Focus stiffness and silica gel (1 Viewer)

Hello

I will cut a long story short...is it possible that if you put silica gel in your binocular's case, it will increase the stiffness of the focus buy drying whatever product is used to lubricate the focus wheel?

I put some in mine a few months ago to protect against moisture and notice that when I start using them after a few days of them being in the case, they are a bit siffed, whoever they get smoother as I use them. I removed the silica gel 1 week ago and they don't get any stiffer.

I will continue monitoring but was wondering if anyone has experiences anything similar.

Thanks

Silica gel attracts water vapour and there is no water vapour in the grease that lubricates bino focus mechanisms. If your binos are of a good quality then you can expect the grease to be a good quality and to not lose volatile components through 'evaporation'. Good bino greases do not do this because there is a risk of the volatiles being deposited on lenses or prisms. In any case the silica gel cannot force the grease to 'out-gas' these volatiles. However it may be that low quality binos may have low quality greases in them so with them so these might tend to do this but I am speculating with this.

The other factor that can cause greases to out-gas is heat. It is good to store your binos away from heat sources such as the sun coming through windows or the heating system in your home.

Lee

Thanks Lee very useful.
Mine are SF 8x42 and Pocket 8x25 so I don't think quality should be an issue.

I have both of these models and they haven't gone stiff when not used. I keep them in their cases inside a large oak box inside a cool part of a room where the sun doesn't shine.

Lee