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).

Hmmm , just for the heck of it , I will try my D300 / 200mm f2VR /TC14EII combo
over the next few days to see if the TC has any effect .

humm, i have a -35 blast freezer in work. 25 mins in there might be a bit to much for a d2h.

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).

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

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...

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.



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.

Robert Hanashiro (USA Today) was at same game with D3.. no reported issues.

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.

I just came back from the Gold Coast and the D300 worked great. Temperatures dropped to some of the lowest ever seen in February, +20 deg Celsius at times.

There was no need to put on a jumper just yet, but I did have to put my shirt back on after going for a swim. Actually, that was to protect myself from the high UV factor.

I find what happend herestrange. I live in Ontario, Canada where the temperature this time of year can drop as low as -40 celsius. I take my D3 out all the time, no real precautions taken and I have no problems at all. I'm out for a few hours too so either he just had real bad luck or some bum cameras.

I, and my staff, beat the daylights out of our gear. Partly it's the job and partly because we don't own it and they pay us to get the shots and they'll buy more goodies/it's insured. We have accessories and tripods that cost more than a D3. But it's never failed on the job, as in failing to get the shot ( if it did fail, we don't own it anymore). Just because you don't own it doesn't mean you can take any complicated mechanical/electronic device from a manufacturer directly to the field, or even from room temperature to something other without testing it first. I would NEVER take an untested piece of gear, no matter how free or how cool on a mission critical shoot without some testing. These guys are supposed to be pros. Yet they take totally untested gear into the field? Sure, it's supposed to work in those conditions but who cares what the marketing dude says? I would take my most chewed on, beat up, old-school camera on an important gig before I would take a wonder-tool that some suit had just handed me. Unless I had fully explained my philosophy to said suit and made sure they understood that that they might be risking the entire shoot by sending out untested gear. Jeez, better a D2h that nails the shot than a D3 that is dead weight, or a digibeta that works vs the latest "digital cinema" camera that goes TU with a bit of mist in the air. Or film god forbid. Rant off...

I was at the NFC Championship. I had a Canon 20D with me and 3 batteries. They all died in the first quarter because of the cold. When I got inside, they began to work again with full charge. What i discovered: Carry the spare batteries next to your skin and rotate them as they "die" due to cold. If the batteries stay warm, the camera will work.

ShaneEngelking wrote:
Carry the spare batteries next to your skin and rotate them as they "die" due to cold. If the batteries stay warm, the camera will work.

So true. If you shoot in the cold you need to keep those batteries warm! When I was into nature photography that was one of the first tips I learned.

ShaneEngelking wrote:
I was at the NFC Championship. I had a Canon 20D with me and 3 batteries. They all died in the first quarter because of the cold. When I got inside, they began to work again with full charge. What i discovered: Carry the spare batteries next to your skin and rotate them as they "die" due to cold. If the batteries stay warm, the camera will work.

Hmmm, I was kind of assuming they were keeping extra batts in an inside pocket and rotating them through the cameras. If they weren't doing that, there isn't much you can tell about the cameras... Same deal with batts. At least cycle them a few times to make sure they hold a charge and work well. Batts are not exactly assembled with the same loving care as cameras. And I'm not sure that even pro cameras are assembled as well as they once were.

(Some guys I know who work in the anarctic/arctic (film/HD) wear their batteries inside and run wires to the camera. Plug it in when it's time to roll. Probably harder with a still camera)

fishfilm wrote:

(Some guys I know who work in the anarctic/arctic (film/HD) wear their batteries inside and run wires to the camera. Plug it in when it's time to roll. Probably harder with a still camera)

Not at all. People have been doing this even long before digital came on the scene. It can be done using either camera manufactured external battery systems, or custom made adapters.

would be fairly easy on a d3, just mod the battery and cover. remove the cells and drill a hole for the wiring.

Yah, Nikons can't handle the extreme weather. I mean, NASA has only taken them to the moon and stuff, where it is pretty balmy. As well, all those D2XS' they just bought only get used in extreme weather in space , with only a 500 degree temperature variance.

bonnerkopf wrote:
Yah, Nikons can't handle the extreme weather. I mean, NASA has only taken them to the moon and stuff, where it is pretty balmy. As well, all those D2XS' they just bought only get used in extreme weather in space , with only a 500 degree temperature variance.

IIRC every D2X they purchased was taken apart and put together again by a third party company. The part that interested me the most was the Braycote lubricant they used. Have you seen the cost of those