Originally posted by Dartmoor Dave I seem to have chosen to live in pretty much the perfect fungus growing conditions. Dartmoor itself is every bit as cold, wet, foggy, and marshy as you'd imagine it to be (and I wouldn't want it any other way). Then, to make the mouldy stuff even happier, I live in a little stone cottage of indeterminate age with nothing in the way of damp-proofing. On any day that I haven't got the windows open, I'll have dehumidifiers running constantly, but even that isn't enough to keep lenses fungus free. I used to have terrible trouble, especially in the winter, that meant that every one of my Takumars needed stripping down once a year for de-fungusing. But now that I've got my digitally-controlled dry cabinet, the problem has gone away completely. Arguably the best photographic investment I've made in years.
I would not have thought Dartmoor was that damp, misty though, making it difficult to escape from Her Majesty's Guest House and, if I remember correctly, it was an area of heavy population and agriculture in stone age times before some previous climate change occurred.
I live on the Atlantic coast of Ireland, 25mins downhill walk to the sea we get first choice in all the storms coming off the Atlantic and the salt they carry in the air can be detected 25 miles or more inland. In my 1960's house I have never noticed any problem with fungus in any lens from any maker and take no precautions to prevent it. You never go out without some kind of coat as Atlantic squalls arrive very quickly, there is rarely any cover and the clouds seem to glue themselves to our mountains.
I will admit that I have recently upgraded my kit lens to an 18/55 WR as a standby for when it decides to rain all day which seems to be getting more common lately, I don't like to rely on the seal between a screw mount lens with adapter and the camera electronics in rain which can be heavy at times, we never seemed to worry about film cameras and lenses in the rain and I don't remember any muttering about fungus from those times.
You can't always rely on getting sufficient clothes drying time between showers so you frequently find clothes on racks in the utility room and cooking pots occasionally steaming but the extra humidity has not so far caused any lens problem and I've had cameras and lenses in this part of the country since 1966.
CD
Where the Blennerville Canal now used by the Technical College Rowing Club meets the sea.
Super Takumar 55mm F2