i have to agree with the above...i'm also from Atlantic Canada and i use my D200 and before that my D70s regularly in -15*C temps taking photos of snowmobiling in barren country. i haven't experienced anything like what was mentioned in that article.
AJ Nadershahi wrote:
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.
Thought we should get this wind chill thing straightened out.
A camera or any other dry object has nothing to do with wind chill.
The "wind chill factor" is really a measure of the "heat of evaporation". When moisture, specifically on your skin evaporates it cools more rapidly than the surrounding air whether the wind is blowing or not. When the wind blows it speeds up the rate of evaporation which further reduces the temperature of the skin.
Even if the camera was wet, I dont believe it would be affected by the wind since any moisture on the camera would simply freeze. Your skin on the other hand is internally heated so the moisture on your skin does not freeze, just evaporates and makes it feel much colder. Exposed long enough it will freeze, then you would get frostbite!
Ok enough of that.
I had my D3 fail in cold conditions as well. I am at present attributing it to the use of a Kenko teleconverter. (I was able to take 20- 25 shots before a fresh battery up and died on me with the converter on, I tried two batteries). I took it off and shot a hundred or so without failure using those same batteries.
Do I blame the camera for this? Not at all. I am still not sure exactly what caused the issue, but my D2H seemed ok at the time (then again, I didnt really test it much, i just plugged a few shots with it without using the teleconverter).
If we're playing a break the camera game, I'll just drop it in the -120C freezer at work..... And if you REALLY want to, I guess I could walk to the nice new -180C and try that too
Nothing can beat the old manual cameras. I had a Canon EF back in the 70's that would outlast the lenses. I've been out in -30 degree weather when the lens would freeze up ( greese freezes so focus stops ) and the camera keeps ticking. It's today's electronics that are the achilles heel for cold weather photography.
Aceyduce wrote:
I had my D3 fail in cold conditions as well. I am at present attributing it to the use of a Kenko teleconverter. (I was able to take 20- 25 shots before a fresh battery up and died on me with the converter on, I tried two batteries). I took it off and shot a hundred or so without failure using those same batteries.
Do I blame the camera for this? Not at all. I am still not sure exactly what caused the issue, but my D2H seemed ok at the time (then again, I didnt really test it much, i just plugged a few shots with it without using the teleconverter). ...Show more →
I have a 2x Kenko teleconverter which IMO is a piece of crap. The mount and contactors are so sloppy that it only works half the time while on the camera with my 70-200 VR even in the summer! On D200.
I think you can safely blame it on the Kenko converter!
I believe the Nikon tele converters will work just fine.
wind chill is calibrated only for objects that releasing moisture, like a human body. for a camera body, it makes negligible difference. a plastic block at -10C is going to stay at -10C even with a high wind.
Herb...
AJ Nadershahi wrote:
Actually windchill relates to the rate of cooling. It denotes how quickly (for lack of better words), warmth will be sucked away.
aperture stops working too for the same reason. new lenses and cameras have lubricants that continue working well beyond what any camera in the 1970s would function. back then, you had to change to special libricants. nowadays, they are all special lubricants. today, all you need is a battery pack kept warm and a cable to connect it to the camera that remains flexible. also, in the old days, film would become brittle and break in the cold. a modern camera should be able to continue working well into the -40 or -60 range without anything except LCD display problems so long as their power source keeps working. if you do things like let condensation get inside the camera before going into the cold, that's just stupidity.
Herb...
chez wrote:
Nothing can beat the old manual cameras. I had a Canon EF back in the 70's that would outlast the lenses. I've been out in -30 degree weather when the lens would freeze up ( greese freezes so focus stops ) and the camera keeps ticking. It's today's electronics that are the achilles heel for cold weather photography.
I've had my D200 and D70 out in -20F weather, never had a problem. The D70 isn't even weather sealed... Anyway, it was a user error. No one would go through that many cameras in one sitting.
I've had my D100 and D200 out in 20 deg F below zero while camping more than once. I DID keep the batteries in my pockets inside the sleeping bag during the night.
No failures or glitches of any kind.
Gerald
Feb 04, 2008 at 09:40 PM
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HerbChong wrote:
wind chill is calibrated only for objects that releasing moisture, like a human body. for a camera body, it makes negligible difference. a plastic block at -10C is going to stay at -10C even with a high wind.
Herb...
Actually, wind chill is only applicable to rate of cooling of "exposed" items where there is some form of conduction or air exchange path. A warm jacket may be totally useless in protecting you from wind chill if it is not reasonable air tight. However, even a summer wind-breaker over a jacket will come close to completely negating wind-chill.
While wind chill effects RATE of cooling, it does NOT effect base temperature. So hot water in wind-chills of -40 with a base temp of 0 will cool as if in -40 but will only get down to 0. Humans, since we constantly produce heat, have to worry about wind chill unless the outer layer of our clothing is air-tight.
Moose Peterson conducted a photography workshop in Yellowstone, where the temps were consistently below 0. Many of the participants were shooting the D3, including Moose. He got some great shoots, as did Joe McNalley. Makes you wonder why one group had no problems, while another photog didn't.
I'm pretty convinced it had something to do with user induced condensation brought on by not properly acclimating the lens/body combo. I'm confident if they had mounted the 2 together and left them alone to acclimate to the colder temperature they would have been fine. Too many have no issues like they did to prove otherwise.
chez wrote:
Nothing can beat the old manual cameras. I had a Canon EF back in the 70's that would outlast the lenses. I've been out in -30 degree weather when the lens would freeze up ( greese freezes so focus stops ) and the camera keeps ticking. It's today's electronics that are the achilles heel for cold weather photography.
Until your film cracks as the camera advances.
And if you REALLY want to, I guess I could walk to the nice new -180C and try that too 