoid propagation. I hope that my very quick check will not cause too many issues later on…
For now I locked the camera in a zip-lock plastic food bag thingy, with a bunch of silica gel bags (but many of those are old and maybe not as potent as they used to be). I removed battery and card and left the corresponding compartments open. I’m not trying to force the bag to warm up or anything for fear of making things worse; it’s just resting on a sofa. I guess I’ll have a look tomorrow. In the meantime, any piece of additional advice is welcome.
(I refrain from pouring uncooked rice in the bag because rice dust would probably get into the card slots and whatnot.)
I’m freaking out a bit 
because:
- it looked more severe than most examples I saw on the web;
- it happened really fast and in conditions that I would have deemed normal enough before this event;
- I removed the lens for a couple of seconds;
- that camera cost me an arm;
- it happened on the inner side rather than at the tip, which seems less common.
bought at the same time as the camera, about two months ago. The only times the rear was exposed were when I plugged the lens in after the purchase, and today when looking for condensation.
I’ll conduct better tests tomorrow when the sun is back out (if it deigns coming out at some point). As for long-term damage, well, obviously, only time will tell.
I never experienced this with my old compact camera because the viewfinder was so poor that I always shot by looking at the screen, thus breathing from a greater distance.
