I took my camera from an air-conditioned hotel room out into humid air and the lens fogged up like a bathroom mirror. I wiped it, it fogged again. The glass was cold, the air was warm, and condensation just kept forming.

The fix wasn’t a cloth. It was a sock full of rice.

Why it works

Rice is a cheap desiccant. A sock filled with dry rice absorbs moisture the same way the little silica packets do, but you can make it at home in two minutes. Leave a fogged lens or camera in a bag with a rice sock and the condensation clears without you rubbing the glass and smearing it.

How to do it

1. Fill a clean sock with a cup or two of dry, uncooked rice and tie it shut.
2. Put the fogged lens and the rice sock in a sealed zip bag. Don’t let the rice touch the glass directly.
3. Leave it a few hours or overnight. The rice pulls the moisture out of the air inside the bag.

Prevent it in the first place

• Let gear warm up gradually. Keep the camera in its bag for thirty minutes when you move between temperatures.
• Store lenses with a silica gel packet in the case.
• Don’t wipe a fogged lens if you can avoid it. The fog is on the surface, and wiping just smears and can scratch.

It saved my lens on that trip, and the rice sock now lives in my camera bag permanently.