Well, four months into the Iraq tour and the equipment is still holding up - more or less. This mini-review is more of an after-action report, following on from my Afghanistan tour two years ago.
Temperatures in al-Basrah Province are usually the highest in the region and we've experienced midday temps as high as 61C this summer and although it's starting to cool down again - noon temps are still hitting 45C.
For a cold-weather report, see my Norway NATO excercise Post-action Report by doing a search - it should be on here somewhere.
For those who don't know me, I'm an Army photographer with (too many) years experience, currently attached to 7th Armoured Brigade in al-Basrah, Iraq.
Previous Operational tours of Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo and Northern Ireland as well as training exercises in Malawi, Botswana, Egypt, Poland and Canada are covered in other posts elsewhere.
Some Images here:
http://arkady001.deviantart.com/
The two Nikon D2x bodies are almost entirely devoid of black paint now (well, not quite, but there's a lot more alloy showing now...lol) but continue to function perfectly despite temperatures into the high 50's (celcius, not farenheit). On occasion it has been too hot to use the cameras without wearing gloves, just as it was in Afghanistan in 2006. Pretty good considering Nikon only guarantee up to 38C.
Only some minor cosmetic damage has occurred: small cracks in the LCD displays due to impacts with various bits of ironmongery and lots of scratches and gouges in the alloy bodies. All switches, command-dials and buttons function perfectly with no additional resistance caused by dust ingress that I can detect.
I've only had to clean the sensors once since being here: I never change lenses outdoors, so dust bunnies aren't too much of an issue - the US Combat Camera peeps only have one camera body issued and so have to clean sensors about once a week - they also have no cleaning kits issued, so I've had to use up my supply of swabs to help out.
17-35mm f/2.8 works very well: lens hood is gaffer-taped in place due to dust abrasion loosening the fit. Occasional dust contamination under the focus-ring is dealt with by repeatedly moving the ring back and forth - the helicoils' design 'works' any dirt and moisture out from the lens, so that it appears at the edges of the ring as you work it back and forth...very cool. 10 minutes work and it's as good as new-ish.
The zoom-ring seems unaffected by dust so far and since I use AF exclusively, the above issue isn't really an issue for me: I just like a smooth action on my ring (oo-er, missus...lol).
70-200 f/2.8 VR is alo working well but has taken some horrendous knocks - the second camera has this lens permanently attached and hangs off my left shoulder when I'm shooting with the 17-35, meaning it occasionally gets battered when I'm moving around. Likewise I have the lens hood attached and secured with gaffer-tape, even though it has a lock-button. Belt & Braces approach hurts no-one.
The small window showing subject distance was badly cracked early on and is now covered with a strip of tape to protect it from further damage - it's not critical for use, but if it gets holed, dust will get into the lens.
The SB800 is still working ok too, although there's a lot more gaffer-tape on it than before - the dust/sand has eroded the plastic to the extent that the diffuser only stays in place if taped-on; ditto the battery-covers. Electronics also seem unaffected by the heat.
Ditto SB-80DX...
The biggest problem has been the heat and how it affects me: unlike on previous Tours, we now have to wear additional protection, thanks to the bleeding-heart liberals back home who bleat that we're not getting enough protection on the ground.
We now wear so much kit that we almost cannot function. The new enhanced 'Osprey' body-armour weighs 25kg in it's 'stripped-down' configuration. We also have the new mk6-A helmet and have to wear long-sleeved flame-retardant clothing, leather gloves and goggles whenever we deploy outside the COB (Contingent Operations Base) at al-Basrah Airport...it makes working difficult.
Because of the heat and extra weight, we have to carry extra water, which also weighs more.
And that's before we carry any weapons or equipment: Infantry soldiers are carrying about 75lbs in the light-role, I carry about the same.
In 55C temperatures that means I sweat about 2 litres an hour - faster than I can drink it in again.
Usually when going out on a jop, I'll pee once before breakfast and then again (maybe) just before going to bed at midnight, despite drinking constantly throughout the day.
On Tuesday 9th Sept, the humidity was higher than ususal and I was wet to the knees from sweat running down from under my body-armour. The three-hour job we went on seemed to last ten times longer and we drank about 8 litres each. Despite this I was starting to exhibit symptoms of heat-stress: headache, nausea, cramps etc...another hour and we'd have had to stop working.
Any questions will be answered as and when I spot them: I'm not on here very often due to my job taking me out of the office a lot - we've got sand-storms here today so there's no aircraft flying...which is nice...lol
Temperatures in al-Basrah Province are usually the highest in the region and we've experienced midday temps as high as 61C this summer and although it's starting to cool down again - noon temps are still hitting 45C.
For a cold-weather report, see my Norway NATO excercise Post-action Report by doing a search - it should be on here somewhere.
For those who don't know me, I'm an Army photographer with (too many) years experience, currently attached to 7th Armoured Brigade in al-Basrah, Iraq.
Previous Operational tours of Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo and Northern Ireland as well as training exercises in Malawi, Botswana, Egypt, Poland and Canada are covered in other posts elsewhere.
Some Images here:
http://arkady001.deviantart.com/
The two Nikon D2x bodies are almost entirely devoid of black paint now (well, not quite, but there's a lot more alloy showing now...lol) but continue to function perfectly despite temperatures into the high 50's (celcius, not farenheit). On occasion it has been too hot to use the cameras without wearing gloves, just as it was in Afghanistan in 2006. Pretty good considering Nikon only guarantee up to 38C.
Only some minor cosmetic damage has occurred: small cracks in the LCD displays due to impacts with various bits of ironmongery and lots of scratches and gouges in the alloy bodies. All switches, command-dials and buttons function perfectly with no additional resistance caused by dust ingress that I can detect.
I've only had to clean the sensors once since being here: I never change lenses outdoors, so dust bunnies aren't too much of an issue - the US Combat Camera peeps only have one camera body issued and so have to clean sensors about once a week - they also have no cleaning kits issued, so I've had to use up my supply of swabs to help out.
17-35mm f/2.8 works very well: lens hood is gaffer-taped in place due to dust abrasion loosening the fit. Occasional dust contamination under the focus-ring is dealt with by repeatedly moving the ring back and forth - the helicoils' design 'works' any dirt and moisture out from the lens, so that it appears at the edges of the ring as you work it back and forth...very cool. 10 minutes work and it's as good as new-ish.
The zoom-ring seems unaffected by dust so far and since I use AF exclusively, the above issue isn't really an issue for me: I just like a smooth action on my ring (oo-er, missus...lol).
70-200 f/2.8 VR is alo working well but has taken some horrendous knocks - the second camera has this lens permanently attached and hangs off my left shoulder when I'm shooting with the 17-35, meaning it occasionally gets battered when I'm moving around. Likewise I have the lens hood attached and secured with gaffer-tape, even though it has a lock-button. Belt & Braces approach hurts no-one.
The small window showing subject distance was badly cracked early on and is now covered with a strip of tape to protect it from further damage - it's not critical for use, but if it gets holed, dust will get into the lens.
The SB800 is still working ok too, although there's a lot more gaffer-tape on it than before - the dust/sand has eroded the plastic to the extent that the diffuser only stays in place if taped-on; ditto the battery-covers. Electronics also seem unaffected by the heat.
Ditto SB-80DX...
The biggest problem has been the heat and how it affects me: unlike on previous Tours, we now have to wear additional protection, thanks to the bleeding-heart liberals back home who bleat that we're not getting enough protection on the ground.
We now wear so much kit that we almost cannot function. The new enhanced 'Osprey' body-armour weighs 25kg in it's 'stripped-down' configuration. We also have the new mk6-A helmet and have to wear long-sleeved flame-retardant clothing, leather gloves and goggles whenever we deploy outside the COB (Contingent Operations Base) at al-Basrah Airport...it makes working difficult.
Because of the heat and extra weight, we have to carry extra water, which also weighs more.
And that's before we carry any weapons or equipment: Infantry soldiers are carrying about 75lbs in the light-role, I carry about the same.
In 55C temperatures that means I sweat about 2 litres an hour - faster than I can drink it in again.
Usually when going out on a jop, I'll pee once before breakfast and then again (maybe) just before going to bed at midnight, despite drinking constantly throughout the day.
On Tuesday 9th Sept, the humidity was higher than ususal and I was wet to the knees from sweat running down from under my body-armour. The three-hour job we went on seemed to last ten times longer and we drank about 8 litres each. Despite this I was starting to exhibit symptoms of heat-stress: headache, nausea, cramps etc...another hour and we'd have had to stop working.
Any questions will be answered as and when I spot them: I'm not on here very often due to my job taking me out of the office a lot - we've got sand-storms here today so there's no aircraft flying...which is nice...lol
Absolute respect
