I took along a FZ200 on a 3 1/2 week trip to Madagascar. Most of the time, everything went smoothly. Except that I once again had to realize that the camara is not doing very well with the focus in moderate light and long tele setting. All too often did I not succeed in getting a well focussed shot when in a hurry.
However, there was a completely new experience as well. On one of the days, we hiked and observed all day in the rainforest at the Ranomafana NP. In the afternoon, a thunderstorm with drenching rain started. We had to walk back for about an hour in those conditions. I stored my FZ200 in the backpack. But the rain succeeded to really drench the fabric of the backpack. So everything inside got its share of moisture, though no actual running water.
When I tried to use the camera in the evening, and the next morning, there were strange noises coming from inside when I only turned on the camera even when I did not really use it. The camera actually seemed to function to some degree, though with some more focussing problems than usual. But I was afraid it might quit alltogether. So I mostly did not use it. In the late morning, we got to a lookout where we stayed for quite a while. And for a long time, we were the only group up there. So we started to spread our still moist or wet stuff on the sun-exposed platform. I also put my camera into the full sun for about 45 minutes, it is not on the picture, of course. And after that exposure, the noise was gone. It came back briefly in the evening, but the night in the dry room was apparently sufficient, to get rid of whatever moisture there still was. So for the rest of the trip, the camera functioned flawlessly.
Nevertheless, the fact that just moist air was sufficient to affect the camera was rather disquieting. I'm sure, a dry bag would have prevented the problem. But we simply did not expect that much rain. So we only had a cover for the backpack which still allowed the rain to run down on the unprotected back side.
However, there was a completely new experience as well. On one of the days, we hiked and observed all day in the rainforest at the Ranomafana NP. In the afternoon, a thunderstorm with drenching rain started. We had to walk back for about an hour in those conditions. I stored my FZ200 in the backpack. But the rain succeeded to really drench the fabric of the backpack. So everything inside got its share of moisture, though no actual running water.
When I tried to use the camera in the evening, and the next morning, there were strange noises coming from inside when I only turned on the camera even when I did not really use it. The camera actually seemed to function to some degree, though with some more focussing problems than usual. But I was afraid it might quit alltogether. So I mostly did not use it. In the late morning, we got to a lookout where we stayed for quite a while. And for a long time, we were the only group up there. So we started to spread our still moist or wet stuff on the sun-exposed platform. I also put my camera into the full sun for about 45 minutes, it is not on the picture, of course. And after that exposure, the noise was gone. It came back briefly in the evening, but the night in the dry room was apparently sufficient, to get rid of whatever moisture there still was. So for the rest of the trip, the camera functioned flawlessly.
Nevertheless, the fact that just moist air was sufficient to affect the camera was rather disquieting. I'm sure, a dry bag would have prevented the problem. But we simply did not expect that much rain. So we only had a cover for the backpack which still allowed the rain to run down on the unprotected back side.
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