I am looking for tips and tricks how to store my lens collection at home when I am not shooting.
I just keep them in a bag or a drawer under my table, with both caps on. Nothing fancy. I was thinking about adding some moisture absorbers, but I didn’t get any yet. I might put some in my travel bag just for a good measure…
There are dry-boxes too, but unless you live in a warm place with high humidity (about 85% or more), then I wouldn’t bother with that.
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I use a dry cabinet. I live in a humid, hot tropical place.
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I use a camera cube from peak design. That is when I store it when I sure I am not shooting for the coming couple days. Else is it is on a shelve in a closed cabinet, ready to go.
I use silica gel packets. I have lots of them in my backpack, and I replace them regularly. I know this isn’t as effective as a sealed box, but I try to compensate with quantity. I keep the ones that are included with packages, and i supplement with these. You can recharge the packets by spreading them on a cookie sheet and heating them in the oven at 225° F (~110° C) for two hours. And if you ever need to absorb the moisture from an incident, they are far more effective than rice.
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Using vanguard cases with dividers and silica gel pouches which I bake in the oven from time to time when the indicator color says so. But in Germany I think those are not so important. Depending on what you do of course.
All the fancy youtubere either have foam cut outs in a drawer or are 3d printing stuff to hold.
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I have them in an tight box with silica gel. But to be honest, I have no idea if this is actually useful or if I’m overcautious. I don’t live in an especially humidity region but I often dry laundry in the flat, so I thought I’m better save than sorry.
When doing this, one should be careful, though, to not use too much silica, as too dry environments might also not be so good for the lenses.
Hi,
The air is quite dry in my home, and even more so in my study, which is full of books.
I keep them in a small wooden display cabinet.
For a very long time now, on the advice of a professional photographer, I’ve been placing them with the mount facing outwards. According to him, this prevents oil from dripping onto the lenses.
I’ve never checked whether this is true.
I just leave them on the shelf, home humidity ranges from 30-70%, I am not sure if this is harmful long term to the lenses? So far no fungal problem, my most used lens, the XF70-300 does have some dust under the main element but it has been worked a lot outside in all kinds of weather and I am not worried about IQ.
I have a problem where if something is stored, I sort of forget I even have it, so I don’t reach for it. This way they are always visible and in my line of sight
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Wow! I wouldn’t have thought of that! Unfortunately, the Zeiss page no longer seems to exist. I found the following dead link on DPReview Forums:
https://www.zeiss.com/camera-lenses/int/service/content/fungus-on-lenses.html
I also never knew this! My dry cabinet is set to 35%
I’m also not sure how serious it really is. Back when I looked into it, the (now gone) Zeiss page was the only information I could find and from what I remember, it was not very specific as to why low humidity is an issue. Then I asked on stackexchange (the one linked above) and the only answer I got was also just based on that one article.
That Zeiss page is still available on archive.org: Fungus on Lenses | ZEISS Service Information
I store all my lenses and handheld cameras in dry cabinets, except for an old D100 that has gooey grips and is quarantined in a plastic shoe box.
The humidity controllers in my cabinets read a little high compared to a separate hygrometer, so I set each controller to maintain the humidity at a little less than 40% as indicated by the hygrometer (each cabinet has its own hygrometer). The difference is not that much, less than 10 percentage points.
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