Haida Anti-Fog Belt

Lens fogging is one of the many curses in astrophotography. You don’t really think about lens fogging until you have wasted a good night because of it. This is a lesson I learned the hard way myself,  missed some great shots because of it. This is especially very disappointing after a night out shooting star trails. Also for Landscape photography, shooting in mist and foggy conditions create an extra special effect.

Once your lens is starting to fog you’ll need to wipe the lens, again and again, to keep it dry and clean. During this process, you run the risk to change your focus or focal length slightly. Also, the quality of your image will be reduced and you end up with a muddy lock.

Preventing condensation to form on your lens is the way to go. To defog a fogged lens will be more difficult.

When it comes to preventing fogging, the key is to control the temperature of your lens, so that it stays warmer than the ambient dew point.

For us astrophotographers and those on a budget, using camera lenses and small telescopes, a USB Heating Strip is by far the best solution to keep your lens from fogging.

Haida offers an affordable Anti-Fog Belt heating strips solution.

All you need next is a decent power bank to power them via a USB 5V port.

This solution is a very lightweight and flexible solution, by far the one I recommend the most.

• Always use the lens hood: this alone helps to prevent condensation, but it also provides a place to mount the heating strips without obstructing the view.
• Be careful not to move the lens focusing ring while installing the strip. This may be a problem with lenses with a very smooth focusing ring, and you may need to tape it down. Don’t be lazy and always take a test shot to confirm your focus is still spot-on.
• You do not need to cover all of your lenses with the strip: just make sure the strip wraps nicely tight around the lens near the front element and the lens hood.
• Once you have the strip, don’t be lazy and install it every time you are doing astrophotography: summer nights can get cold and humid, and lens fogging can still happen occasionally.

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