Condensation represents a major cause of performance decline in optical products. Thanks to thin-film technology based on absorbent polymers, Canon has commercialized anti-fog binocular eyepiece lenses and camera-finder adapters.

This anti-fogging technology employs two types of polymers, organic and inorganic. Moisture on the glass surface is absorbed by the absorbent organic polymer. Since absorbed moisture tends to run off with organic polymer, the sol-gel method is used to solidify the organic polymer in the inorganic polymer before affixing the resulting stabilized layer to the glass surface of the lens.