film in the cold

david1701

david1701

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Am I going to have any issues shooting 120 slide (or BnW) out in the cold, lowest I think it gets at night here is -5 so unlikely to be used below -2

I don't know whether I need to add some exposure adjustment or anything to counter the temp
 
None unless you take it from a very warm house/car straight into the cold quickly.
If you do the film may buckle very slightly as it cools.
Expose as normal.
 
Well, I had a mate that used to be on the Antarctic survey, and used to regularly shoot down to about -30c after that the main problems were the lenses aperture and focusing rings freezing up (this was back in manual focus days - Nikon FM iirc.).

I was out last friday, didn't get above -4c all day, shooting Velvia 100F and pretty much shot same as I would have in summer. The shots came out as I expected, so I'd not bother with any additional exposure compensation (over and above what you'll be doing for the white stuff all around :shrug:)
 
It was -12 at 7:30 this morning, didn't stop me shooting a few on hp5.

dunno what they'll be like, but I don't expect any problems..
 
awesome, look after film like you would lenses (condensation worries with rapid changes) and all will be gravy, its probably gonna be a wee bit colder shooting than it is in the fridge :p
 
what do you all do with the rest of your kit, coming in from the cold - to avoid condensation ?

Digi and film and lenses ?
 
I left my camera bag next to the door in the (unheated) utility/boot room for a couple of hours, then took it upstairs to the office where its normally stored. Didn't notice any condensation problems - though the camera bag does have a few bags of silica gel here and there in the compartments.
 
There was an Arctic expedition by someone recently who used a mechanical Leica MP film camera as according to the person electronic stuff like digital cameras and electronic shutters tends to stop working properly in very cold temperatures so he used a mechanical camera. The only thing that he had to do was keep the camera in a weatherproof pouch to stop his breath freezing on the viewfinder. He didn't mention anything special about the film so I expect it was fine and this was in -30 degrees temperatures. I don't expect its that cold around here though to cause any problems!
 
I notice with my digi, when I come in an get it out to take the CF card out, to transfer - everything immediately gets fogged up. So I wrap it up to let it warm up slowly :shrug:
 
I remember reading the book about the ascent of SW Face of Everest made by Doug Scott and Dougal Haston where (iirc) Scott referred to the film in his camera getting so brittle that he'd get a couple of shots before it snapped through the winding action. I vaguely remember that they sealed the camera up with tape when they got back to base camp, and it was only opened back at Kodak's labs where they processed the individual bits of film and managed to get a few useable frames, including the summit shot, and the iconic picture of Haston on the Hillary Step.


But - this was at 28,000ft, and scary cold! :lol:
 
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