SLR in extremely cold weather

Well i was out tonight in 4 degrees shooting for about an hour, my lens was completely condensated after about an hour, i mean dripping. Any solutions for this? I have a celestron 9.25 telescope that i can strap these heater straps too but there a bit big for a lens :lol:
 
Dexy101 said:
Well i was out tonight in 4 degrees shooting for about an hour, my lens was completely condensated after about an hour, i mean dripping. Any solutions for this? I have a celestron 9.25 telescope that i can strap these heater straps too but there a bit big for a lens :lol:
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Buy some shorter tapes, a 2" eyepice tape is long enough for most lenses. :)
 
Sorry to revive an old thread.

Anyone know where I can buy large grip seal plastic bags in quantities less than 100? I don't want 100 of them, and certainly don't wanna be shelling out £50 either ha ha!
 
Try Lakeland plastics.
 
CanonEOS said:
Maybe you should go to Harbin in China - 35c so -20c is nothing who told you batteries don't last as long in the cold? thats crap never heard of that before i live in China.

IMO if you think the batteries are going to get cold what about the camera? oh my don't take it anywhere from a warn home if you are that worried. I think Canon solve this problem on the dslr long ago a camera is a lot tougher than you think.
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You've never heard that cold isn't good for batteries? Try telling that to my friend whose car battery died at -22 after she'd spent a few hours at my house.... You'll be telling us that a knock to a battery has no effect next

Personally, I think if you take care & look after your kit properly then you'll be fine :) I hope you enjoy your trip & get some shots you feel you would like to share
 
cold does dramatically effect battery life.

i also had an aperture mech start playing up shortly after shooting in -7c or whatever it was last winter. may have been coincidence though..
 
Cold conditions slow down chemical reactions and that's what produces electrical energy from a battery. Just keep a spare in your inside pocket and if the one in use give you any problems, switch them over. Warming the cold battery will revive its performance :)
 
Thanks for the advice islander. I just bought a spare battery yesterday, should be getting it through the post either tomorrow or early next week.

Digressing I know, but I couldn't believe how expensive genuine batteries are! Fifty-odd quid! I was never gonna pay that when copies are about £15. Ended up going for a used genuine one from a dealers for £15. Hopefully I won't be able to tell it from the one I've already got
 
The Boz said:
Thanks for the advice islander. I just bought a spare battery yesterday, should be getting it through the post either tomorrow or early next week.

Digressing I know, but I couldn't believe how expensive genuine batteries are! Fifty-odd quid! I was never gonna pay that when copies are about £15. Ended up going for a used genuine one from a dealers for £15. Hopefully I won't be able to tell it from the one I've already got
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This is what I did & haven't noticed any difference between the battery life of the new on & the used one
 
I thought about this thread when I was watching the 'how they made it' bit of Frozen Planet last night. The producer/cameraman (not sure which it was) was using a Nikon when it was below -30 in Siberia. Think -10 should be fine. :)
 
Off to Lapland with my trusty old Nikon D90, 7 batteries and a zip lock bag on 12th December 2011. Hopefully no major issues and lots of great photos.. It's -15 there at the mo... Lots of things to shoot. Reindeer. Santa. Landscape. Northern lights oh and the family.. Lol

I'll post photo on my return..
 
GeordieLass said:
I thought about this thread when I was watching the 'how they made it' bit of Frozen Planet last night. The producer/cameraman (not sure which it was) was using a Nikon when it was below -30 in Siberia. Think -10 should be fine. :)
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The BBC did have special gear for their cameras, this is from an interview they gave about the making of Frozen Planet.

What else is affected by the cold?
Batteries flatten very fast. We had a system where we would use a pair of V Lock batteries on our video cameras and a bigger thermal cover to go over both the camera and the battery pair and then leave the camera on standby. The warmth generated by it being on standby keeps everything toasty and the thermal insulation jacket would keep all the heat in.

Did you modify kit for cold temperatures?
On our Cineflex aerial filming system we had heaters around servo motors and circuit boards. We had some gear specially made for us - a motion control rig which we collaborated on with a company called Control Freaks. They built a lighter weight motion control rig than we'd had on Planet Earth that was built from the ground up to work in freezing temperatures.
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Probably a bit more expensive than a zip lock back, a hand warmer and a spare battery. ;)
 
As has been pointed out already, the issues that you'll face are very fast battery drain and frozen moisture on lens elements and on internal mirrors. The battery issue is resolved by carrying lots of spares and keeping the fully charged ones in the warmest place you can. It might not sound very appealing but in your underwear is often the safest bet! Once warm, the batteries will often return to nearly full charge. The frozen moisture issue can be avoided by making sure you don't go in and out of differing temperatures too often and, as someone pointed out above, not breathing on the elements. I shot in a deep freezer recently with a girl who was off to the South Pole and the only issue that really cropped up was the moisture as I had to keep going back outside into the car park. Also, when I came out for the last time, all of the ice that had formed on the cameras melted, making my cameras look like I'd just been swimming with them! Have fun!
 
Dave1 said:
The BBC did have special gear for their cameras, this is from an interview they gave about the making of Frozen Planet.

Probably a bit more expensive than a zip lock back, a hand warmer and a spare battery. ;)
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I was talking about a guy with a dslr around his neck, not the film cameras. :) Still, interesting to hear how they kept their gear warm.
 
Well I'm back and it only got to -9 and my D90 took over 100 shots before the battery even started to slide down the scale... as for the lens condensation I kept the camera in a airtight bag for an hr to climatise. no fogging.. phew..
 
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