I am RM800 bucks poorer today. Why? Can't imagine I spend RM800 bucks on a 80 litre black box (it's not the black box that used in the aircraft to track the evidence if there is mishap!). What is so special about this box? Purchasing this box is like buying insurance foryour investment. WTH? A box can protect investment? Yes, the investment I refer to is my precious photography equipment.
This is actually a dry box. Dry box are famous in Asian country due to relatively high humidity (>60% RH). High humidity is enemy to the lens. High humidity (>60% RH), with temperature range of 30'C and in enclosed dark area is the best place for fungus growth. Once the fungus grow in your lens, basically you can say bye bye to the lens. Fungus not only eat up your expensive lens coating, but also deteriorate your lens optical quality. There's no 100% assurance that the fungus is completely remove even though you sent your lens for total cleanup. When the fungus is cleaned, this also means your lens coating is cleaned too.
To prevent fungus growth, there's few option. Fungus is growth is heavily depends on the humidity of the environment. Low humidity will prevent growth of fungus (<55% RH).You can either store your lens in direct sunlight and good ventilation area, or store it inside your back but put a lot of silica gel or store it inside the dry box. The first method discussed is the easiest, but not practical. The second solution seems to be good, but only apply when you are traveling and for temporally solution. You don't want to keep on changing the silica gel. The last one is costly but also the easiest way to store your equipment. Drybox are used to control the humidity of the content inside the box. It will automatically adjust the targeted humidity level. You only need to set it once and leave it there, the electronic unit will take care of the humidity. Take your lens when you need to use it and put it back once you had finish using the lens. No worry on changing silica gel, or ventilated area with sunlight.
I made my decision to get this AIPO dry box when I see some of my friend's expensive photographic lens and equipment are damaged by fungus. I bought this AIPO 80Litre drybox for RM800. It's the cheapest digital control dry cabinet available in our local market that comes with 5 years warranty. The service is also easily available once there is a problem with the drybox. This box also utilize TE (Thermoelectric) condensation drying method - a low power, low noise and high efficient dryer.
Selection of dry box depends on the amount of equipment you wanted to store. Even though you have only 1 body and 2 lens for the time being, you might wanna consider getting a bigger one to accomodate additional lenses or equipment you might purchase in the future. Choose wisely depends on the amount of equipment to store. The optimum humidity to store lenses, media, paper and battery are between 45% - 55% RH. Don't be too greedy set the control too low eg. 10%RH you might ended up having a crack rubber door due to too dry environment.
Lastly, investing in a drybox is a step to protect your expensive lenses. IMHO, dry box give you better overall control humidity compared to silica gel etc. Think about this, what going to happened to that expensive lens if there's a fungus grow inside it? Replacing the coating and cleaning definately cost more than the value of a medium sized drybox.
CW.
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