Cold weather camera/lens care

[Steve Foss]

Hey all:

It now being officially winter, thought I'd start a thread about how best to make sure your gear stays gearworthy in cold weather.

While some of these tips don't apply to point-and-shoots, some do.

First, how cold does it have to be outside before a camera quits functioning? I don't know because I've shot in -30 and my DSLRs have worked fine. I keep my coat partly unzipped and keep the camera a bit inside the coat with the lens sticking out when I'm not shooting, which keeps the camera cold enough so I don't have cold-warm-cold condensation issues but warm enough so it still works great.

Battery life is another issue. Cold weather compromises that, even with best batteries. And batteries and memory cards have to be with you to do you any good, so I keep all my spare camera batteries in one big pocket with a couple dry chemical handwarmers. Then, when the set of batteries in my camera gets to the point of half charge (that takes a good lot of shooting, even in the cold), I put them in a different warm pocket and put in a new set of fresh batteries, always keeping the old and new batteries separate. My memory cards are in a different warm pocket close to my body but with easy access.

Lens/sensor fogging is the biggest ongoing concern when shooting in cold. It's no problem to bring a warm camera into the cold. But bringing a cold one into a warm vehicle or the house will instantly fog all the glass surfaces on the lens, as well as the camera mirror, sensor and viewfinder.

Of these, the sensor fogging is the worst, because once that dries again, any specks of dust on the sensor may become embedded and resist cleaning efforts.

To combat this, when I'm driving/shooting in winter and my camera is going from the vehicle to the outdoors and back again, I keep it cold in the vehicle, still wearing my winter gear as I'm driving from place to place. A bit of a hardship, but I view my vehicle as a traveling shooting platform anyway, and always have a camera on the seat next to me.

When it comes to bringing all the gear into the warm after a day's cold shooting, those without insulated camera bags/backpacks can simply bring along large ziplock bags and put their gear in that before bringing it in the house. I've also heard it's best to leave those bagged cameras/lenses in the camera bag. The slower they warm up, the less condensation.

I have a padded camera backpack, which acts as insulation, so I just make sure all my memory cards are pulled before I go in the house (so I can download and process images pretty much right away) and seal up my backpack with all my gear in it. Takes a couple hours for the gear to reach room temp that way, and I've never had condensation form with that method. I've never timed it, but by the time I'm done downloading and processing the day's images, the gear is at room temp and dry.

That's how I do it. I imagine it's a help to some of you who haven't done much cold-weather shooting, but I know many of you have, so I'm eager to hear how you do things differently than I do, and why.

Lots of ways to skin a cat, so does anyone else have tips?

[finnbay]

I think that takes care of most of it, Steve. Blowing snow sometimes creates a bigger problem than rain on the end of the lens because it will blow past the lens hood. Did a skiing shoot last year and actually had some of the snow kicked up by the skiers kick up onto the end of my lens. Make sure you have a microfiber to clean it off. Also, adjust exposure and white balance for snow.

[Steve Foss]

Ken, what do you do with your gear when you come in out of the cold?

[finnbay]

Pretty much the same as you. I have an insulated hard case and a padded back pack and leave the camera gear in those for several hours (sometimes overnight) before I take them out. As you mentioned in a thread earlier, if I want to work on photos I take the cards out before I bring them inside. Occasionally, if I see something like northern lights from my living room window, I'll just grab the camera and head outside for awhile. I have zip lock bags sitting right next to my camera gear and I take one of them with and put the camera into that before I come back inside.

[Griggs]

I never would have thought about this, thanks for the info!

[jonny_redhorse]

I put my cameras in a large zip-lock bag also before entering a heated area...the square inches of moisture laden air in the bag is a lot less then the moisture laden air outside of the bag for sure...I sometimes even roll the windows down a bit in the truck to keep the cameras somewhat colder on my weekend outings in and out of the heated cab constantly... it seems to help...

[MN Shutterbug]

Some of these issues I was aware of, some I wasn't. The part about keeping it cold inside the car, never entered my mind. It makes sense, but brrrr. I haven't really done much, if any, winter shooting since I had my 35mm Nikons, so the part re: the memory card was interesting. Thanks for the tips. I'll have to find a couple large zip loc bags for my journey north. I'd better order a couple more batteries tomorrow. Maybe I'll just put them in my underwear, to keep them warm. I do have 2 1 gb. cards, and for me, that will be plenty.

Do they actually make zip loc bags large enough for the 100-400 lens? I'm thinking a small garbage bag with twist tie.

[Steve Foss]

XT, they make zip lock bags big enough for your 30D and 100-400 combined. Jumbo freezer bags. If they don't have any at the grocery store ask them to order some for you or go online. If you can't find them anywhere, your idea about a garbage bag/twist tie would work fine. Tall white kitchen bag would be about the right size to make sure you've got enough room to spare.

[Paul]

as far as large jumob ziploc bags, look in the sporting goods section of fleet farm. I saw some there on Saturday, the x-large was big enough to put a sleeping bag in. I think they were about $4.00 for a 3 pack. THey had 3 different sizes.

[Paul]

My tip and suggestion and word of caution is this, when the weather is cold, your breath is not, becarefull of your breath direction so you dont fog your lense up as you sqeeze the shutter. I had that problem tonight when I was out shooting in the dark and cold.

[MN Shutterbug]

Good reminder, Paul.

[fishinchicks]

Walmart in Marshall has the large ziplock bags. They are in the aisle with the other ziplock bags at the end of the laundry soap aisle. Look on the bottom shelf.

[jonny_redhorse]

I was out this morning taking a few bird pics at 27 below ....the mrs. thought I was a "tat" tainted to go out that early but you know how it is ...you don't get pics sittin on your butt! ... ...anyways, I certainly didn't expose the camera for more then 20 minutes to the frigid arctic temps and even then the camera was held inside my coat (zipped down partially) close to my chest...worked fine! ..no foggy foggy...no problem!...for anything more then that time period and I would have used the plastic bags for sure on entering a warm room or vehicle......