[Wingincamera]

I just returned from a two week trip to India, which has high humidity. I had my K-5 II and a few lens. Where I live I don't worry too much about humidity problems, so this is new to me.
I purchased a box of DampRid, which is 10 oz packets of calcium chloride. I placed all my lens & camera inside a kitchen plastic bag with one calcium chloride packet, sealed up the bag and thought I would leave it for a while. I took all the lens caps off, removed the battery & memory card from the camera, leaving those lids open, and also removed the lens from the camera while wrapped inside the plastic bag. I might have to do a sensor cleaning after all this, but that is not a big deal.

My question is how long should I leave the equipment inside the bag with the DampRid? I am thinking over night should be long enough, anyone with experience with this have a comment?

[promacjoe]

I normally use dried uncooked rice instead. Wrap the lens or electronic device In a towel and seal up the edges with tape . Place the device in a plastic bag, And fill with rice. It can take up to two weeks Or more to totally dry out the device. You can speed up the process by laying it on a heating pad, and turn the pad on low. It really depends on how wet your device is. Make sure to monitor the heating pad closely, to make sure it doesn't get too hot.

[dms]

The major potential problem is likely zooms/lenses that "beathe" a lot in zooming/focusing. They will essentially hold the humid air and as it gets cooler it will condense inside the lens. I should think if you use them (exercise) some more (in your local cooler drier [than India] conditions), that will replace the moist internal air.

[JohnX]

Is there evidence of humidity affecting the camera and/or lenses? You might be going through this for nothing. Just because you've been to an area with high humidity doesn't mean it'll automatically have a negative affect on equipment.

[AquaDome]

Calcium Chloride gives off ions. This ionic charge is what attracts water to it. This ionic charge can also lead to the corrosion of metal. Besides that, Calcium Chloride can attract enough moisture to make a puddle of Calcium Chloride solution - a variety of salt water - that could prove more troublesome than the moisture you were originally worried about. I would stick to silica-based desiccants or dry air.

[Wingincamera]

Thank you all for the replies. Maybe I was over worried a problem I might not have. I had taken my 18-135 WR lens, plus three primes. I ended up only using a prime one time, the rest of the time I just left the 18-135mm on the camera. This was a mission trip and not a photography trip, with very little free time. When going there, I wasn't sure what to expect. Next time I think I will just bring a point & shoot camera, which would have worked fine for what I was doing.

[ebooks4pentax]

Just use rice like mentioned by promacjoe. Leave your lenses in the rice unti you need the lenses. To shprt of time will not remove all moisture. Too long of a time will do no harm. I did that also with my iPhone thayt got wet in the pool. It started to work again after a week.