Silica Gel

[Hirundapus]

Can anyone recommend a good type of Silica Gel or similar to keep with expensive big lens equipment and a good UK source for it please?

[Yelvertoft]

Can anyone recommend a good type of Silica Gel or similar to keep with expensive big lens equipment and a good UK source for it please?

Cheap as chips here:
http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=777_1&products_id=8333

Duncan

[Hirundapus]

Very many thanks, this reply is appreciated, but I was actually hoping someone might have a more in-depth reply. I think there are silica gels (or equivalents) that change colour so you can see when they are saturated, and there are some that are more suitable for use with cameras and lenses than others. However, I don't seem to be able to find this on eg the Jessops or Warehouse Express websites, so maybe I'm wrong?
Does anyone else routinely use silica gel (or equivalents) and have any comments please? I note two other very recent posts here are about moisture in a 20D and fungus on a lens, so the subject is surely of some interest?

[Leo S]

I think silica gel is only a necessity if you live in a very damp/humid environment, or if you do lots of shooting in the cold/at night. I always keep some around, since I do a fair bit of astro-photography, and have a few quite expensive lenses, so it serves as a form of insurance, just to make sure I don't get any problems with fungus. So far, touch wood, there have been none, but I am careful to place any cold equipment brought in from the outside, into salable plastic bags, which prevents condensation from forming on the gear.

I started off by getting the gel they have at 7day shop a couple of years back, and it's fine, but since then, I've been buying the color indicating type instead.

There is a UK seller on ebay who used to sell indicating gel, but last time I checked with him he was waiting for more stock, and his prices were quite high, so I widened my search and found an ebay seller in Canada who sells at a much better price.