[brewmaster15]

Hey all,
I thought I would post this topic after sorting through some of my boxes of gear. I was recently going through my lenses and camera boxes as I periodically do to remind myself what I have so I don't buy it again and just because I like to feel like a dragon in a pile of treasure.

All was well with the treasure so I turned to the box of "yeah I will probably not use this ever again or for a long time "box. I openned the box and it had a weird funky plastic smell that was not normal. The culprit..Two brand new DEK k20D battery grips.They were sent me and lost in the mail for a month. I ended up buying a genuine pentax grip in the meanwhile so these sat...and sat ..probably have had them for 6-8 years ..Never used...They differ from the oem grip in that the plastic in front is a softer plastic..The smell was this soft plastic which has turned tacky to the touch... Obviously its degrading.My Oem grip on the k20d I still use is still fine by the way.

I threw them away and aired out the box.I use water tight totes for alot of my gear.. summers here get pretty humid at times.

So whats the big deal?Maybe nothing but if its degrading and you can smell it theres a good chance any number of chemicals can be present... not something you want with sensitive electronics or optics. This box was pretty void of anything like that but had it been in one of my other boxes It may have affected something.

Plastics do degrade over time and can give off chemicals ... but this was way way more than anything gradual...and it really smelt almost like burning plastic.

No idea what was going on but just thought I would share my experience and concerns.

Check your gear from time to time.

Al

[reduno]

Plastics like other materials will out-gas especially when new (that new car smell). Raising the temperature (summer weather) will also increase the rate of out-gassing. Keeping the items in an airtight tote, means those volatile gases have nowhere to go. Without some knowledge of the chemical composition, it would be hard to say if they could damage anything else in the tote. It is certainly possible that they could leave a deposit on glass, so any lenses could develop a slight haze.

I have not experienced anything as bad as you indicated with the grips. I also keep my lens collection in ventilated boxes under our bed (luckily I don't think the wife realizes how many there are under there).

[AstroDave]

I also keep my lens collection in ventilated boxes under our bed (luckily I don't think the wife realizes how many there are under there).

Where are the sheets and blankets kept? She may well know, but is being nice to you!

[MossyRocks]

It almost sounds like the Zen coating used on older sigma lenses. My 300mm has that and while it hasn't been an issue for me it has for others. It was a bit tacky in a couple of spots under the portion that is covered when the hood is retracted but a quick wipe done with some 91% isopropyl alcohol cured it of that. So as to not have it happen again over the course of a few months I would wipe down the lens barrel and hood every few weeks again like that and things have been great since.

[brewmaster15]

I also keep my lens collection in ventilated boxes under our bed (luckily I don't think the wife realizes how many there )

I guess that the dilemma.. you can't control humidity well in a ventilated box so the lesser of two evils is desiccants /air tight box if you have humidity issues..

Al

[reduno]

Where are the sheets and blankets kept? She may well know, but is being nice to you!

There in a closet on the landing. She has some plastic totes with photographs (never put into albums) on her side, and the lenses are on my side.

I guess that the dilemma.. you can't control humidity well in a ventilated box so the lesser of two evils is desiccants /air tight box if you have humidity issues.

Thankfully we have central air, so the humidity is not usually that big an issue. In the winter we run a humidifier to keep the humidity up for the piano and string instruments.

[photoptimist]

Plastics do degrade over time and can give off chemicals ... but this was way way more than anything gradual...and it really smelt almost like burning plastic.

Yes they do! But which plastic caused the problem may not be obvious.

There's good chance that it was the tote that gave off the chemicals. Some plastics slowly lose the chemicals that help make them flexible (plasticizers). And other plastics have a high affinity for these chemicals and absorb them. So while the one plastic (the tote) is growing more brittle, the other plastic (the grip) gets soft. (This happens all the time with PVC sleeves and laser-printed pages -- the plasticizers from the PVC go into the plastic of the toner and turn it into black goo.)

[StiffLegged]

I also keep my lens collection in ventilated boxes under our bed

Ah. When your nose is touching the ceiling, you know the GAS has got out of hand again...

[timb64]

Use it,or lose it!!