Water dispersant coatings for lenses and dome glass (eg Rain-x)

[cymruchris]

I can't really find a definitive answer anywhere on this one.

I have a dome on an old building that gets a bit of splash back when the rain is heavy from the ancient stonework, which when the water dries gives it a cloudy effect at night. It's not the most accessible dome, so it's not easy to just pop up a ladder and clean it.

Does the use of Rain-X or similar coatings usually used on auto-glass make a difference? Has anyone used a product and then found that their image quality has worsened, or suffered any side effects? Or has anyone used a product and it's helped enormously? The idea is of course that the rain will slide off before it has the chance to dry, and leave less residue.

 

[Phil]

Rain-x may help.
People have certainly tried it.

 

[cymruchris]

Thanks Phil - I think I'll give it a try to help reduce the number of climbs of a ladder trying to keep it clean.

 

[cymruchris]

Just thought of something - are the dome covers/outer lenses actual real glass or polycarbonate or something similar? (Hikvision domes/turrets) - I've just spotted Rain-x does a plastic/polycarbonate version as well as the usual glass...

 

[Phil]

The dome camera covers are some sort of plastic/polycarb.
BTW - we are fetching a broad range of replacement dome covers from Hikvision China; it's been a pain to get replacement covers for their dome cameras and speed domes, so we have bitten the bullet and fetched stock for a range of models (which should be here in the next few weeks, and will then appear in the webshop).

Where flat glass is used e.g. on bullet and turret cameras it does seem to actually be glass.

As ever, it's best to test the rain-x or whatever on a test area first (an area not immediately in front of the lens).