Canon 5D left in cold

princesskitaaa · Dec 1, 2013

Hey I could really use some help. I'm a college student renting a Canon 5D for a film project with a group. I didn't realize until too late that leaving out your camera in the cold is bad. I left the Canon 5D camera in my car overnight from Wednesday to this morning (Sunday). The camera is not frozen but it is cool to the touch. The batteries are dead so I am trying to charge them now. I attempted to turn the camera on and it said Sensor Filter was on then the screen was black. I am taking that as a good sign(?) and hoping that is just due to an incomplete battery charge. I just want to know if anyone with more Canon experience could give me some ideas on what to do to prevent damage to the camera .... ?? Also approx. how long does it usually take for the battery to fully charge for it because I've had it in for 45 mins and it's still a blinking red light...

Overread · Dec 1, 2013

Cold batteries lose charge - shooting in snowy conditions its often the case that a photographer has to keep several sets and change over the batteries whilst shooting (keeping them close to their body where its warm) because the batteries lose charge in the cold and need to be warmed up again to restore the charge to get the full use out of them.

Chances are the batteries just got cold along with the camera and overnight in the car there shouldn't be any damage in most countries unless in extreme cold. About all you would notice is the reduced battery performance and fogging of the lens if its brought into a warmer area suddenly. A good tip is to leave the camera in the bag whilst moving it into a warmer area and only take it out after a while (silca gel packs in teh bag to help soak up the moisture from the temperature change).

Batteries will take a while to charge, but once warmed up and charged they should be fine.

princesskitaaa · Dec 1, 2013

Okay, thank you so much. That was very helpful. Yeah, I just live in New England in the US so it's only been about 20-30 degrees at night. The camera itself was inside of a camera bag with the batteries. Hopefully you are right and in a few hours the batteries will charge up.. right now it's still just the 3 blinks.