cold weather photos

[stevem]

i am off to lapland in december .lots of snow i hope .i was thinking of taking my nikon D60 (dslr) but i am worried about the condensation problem, with the fact that i will be roughing it in a 4 star hotel.will it be a problem??
i know it will affect the battery life but i have spares.

 

[Cobweb]

Cool the camera down gradually with out the batteries in. Keep them warm. Once the camera is pretty close to the ambient temp, keep it that way and take the batteries out after using it.

If you can, get some silica gel packs and shove them in the camera bag, they will remove any condensation that may form.


You shouldn't have too much of a problem, Nikons are built to take that type of intensity.

 

[Rob]

Your biggest problem will the the 4 star hotel and taking your camera in and out of it. It will take a while for the camera to sort itself out each time.

 

[Rebel]

Keeping it in a case when you are moving from hot to cold environments (and vice versa) will help to reduce condensation. Give the camera time to adjust to the new ambient temperature before removing it from the case.

The lithium-ion battery will not perform as well as usual in sub zero temperatures. Keeping it in your pocket when not in use will help it to work better. You mention you've got spares so keep one in your pocket and swap them around if you're experiencing problems. Charge them up every night even if they aren't empty.

You might still notice that your camera is a bit more sluggish than usual but it should still perform well.

 

[DavidJT]

All good comments above. Have used my 1ds II in very humid hot conditions ( in Brazil) and in very cold conditions ( -25C in Norway) without any major problems. Keep spare batts in you inside pockets. If you have too much trouble with your breath condensing and freezing on the eyepiece then one option is to sling the camera diagonally over head and one shoulder and keep it in side your down jacket / Parker until ready to take the shot.
Have a great time.
P.S. I recently saw a film from Phase One of one of their proffesional digital backs being heated up in an oven to 300C and also cooled in liquid nitrogen, on both occaisions the back continued to function fine and took good shots. Screen on the back was toast (literally) of course though.

 

[stevem]

thanks for the advice i feel a bit happier about taking my camra now

 

[nige7whit]

Your biggest problem will the the 4 star hotel and taking your camera in and out of it. It will take a while for the camera to sort itself out each time.

When you get back to the room, put it in the mini bar/fridge (it's a 4*, right). Otherwise, leave it in the bag for as long as you can, because the bag will be padded (insulated) and will slow the temperature gradient, as well as reducing the ingress of warm, humid air.

 

[Adrian]

You might also want to think about taking a pack of those handwarmers and taping one to the back of the camera while you are using it out of the bag. Helps with my film cameras!

 

[DavidJT]

You might also want to think about taking a pack of those handwarmers and taping one to the back of the camera while you are using it out of the bag. Helps with my film cameras!

Nice idea, but I'm not sure it's necessary, and will get in the way of the controls and screen on the back of a digital camera. Film can become very brittle in exreme cold though.
By the way, don't forget to over expose by about 1.5 stops or so when shooting snow scenes.

 

[Dodger]

I was at a lecture by Martin Hartley recently and he suggested wrapping the camera in several plastic bags when you take it indoors, and taking lots of silica gel.

Personally, given the chance, I'd try to leave the camera somewhere cool (e.g. a boot room) if possible, and subject to security concerns.

 

[DavidJT]

P.S. I recently saw a film from Phase One of one of their proffesional digital backs being heated up in an oven to 300C and also cooled in liquid nitrogen, on both occaisions the back continued to function fine and took good shots. Screen on the back was toast (literally) of course though.

Ah! Found the links, Professional gear can take extremes...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgDsW8uTorY&feature=PlayList&p=7C523E958E22D667&index=1&playnext=2&playnext_from=PL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOemv9F_Ahw&feature=PlayList&p=7C523E958E22D667&index=0&playnext=1

 

[susi]

Hope you have a good flash. The sun set up north about 2 weeks ago, and won't come up again until mid January.

 

[VtBlackdog]

cold=no problems aside from condensation from going in/out of cold and killing batteries....

I often forget and leave my D100 in the car overnight in winter, below freezing, and it hasn't hurt it yet.

 

[brancho]

Nikon only rate it to work down to 0C but then again you will be hard pused to find a camera rated less than 0C by the manufacturer.

 

[Lasse]

I wouldn't think too much about the official rating of a camera, look for reviews if in doubt.
As an example: the Canon 7D is also rated for 0°C-40°C and worked just fine at -23°C according to this review (canonfieldreviews.com). All the reviewer did was putting the camera outside one hour prior to shooting.

 

[maddave]

I have used my Canon 450d in temps as low as -35 and it's been fine. Keep it in the bag....Whip it out, take the short and whip it back in. Past -12 there should be no moisture in the air at all as it should be frozen. Hence the need for you to drink loads in sub zero temps. Your camera shouldn't suffer from short exposures to sub zero. The problems are in the hotel with all that body moisture and humidity from central heating etc

 

[stevem]

hi folks
back now the camera worked when i wanted it too the only problems were the zoom lens getting a bit stiff and notchy one day as i had used it for a few shots and it must have got condinsation from my breath inside the zoom lens, it got down to -20 one night but i used the camra for only a few shots (when father christmas came and went) batteries slowed down if left out side ready to use after a while,so i kept it inside my coat between shots if i was not using it. a great holiday and as usual i did not take enough photos the light was not there when i needed it