Temperature

[Moa]

I live up north in Minnesota so I am wondering about how the freeing temperatures will affect my camera and what is the minimum temp. that the camera will safely function at?

 

[Big Mike]

Ha, you think Minnesota is cold...come up a visit me in Edmonton. (although, we just had the warmest November in 30 years).

The 'rated' temperature is probably the freezing mark...which you and I know, isn't all that cold. They (the camera companies) just put that in to be safe. I've used my cameras in much, much colder temperatures with hardly any problems...but there are some issues.

Firstly, the batteries die very quickly when cold. If you plan to be out shooting for a while, I'd suggest a couple extra batteries and you should keep them close to your body. Then you can switch them out for the cold one, when it dies.

Another big issue is condensation. When your gear is cold and you take it from the cold (dry) outside air, into the warm (humid) air of a building/vehicle...water will condense on the surface...and it could be the outside and inside surfaces on the gear...and you don't want that water on or inside your camera. To avoid this, you need to protect it from the warm air until it warms up. You could put it into a zip-lock bag before you get inside or at least leave it in a zipped up camera bag until it's has warmed up.

Of course, extremely cold temps can be a problem. Digital cameras have LCD screens. 'L' as in liquid...and you don't want that liquid to freeze. I don't know how cold it has to be to freeze a screen...but you probably wouldn't want to be out in that weather

 

[Orgnoi1]

We routinely carry our gear on our snowmobiles on sub-freezing and even sub-zero days... as long as you pay attention to when you bring them into the warm you will be ok... if you have a "mudroom" or such where they can go through partial temperature rise first it will certainly help...

The main consideration on cold days is battery longevity... as cold temps will fakely kill the batteries sooner... one remedy is to take a battery and keep it in your middle to outer pocket of a jacket where it can receive some warmth but not be too warm... that will keep the battery charged... you can also take a "dead" battery out of the camera and do the same and it will come back up partially on the charge...

 

[confused_in_the_darkroom]

i wouldn't know about the battery issue because i use an all manual camera, but def listen to big mike's advice about the condensation... i photographed a swim meet once and my camera's mirror god condensation all over it, which was just a pain in the butt. It can be worse though, it can get your electronics; if that happens you're up the creek.

Evan

 

[Big Mike]

You also have to be weary of condensation when in the tropics....when you go from an air conditioned space, out into the hot humid air.