Shooting outdoors in low temps

[K4MCO]

Evening all,

I'm a total newbie to this so I'm not even sure where to post this so here goes. I would like to shoot outdoors (Railroad and aviation primarily) however I live in the mid atlantic and it does get rather chilly at times and due to the nature of what I'm attempting to shoot it can sometimes involve sitting outdoors in sub freezing temps for long periods of time. My cameras (T2i) op manual states that its good down to 32 degrees. My question is how would you guys suggest keeping the camera warm? I thought maybe some of those in the glove hand warmers in the bag but I'm afraid that will melt/ruin my camera.

Thanks in advance

Sean

 

[Patriot]

Bring extra batteries. They die fast in the cold. I dont believe cold will stop the camera from working.

 

[scorpion_tyr]

It'll handle sub-freezing temps just fine. I wouldn't use hand warmers or anything just because it may cause condensation inside your body or lens depending on how you use it. Patriot was right about the batteries. If possible keep the camera or at least the extra batteries inside your jacket or something where your body temp will keep them warm.

 

[imagemaker46]

What has been mentioned is sound advice. Extra batteries inside your jacket, as close to your body as possible. I shot in -45 for 90 minutes and the cameras were still ok, although the autofocus started to slow down and so did I. Having the hand warmers is a good idea, don't think they will ever get hot enough to damage the camera. When you do go back in side the glass will fog up, and depending on how cold it was everything will end up damp. Don't take the gear back outside into the cold again, it will freeze up. I do know a story where a 600mm f4 Canon lens had that very thing happen to it and it destroyed the auto focus motor.

 

[Benco]

Take care when going back indoors, you'll get a lot of condensation on your cold camera. Leave it switched off and all closed up for an hour or so until it warms up.

 

[Wozza]

Second the ziplock bag, and put that inside a normal bag. Damage can occur if the temperature changes suddenly. If the camera is inside a decent bag the temperature inside the bag will change much slower.

 

[Aerin328]

Also don't be alarmed if filters don't come off the lens properly during or after the temperature change.

 

[Snowtographer]

I feed myself by shooting outside in low temps. Before I broke my leg, I was outside shooting skiers and snowboarders 5 hours a day, 5 days a week. I use a D90 and it's always getting absolutely blasted with snow, whether it's from skiers who think they are cool and maliciously spray me and my gear, or snow that gets kicked up by howling wind, or just shooting while it's snowing. Battery life does go down with temp, but in the case of the D90 I can shoot 4k shots with no flash, the LCD turned all the way up, and image review on in 20 degree temps and still have battery life to spare. Autofocus gets slower and slower as the temps drop, but the camera really works swimmingly even in single digit temps. There are several times I've had the eye cup freeze to my goggles- the camera works just fine no matter how crappy out it is. It works much better than I do!

I shake the snow off because I think wiping has more of a chance of pushing stuff past any seals, it gets put away in a bag, I snowboard from where I was shooting back to the office. Once inside, I take it out of the bag and it just sits on the table in our warm, dry, heated office for a few hours. The cameras do experience an abrupt temperature change. We take literally no precautions beyond that, and the D90 is not a high end, professional's camera. We are now several months into the season and have not had a single SB700 flash, 70-300 af-s, 18-55 kit lens, or D90 body fail, with everyone following the same procedure. There is also no evidence of moisture issues inside the lenses. As long as the camera body and lens are cold, the snow doesn't really melt, and it's easy to shake off and doesn't get the camera wet. The cameras do get a little "sweaty" after a few minutes inside, but they dry right up.

I would not treat my personal camera in such a manner, but it's a good data point for what kind of abuse a consumer DSLR can take. I'm sure all of this equipment is going to have a much shorter life cycle than it would in normal consumer use, but the cameras have proved to be extremely robust.

Your T2i is probably not as well built as the D90 is, but if the weather is clear and it's cold, you're most likely not going to run into very many issues at all. As imagemaker said, if you go inside and there is any condensation, you're done shooting for the day. Despite how hard we are on our cameras, this is the rule, and that is why we don't have equipment failures. I'm sure if you have water in any tight gaps and it freezes it could really do a number on your camera, I could just imagine it destroying the environmental seals and stuff like that. I'm assuming your house is warm with relatively low humidity, just leave the camera out of its bag overnight and you should have very little to worry about.

 

[ghache]

like everyone said, shoot whatever you need to shoot, bring you bag in your car or whatever, put you camera inside you bag. it will keep the temparture to go from -30 to + 30 right away. i have had problem with my flash triggers a few time in -30. they wouldn't fire anymore