Photo Equipment Storage/Dry Cabinet Advice

I'm trying to find a better storage solution for all of my camera gear - at this point I've outgrown carrying everything I have in a single carry on bag. Ideally, I'd like a system where all of my bodies, lenses, and accessories can be stored in one spot and I can quickly and easily access whatever I need for a given shoot.

I was planning to retrofit a piece of furniture or a tool chest as an at home storage solution, but I stumbled upon electronic humidity controlled dry cabinets when looking for photography equipment specific storage. I've never had issues with mold or fungus in more than 15 years of shooting while living in NJ and NH and storing my equipment in standard nylon/synthetic material padded camera bags. I'm considering one, because it would allow me to move my gear into the basement, but ideally I'm looking for something with sturdy drawers as opposed to shelves so everything can have its own storage space and I'm not shuffling and moving gear around to get to what I need, which doesn't seem to be a feature on any of the dry cabinets I could find. I still feel like making my own storage would better meet the look and functionality I'm going for, but now I'm second guessing whether I need to be more careful about humidity, temperature, light, and airflow. Having never seen or used a dry cabinet before, and not knowing of anyone who has one, nor anyone personally who has lost a lens to mold/fungus, I'm curious about them, but would rather avoid the expense unless necessary.

How necessary are dry cabinets if your gear isn't stored in a particularly extreme environment? 

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[li]NH does get some high humidity days, but we don't tend to have weeks or months of high humidity days in a row and our house has AC and heat so in the living areas the temperature and humidity levels are typically pretty comfortable, although not necessarily right at the recommended 30-40%. [/li]
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Am I better off storing my gear in my climate controlled house (either open storage or a piece of furniture) or getting a special box to move my gear into a more extreme environment (my basement)?

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[li]At certain times of the year our basement gets closer to 70-90% when we don't stay on top of dumping out the dehumidifier every couple days and the temperature is cooler than the rest of hours house most of the year.[/li]
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Would using silica packets or one of those small, portable dehumidifiers work good enough if I came up with my own solution?

Does anyone know any DIY tutorials for building a dry cabinet or furniture based photo equipment storage solution?

Any help, advice, or sharing of experiences would be appreciated!

If you want strong drawers, in a durable chest or cabinet, check out IKEA furniture, for kitchens and similar locations and uses. Also consider gun safes of various sizes and styles.

An option you could consider is mounting pull out wire racks in a commercial dry cabinet to get the drawer functionality without impeding air flow too much...

I use a 36" wide kitchen cabinet with 3 drawers that are FULLY SUSPENDED. You need drawers that can carry a heavy load as cameras and lenses weighs a lot as you know. You need the full suspension so you can pull the drawer all the way out to easily get gear out. I would NOT recommend locating camera gear in the basement as the humidity becomes very high in warmer months. Then you would absolutely need full time, heavy duty dehumidification (assuming there is no AC in the basement). If your house has AC then there is no need to have a dry cabinet. The AC also dehumidifies so your gear would be quite safe but you'd lose that safety when you put your gear in a basement unless the basement also has AC which is not typical unless there are living areas in the basement.

I started a thread a while ago on mold and fungus. Great answers from Zeiss and Nikon. I ended up losing a 600mmF4L, 500mmF4l, a 100-400, a 70-2002.8L, and a 300F4l...and a 90 2.8 macro...

Canon will NOT repair the older 500 and 600mm. If Canon can't do it nobody can..Lens Rental does not do it. The problem is parts are out of service.

I ended up at IKEA buying a about 6 foot 2 glass door about 42 inches wide cabinet with shelves,(about $329) moved it to my dry bedroom, and Put a large silica Gel canister in each lens in a 13 gallon garbage bag..

I had my 200-400 repaired of mold/fungus...at $500..

I NOW AM WONDERING IF ANY OF THE REPAIRED LENSES ARE CONTAGIOUS, AS THEY ARE NEAR UNINFECTED LENSES....

Robert

signgrap wrote:I use a 36" wide kitchen cabinet with 3 drawers that are FULLY SUSPENDED. You need drawers that can carry a heavy load as cameras and lenses weighs a lot as you know. You need the full suspension so you can pull the drawer all the way out to easily get gear out. I would NOT recommend locating camera gear in the basement as the humidity becomes very high in warmer months. Then you would absolutely need full time, heavy duty  dehumidification (assuming there is no AC in the basement).  If your house has AC then there is no need to have a dry cabinet. The AC also dehumidifies so your gear would be quite safe but you'd lose that safety when you put your gear in a basement unless the basement also has AC which is not typical unless there are living areas in the basement.

This is along the lines I was thinking. Relocating to the damp basement even with a dry cabinet seems like a less ideal solution than just finding a suitable space in our heated and air conditioned house. I'd much prefer just to find a space in our guest bedroom which doubles as an office.

Thank you everyone for the replies and advice. Very helpful!

Hi Kari
I've been following your post. I was in Home Depot today and saw some cabinets that might do the trick. I would like to find something also. Search under utility storage cabinets. Here is one link for something that might work. They tend to be vertical cabinets with shelves however. Some are rated at 400 pounds so they should be sturdy enough.

https://www.homedepot.com/s/utility%252 ... net?NCNI-5

Looks like you folks in the north might get a snow dump tonight, while we here in balmy Massachusetts will get our usual mixed slop. Oh well, that's why we go up north and spend our money there.

Richard

https://www.lowes.com/pd/South-Shore-Fu ... t/50324257

Possible solution from Lowe's. Two drawers on top, two large storage areas below. Not climate controlled. I don't see any specs so it is hard to tell if those lower storage areas would support large telephotos in an upright position. I may go look at this if I can find one in stock.

At least it's not bad looking and on wheels.

Richard