Potato, spit and Pledge

[PeteAtkinson 53]

I know this has been discussed endlessly. I hadn't tried potato as a wetting agent until recently (thanks Alex Mustard) and it seemed to work well on a glass 9" dome. Today I tried potato on an 8.5" acrylic dome and it worked poorly; the wetting properties disappeared quickly.

I have used spit as a wetting agent in the past, and also Rainex and Lemon Pledge as beading agents.

For acrylic what are your favourite remedies for over/under droplets?

[waterpixel 66]

Spit seems to work well for my 8.5" acrylic - however, it won't work where there are small scratches at all, water will accumulate there.

I'm not sure if spit pre--dive and post-dive has the same effect though, I'd guess post-dive is more

 

[reefrelief 1]

I also have a 8-9" acrylic dome. I utilize over/under splits with it all the time. In the beginning, I did not have water droplet issues applying a little spit before dives. Now spit does not work. Like you, I found the potato did not work at all on acrylic. I know Rain-X is a no-no for acrylic and I would never use. As acrylic ages, guessing this causes the drops to gather on the small unseen crevices. I'm curious though if buffing with Novus 1 would help that (?)

Recently, I found a product that will not hurt acrylic and works fairly consistently and as long as you apply it before every dive:

Sea Gold Anti-Fog Gel for dive mask.

https://www.diversdirect.com/p/sea-gold-scuba-mask-defog?gclid=CjwKCAjwoNuGBhA8EiwAFxomA3t7gvbuqpZGFXOk7FstFegBmL0DSkIjyhR6T8kDvgW1ej4pFDf_hRoClgoQAvD_BwE

Give it a try and let me know if it works for you.

Other than that, retailers keep telling me you have go with glass. I love glass, but that is an expensive test for consistent split shots.

 

 

Sea&Sea MDX housing
Canon 5d MarkIV
Sigma 15mm fisheye

[PeteAtkinson 53]

I have used Rainex on cast acrylic domes before without any problems, but now I am using Pledge Lemon furniture polish as a beading agent and it works well. David Doubilet has recommended this for years!

[Aquatic Images 49]

Baby shampoo! Works well for me for about 20-30 minutes, then need to do it again

[ChrisRoss 150]

This is from a surf photography site:  may be useful:

https://saltysurfhousings.com/prevent-water-drops-ruining-photos/

[nomadadv 5]

hey guys i have had also isuues but with glass domes no matter if i use rain x, give it a spit or use the dunking technique i always have a drop on my glass.... Would lemon pledge lemon furniture work for glass too?

[PeteAtkinson 53]

I don't think Pledge will be any better than Rain-X. A cut potato worked quite well with a 9" glass dome (thanks Alex Mustard) as a wetting agent, so requires the pre-shot dunk. Spit works well with acrylic.

[nomadadv 5]

Thank you @PeteAtkinson i ll try the pototo wedge if not i ll use a potato bass fin  what about baby shampoo ? antifog?