Cold Weather

travie digital · January 7, 2012

How should a camera be handled in cold weather? I live in Mt. Washington Valley, NH - so not way up north, but still pretty cold. Could I leave a camera in my car (in a teflon bag, zippered closed) from 8:30-3 ? Will that be alright?

ARe there any recommendations to how long to use a camera in the cold, any rules of thumb or guidlines? All help greatly appreciated. Thanks !!!

paddler4 · January 7, 2012

People with more experience may have more suggestions, but I have two:

The battery will lose a lot of capacity of it is allowed to get very cold, so carry at least one spare, and keep it in an inside pocket if possible to keep it warm.

Going from warm to cold is OK, but going from cold to warm risks condensation, which is a real no-no. (If you live in NH and wear glasses, you know this: walk in from the cold and your glasses fog up.) I had this once on a moderately warm day, when I walked into a much warmer and more humid bug zoo with my camera. Carry a big enough plastic bag, pack the camera in it, and let it come to room temperature before opening it. Some people recommend a 2 or 2.5 gallon zip-lock, which is what I am going to carry this winter, if it ever gets cold. (it was 56 today in Boston!)

roakey · January 9, 2012

There are a couple good existing threads on this topic. I'm being educational, not being condescending, when I point you here to a way to search this site for existing topics!

Roak

Zerodog · January 11, 2012

It will be fine. Warm to cold is ok. Cold to warm = problems. I take my cameras skiing a lot. Sometimes it is in the teens all day. And even overnight camping in the winter. I have a sort of decompression for the camera before it comes out of the bag at home. This is far less than some people do. I take my pack and put in on the floor in the cooler back room of my house. I just leave it there till usually the next day. Maybe whenever I get around to it. Camera is good to go. The problem is when you get home and want to get your cold camera out of the bag. You will cause massive condensation. Keeping it in the bag will let the camera warm up slow. If you want to pull your memory card do it fast and seal the cold back in your bag with the camera.

Mr Eddy · January 11, 2012

I was expecting the cold weather thing to be all sorts of problems when I went to Banff last year, and it ended up being a bit of a non-event to be honest. As long as I kept the camera in the bag around changes between inside and outside it was okay. I took the memory cards out before going inside so I didn't need to bring the camera out to look at the photos. I used ziplock bags at the beginning but quickly discovered that just leaving the bag closed was good enough.

Photoskipper · January 11, 2012

I don't feel comfortable to leave my baby in the car outside for security reason and also climate reason.

Althought the specificiation did not specify the "storage temperature" for the camera, it tells that it operate between 32 - 104 F. In general, the storage temperature for electronic is about -10 -60 deg C.

I did shooting in -25 deg C equivalent to -15 def F for 1 hour and my 5D II work and the battery dropped 1 bar after 150 pictures. My usual practice is take out the batteries and CF cards and put in my jacket pocket to let it warm up slowly. Store the cameras and lenses in the bag, zip in nicely, put in a big plastic bag and bring into the hotel room. Charge the battery and download (backup) the files. Open the bag at the site only.

Althought with the "great care", the electronic circuit of my 24 -105 spoiled twice in past 5 years due to "humidity problem". No issue for other lenses : 70-200 IS F2.8, 17-40 F4, 500F4, 100 macro and Sigma 18-200, even the 15 years old humble 28 -180 F5.5-5.6.

Good luck!

Cold Weather

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