LOOKING AFTER WET CAMERA KIT IN RAINY SEASON AMAZON

For people who live in the Tropics this post might be old news, but if you don't and you're going on a shoot somewhere humid it could keep your camera rolling and your shoot moving.

I've filmed in humidity and rainy season before. I had two memorably wet nights with fishermen on a rock in the middle of the swollen Mekong river in Laos, and a week crocodile hunting in the southern Philippines amongst other things. The thing with these places is that however deep you go into the jungle in South East Asia you can pretty much guarantee you'll find some sort of accommodation with walls and a roof and maybe even aircon. The weather is also generally very hot which means that even in rainy season it is often hot enough to dry kit out between rain storms. These moments of respite from the rain and humidity are essential to allow your gear to dry out.

The Amazon basin is different. There's more rain, more humidity, more water (where we were there was almost no land), fewer people and almost no guesthouses. It was also a little cooler than Asia which meant that instead of hot and humid it was often cool and humid which basically just meant the air felt very damp.

In order to have somewhere to sleep we had to take it with us - in the form of a boat which was our transport, dormitory, restaurant and kit room. It was covered but didn't have sides which meant the all pervading damp set in pretty quickly and didn't fully dry up for the whole time we were there. We were filming through rain storms almost every day so the kit was actually soggy most evening too.

So how do you keep kit dry and working in a situation like this? You need two things - a large waterproof case and a lot of silica gel sachets.

Every night we would break the kit down completely (a pain in the arse when your kit is Sony PDW700, two broadcast lenses, EX3, nano flash, sound kit, 2X go pros, 2x 5DMkII, 2X radio mics, 416 boom mic). We'd separate out the soggy non-electronics (rain covers, camera jackets, Rycote softie etc) and hang them out as normal. During a wet night these wouldn't dry at all but I'd brought two rain covers so I could choose the least wet one and give the other a few hours of daylight to dry out.

The electronics were then all put in a large Pelican case and loads of silica gel sachets added. For a European putting wet kit away in a box feels very counter-intuitive. But come the next morning the the kit would be dry, and most importantly working. Some of the silica gel sachets had actually turned into bags of water - I've never seen that before.

As for the batteries - where possible I was trying to get them on and off charge before we went to bed. This way I could put them away in drybags for the night. Most nights I had to leave one or two charging though. To protect these I built a little tent out of a tarp' so they were sheltered from the damp and condensation but the cooling fan on the charger still had some air around it. The tripod and other bits of hardware got an occasional spray with WD40 which seemed to be enough.

All this meant every morning and night the camera assistant Paulo and I had a full gear strip down and re-build to do. Which along with dumping the cards from the 5D, GoPros and Nano Flash meant a lot of extra work on top of the shooting day. But it kept the kit going so I guess it was worth it. We had actually taken a spare, or at least an alternative, of every single kit item just in case - even a spare camera body. Thankfully we didn't need it.

For keeping the kit dry during the day I had absolutely everything in dry bags or Pelican cases. Zip lock bags, bin bags, tarps, small drybags, big drybags - anything water proof. I have a fully water proof backpack/run bag which was essential. I thought I'd taken a lot of this kind of stuff but it turned out we used every single thing I had - you can never have enough it seems. It's also good to have ways to hang your drybags off the ground - it's one thing to leave a dry bag out in the rain, it's another thing to have a bag full of kit and rushes sitting in a puddle.

By following this gruelling regime we had almost no water related issues with the kit, which was a small miracle. The only problem came from a Gopro which had a temporary humidity shutdown - after a night when it hadn't been put away in the dry case.

So there you go, that's how to keep your camera going in the Amazon. We had an awesome shoot - filming in some of the hardest conditions I've ever worked in. When we returned to civilization at the end of the shoot the smell of the kit, team and soggy washing was so bad we didn't allow the hotel cleaners into our rooms!

A little more on aircon - 
It's common for people not to use aircon when storing kit in the same room. The theory being that if in the morning the camera is cold and then you take it outside into the humidity it will suffer from condensation. This is completely true.

However, aircon units do also work was a dehumidifier so I'd argue that in some circumstances (drying kit in humid weather for example) it's probably better to have it on. The trick is not to have it on too cold - if possible set it just below the outside temperature. That way you get the dehumidifying effects and the camera won't fog up when you go outside.

If you must go from very cold aircon to humid outside it is always best to turn the camera on and allow it warm up before you leave the aircon. That way the temperature difference is reduced.