Shooting in LOW temperatures

[DLS]

Hi all,


This weekend I will be shooting at a ski-hill. Daytime highs are expected to be around 10 F.


I've shot in low temperatures before (32 F) but not quite this low.


Any tips? I'm concerned about how to proceed once I've come back inside. The manual suggests putting the camera into a bag (Zip Loc i guess).


Any suggestions?


Thanks a bunch.


Damian

[neuroanatomist]

Likely the biggest issue you'll face during shooting is battery drain, which is fast at low temps. Keep a spare or two in a pocket inside your coat (where your body heat will keep it warm).


When you come back inside, the manual is correct - the idea is to prevent condensation inside the camera, which will occur when you bring the cold camera into the warm (and more humid) indoor environment. You want the camera itself to eitherwarm up unexposed to the humid air, or towarm up slowly,. For the former, put it in a heavy-duty ziploc bag (that was also out in the cold), squeeze out as much air (outside) as you can, then bring it in - in that case, the condensation will form on the outside of the ziploc bag. For the latter, keep your camera in your camera bag, assuming that was also outside in the cold, and when you bring it in, leave it in there for a few hours (this method really does both, since there's not a lot of air movement into the closed bag). One additional approach to the gradual warm up is to first bring the camera bag into an indoor but unheated space (garage, basement), then later bring it into the heated part of the house.

[Colin500]

The bag sounds like a good idea, it will let the camera heat up slowly, and, perhaps more importantly, prevent condensation of water....


Be sure to take a lot of batteries and keep them warm, as the cold temperatures slow down the chemical processes, which makes the batteries appear to lose power faster than normal.


Also, the LCD might freeze, but AFAIR at 10 F there won

[DLS]

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

[Kamelot]

Battery draining in cold weather is really fast. My camera top LCD normaly shows 999 remaining shots with full battery and almost empty CF. But today, when i try to take several pictures outside and temperature was around -12 C (around 10 F), i noticed that LCD shows only ~270 remaining shots. And camera was only 2 - 5 minutes in that cold weather. So..you should have to have at least 2 batteries, if you want to spend half-day taking pictures in such a cold weather.

[Iguide]

Good Day All:


John is right in all of his points. The one thing I would add though is when putting the camera in a plastic bag that has been outdoors don it with a bit of care. As we all know plastic often does not do well in the cold unless it is thermoplastic. The plastic bags have a tendency to spit along the seem when putting the camera if it is a tight fit & lens in if not care full. You can get bigger zip locks that the one gallon. Sometimes you can get a 3 gallon bag that will have less tension on the seems as it being larger.








Merry Christmans and Godspeed


Wayne

[bob williams]

Damian, In addition to the battery drain and condensation issues, be prepaired for "Err 99" codes if the camera itself gets to cold. I have had this problem several times when shooting with the 50D and once while shooting with the 7D in sub freezing temperatures. I found that just wrapping a bath towel around your camera helps as well as frequent trips to a non-humidified heated area such as a car or truck.


Hope this helps,


Bob

[Richard Lane]

Another suggestion for cold weather would be to take the camera in the ziplock bag and then put it under your coat for a few minutes before going indoors, this will help to slow down the sudden change in temperatures.


You may also want to consider to put hand warmers inside your camera bag. Spare batteries should be placed in an inside pocket close to your body, as suggested above.


Rich

[DLS]

Thanks for all the good tips guys!


@Bob,


Ya, I