stuff happens to us sometimes. This guy was either unlucky or stupid or a bit of both. I have used all my nikons in sub zero conditions and Never had one issue Ever. Minnesota (where i live) is brutal and if this guy was shooting in the locker room which is loaded with humidity warmth etc and then took that same gear straight out into sub zero then yes Anything is possible
Wow...tough conditions, but what about the people that have taken the D200's to Antarctica and been fine? Obviously they did something wrong if they got a D200 to stop working mid fire...thats really not all that cold considering where other peoples equipment have been... I would def think there is condensation going on inside the body. Don't think even seals will protect against that, right?
This goes back to that article on luminous landscape a while back where about 10% of canon's failed (1d2 and 1ds2's) in antartica, where as either none or 1 nikon failed.. but there were many more canon's present to begin with.
I remember a recent article of an arctic photo blog - guy was shooting emperor penguins with his D300, even had photos of chicks standing around the bottom of his tripod - had zero failures.
Machines fail, usually because of human error or improper care, if we look hard enough we could find many examples of this happening to other brands - its inconsequential to Nikon or any other brand in the grand scheme of things.
Interesting. A couple weeks ago I took my d50 out for about half an hour in -33° (Celsius) -44° with the wind chill. It lasted with no problems at all. The top LCD was a little slow to turn on by the time I was finished, but I didn't notice any other problems. Granted, I only shot about 20 frames, but still.
I'm inclined to agree that there must be something else going on, like condensation issues, as previously mentioned.
I'm surprised any electronics would function for more than 10 or 15 minutes in -25 deg F weather. I am impressed his battery lasted for a quarter in those temperatures.
Interesting, I'd say it was a good day for Nikon. In -25 deg weather their camera captured some amazing images. Granted it took 5 different camera bodies to make it happen...
Guys, quit quoting -25. You're equipment can't feel the wind chill. It was -4 by the end of the game if I remember correctly.
Granted, the wind may help drive the cold inside the camera.
I bet his main problem was attaching the lens to the body outside. If the body was warm, attach to cold lens, you're going to produce condensation. In a few minutes that condensation is going to freeze! USER ERROR!!!
This is probably not so much about the camera as the air inside the camera. No camera will continue to operate in those conditions if they a lot of moisture inside. Ice crystals will form on the moving parts and they won't be moving parts any more.
At below zero temps, you need to take some real precautions when moving from a warm (relatively moist inside) to a colder outside. I would pack them in an airtight container well before the exposere and place dessicant with them. That would absorb the moisture and when you went outside, all you have to worry about is the lousy battery life.
And you can forget about complaining to the manufacturer. There is a reason they state 32F on the specs.
i have had my gear out in -20before and i am not talking windchill either , but i take good precautions and always have spare batts inside my jacket and swap when needed
While this is cold and all, it should be noted that photo equipment is not affected by windchill. Windchill is a factor solely for exposed skin due to evaporative cooling. The actual air temperature is all that matters to your camera, since the wind can't cause a camera - as it can exposed skin - to cool to below the actual air temperature.
"Good Lord makes things better than we humans make things. Here he designs a human body that with proper planning (using the brain he gave us) can survive the most wicked cold temps in the United States. And we humans can’t even design a piece of ($5,000) camera equipment that can last 15-minutes in the same elements."
Since humans have no control over the weather thats no possible.
Actually windchill relates to the rate of cooling. It denotes how quickly (for lack of better words), warmth will be sucked away.
The temperature drop is much faster when considering windchill, which would exasperate temperature fluctuations from a camera that was taken from warm to cold and contribute to issues related to condensation.
There simply HAS to be another factor at work here other than what's being described in the article . I live in Atlantic Canada , where it's freezing cold a LOT of the year . I've NEVER experienced an issue with any Nikon camera and I do quite a bit of shooting in sub zero conditions for hours at a time .
Just last week it was -25C ( before the wind chill factor ) and I was outside with my D300 for hours at a time . Zero camera protection and zero issues . How many footbal games get played in -25C conditions ? Not too many .
Over the years , my D200 and D2Hs has performed flawlessly as well .
So much so that I would NEVER hesitate to out in the cold to shoot .
Now , I do not own a D3 , but to me , the odds of getting 5 or 6 defective cameras
( including a D200 ) in a row are simply too much .
Something else is going on here . It's that simple ( IMO ) .
I have had my D200 out in 15 degree F weather while skiing. Carry the camera around in a Camelback so the camera is totally cold soaked when I pull it out. Works fine. No Problems.
This has been one of the coldest and snowiest Winters ever in Colorado and my D3 has been flawless, even in -19. I find the battery life to be outstanding it.
