I have a camera and 4 lenses and I just put them in my cabinet if I don't use it. I see other photographers especially on Youtube that they have this nice lighted glass cabinet especially for camera and I'm like "heh, it's just for aesthetic but me don't need that". Boy I was wrong. xD
It was until I saw some posts about their lenses getting some fungi inside. I'm like "eeewww what the hell did you do" but then I read it happened when they stored it in their camera bag or cabinet. The humidity in an uncontrolled environment and also the dark creates moisture which in turn gives the fungi a perfect place to thrive in. I got scared. And so I did some research on how to store these tools properly.
Most of the time you're lucky that the environment is just fine and no fungi develops. Some are pretty unlucky and lens cleaning is expensive and sometimes even irreversible. Of course if you have "The Last of Us" going on inside your lenses, the images would be blurry or something. xD In order to prevent these from happening, how you store it while not in use plays a very big role.
I did a few searches on the local marketplace and found some cheap alternatives. Some buy a dry box specifically for cameras with a hygrometer inside and some just DIY it with an airtight box and silica gel. It seems a bit complicated for me cos you have to manually replace the silica gels and even so you have to be precise with putting how much gels cos if you put too much then the box would be too dry, making the rubber rekt in result.
So I checked the prices for an automatic dry cabinet and surprisingly, the prices are okay.
So I got this Andbon AD-30s, an automatic dry cabinet for $67. With the costs of my camera and lenses, that price is really good than risking doing it DIY. So what it does is is automatically sets the humidity inside the cabinet and you don't have to do anything else pretty much. Just have it plugged in 24/7.
The cabinet is not that heavy but sturdy enough. It looks like a good quality for its price and big enough for my stuff. It has a tray with adjustable height. It also has a led strip inside for light, I'm not sure if it helps with preventing molds or just for aesthetic haha.
The height is fine by me so I didn't have to adjust it but it's always a nice option to have since some lenses can be really long.
For cameras, the optimal humidity is between 40-50% so I just set mine at 45%. Whenever the door is open, humidity changes but the cabinet just automatically adjusts it to 45% after the door is closed. :3
I checked my lenses and thankfully it didn't have any molds yet hahah even though I stored them for months. One lens is even stored for like 6 months without me touching it.
I was able to fit 1 mirrorless camera, 4 lenses, 1 speedlight, and 1 flash trigger. There's still a lot of room for something else so if I decide to buy another camera or lens (which is not likely to happen soon) they will still fit. :> I can probably put my lens cap or other accessories here too but I don't think I need them inside.
It's nice to be able to sleep and work peacefully without having to constantly check on my camera and lenses for maintenance. The dry cabinet is good not only for preventing molds but also for aging, rusting, and damage cos of moisture. Also it looks really nice and "professional" with it haha.
It's working good so far and I'm not sure how much amount it adds to my electricity bill but I don't think it would be much. We will see in the next few months. The cabinet is worth it for preventing damage to my expensive equipment that I have invested for myself and my work. <3
Wonderful i have never seen something like this before i need one for my phone and my computer. Thank you so much for seven have a good day 😄
If you use your gadgets too much maybe it's not needed anymore hihi
I have never seen one of those before, nor about camera lurgi. Interesting.
Yeah it's amazing how much we don't even think about these things until it actually happens to us lol
Good point well made!
I think that’s a pretty good deal.
I have these (surprisingly) but I never turned it on.
I was so young then so I don’t know much about humidity etc but luckily my camera was fine. IDK now I’m not with my cam anymore.
Because I never turned it on, I put my laptop inside too. 😂
It’s acting like my safe hahahaha
I got them for free by the way.
Yours is cool with an indicator on the humidity. I guess newer ones have this feature already.
There’s still room for more. 😏
Whaaat your cabinet is so big it fits a laptop?? haha why not just turn it on tho? 🤣 Nice you got it for free. Did you win it from a raffle :o
Yeah and they're also pretty cheap now compared to a few years back when they're a minimum of $200. 😱
Your laptop won't fit in it? Based on the photos, it seems that it's the same size as mine so I thought a laptop would fit in here. A 13" laptop I guess. I forgot the size of my old laptop. LOL
Yeaaah I got mine as a grand prize in a raffle.
There was a camera fair in a mall, then I didn't know they were having a raffle at that time so because I bought a tripod, I got this as a prize.
They were all rejoicing when I won but I had no idea what this was used for. LOL
Ah yeah, true, years back it's more expensive. The competition is high I guess. Lucky for photographers.
Yeah I have 16" and even so I don't think a 13" would fit haha it's too small for that XD Damn you got so lucky then! Why didn't you sell it if you didn't know what to do with it? lol
Oh really? In the photo, it seems big. Maybe my eyes are deceiving me. 😂
I thought it would make a nice safe. 😂
hahaha I laughed with that sentence. There are things that seem like a luxury, that don't really seem like a necessity, but then we realize that they are really necessary. Taking care of our technology equipment is saving money, even if it means spending a little extra money to keep it for a longer period of time. Now, out of all the uses that this may be, this little refrigerator looks beautiful. I didn't know it existed for cameras, thanks for sharing it in the community, I learned something new today.
Me neither! It even exists for collectable items like expensive shoes, luxury bags etc and it makes sense that they would want to preserve it.
This is the first time I see anything like that lol. Didn't even know these things existed. Pretty interesting. I just keep my camera equipment in the camera bag 😀
Hahah me too, until I saw a lot of posts about fungi. Maybe it's the humidity of this country and also really if you store it for a long long time. Luckily you didn't have any problems and hopefully no problems soon too. Camera and lens repairs are so exhausting and expensive.
Also maybe your camera bag is nice enough to protect from these problems. :D
My camera bag is shit, I really need a new one lol.
I need to start repairing my lens too. The stabilization motor failed on my 200mm lens and it's gonna be an expensive repair. Mostly the problem, with why I haven't given it to repair is that then I don't have the lens for several weeks but I always need it.
Oh no. Yeah the time too is one of the things you consider before sending it.
Big ahhhhhhhh moment! I've seen these at the IT mall and wasn't sure exactly why they were needed and I wake up this morning and learn chapter and verse!
One question though, when you take your gear out, is there no condensation due to the temperature change?
Yeah they look useless or something. There’s no condensation so far, I haven’t tried putting the room AC to a lower level. If in case there would be then the box would have to work harder to keep the humidity down. It does it pretty fast tho as long as the door’s closed
That's a very good price and worth it to protect the expensive kit. I'd check the condition inside frequently if I were you and don't rely on the settings. I'm guessing it's MIC 😉
Hmmm, not too shabby🙃
It does give the camera a sort of professional touch😂😂✨