p.2 #1 · Condensation Worries / Advice in Cold Weather
which is on the outside and not especially relevant. i shoot outside in cold a lot too. it's the only way to get bald eagle shots in the winter. 2 or 3 hours outside the entire time in well below freezing and i bring my equipment in with no special protection all the time. what i don't do is open up the the camera until it has warmed it. the body and lenses are sealed enough that no humid air is going to move inside the camera or lens unless you use the camera immediately. just don't use it.
Herb...
Doug Vann wrote:
The zip bag method is the best and cheapest way to prevent condensation on your camera/lens when coming back inside a heated area.
p.2 #2 · Condensation Worries / Advice in Cold Weather
The only precaution that I take (it's currently -18C in the sunshine outside my window and that's the highest in a few weeks now) is keeping the body and lens in the bag when I get home to control the rate at which everything warms up. Pull the CF card and do my thing while it warms up.
ALWAYS have more than one battery. I like having three so one is in camera and two are inside your jacket ready to go with one spare should you need to do a quick change.
So far I haven't had an issue with condensation except a little on the VF glass and sometimes the mirror but that was taking the un-bagged body from my cold car into a warm hangar.
p.2 #3 · Condensation Worries / Advice in Cold Weather
What great, if varied, info! First time shooting very cold weather, so looking for advice.
Headed above the arctic circle in sweden, feb 5th, for 6 days dogsledding. Temps expected @ -25F. Using Mk IIN and 7D, with 16-35 2.8L and 24-70 2.8L on the bodies. Will have 70-200 2.8L along as well. All gear in the camera bag, on the sled, cold @ 6 hours at a stretch.. Lotsa spare batteries next to my body, staying warm.
Questions: Will changing warm batteries (body heat) into cold camera body introduce moisture into camera, as human body warmth contains moisture.
Any suggestions re: changing lenses in the field?
Any suggestions re: gloves? Most finger gloves for those temps are bulky with camera adjustments. What @ mitten-style with light glove serfs, and removing outer mitten when stopping for photos, likely for no more than a minute or two at a time.
Clearly plan to stage-down cold-warm and warm-cold transitions, in camera bag lightly insulated tamrac bag. Better to do this, or take each camera/lens out of bag outdoors, place in ziplocs, then take indoors?
Thak you so much for taking the time to read and reply...much appreciated!
p.2 #4 · Condensation Worries / Advice in Cold Weather
your cameras have internal batteries for maintaining settings that don't come out of the camera when you take the regular batteries out. if it were not for that, i would suggest leaving the cameras secured and outside and taking only the memory cards inside to warm up and import into your computer or storage device. because i expect you to bring them indoors only to take them outdoors again the next day, i would take the memory cards out for transfer while you are still outdoors, put the entire bag inside a plastic garbage bag, and then bring them indoors. you don't need airtight seal, just greatly reduced air exchange and a plastic garbage bag tied shut is enough. any camera you expect to use indoors should probably be a weather resistant P&S kept in an inner pocket and probably never used outdoors.
Herb...
dickdoc wrote:
Clearly plan to stage-down cold-warm and warm-cold transitions, in camera bag lightly insulated tamrac bag. Better to do this, or take each camera/lens out of bag outdoors, place in ziplocs, then take indoors?
p.2 #5 · Condensation Worries / Advice in Cold Weather
great, and thanks herb. no plan to shoot indoors, and will have a p&s along anyway. trash bag with twistie will hold entire camera bag, and cards removed while still outdoors...no problem with leaving the entire cameras and lenses outdoors overnite at these severe temps,eh? essentially 24/7 at -25 to -35F... good to know.
p.2 #6 · Condensation Worries / Advice in Cold Weather
I'm in the camp that just leaves the camera in the closed bag to warm up slowly when going back indoors. I do take the CF card out of the camera when I get into the driveway. Do this is the summer too. Less hassle getting the cards downloaded to the computer.
I wear glasses and even with the relatively low humidity inside a home in winter they fog up completely. Takes a few minutes to get them up to temperture and clear them. The cameras and lenses in the closed camera bag don't have this problem as the air inside the bag, what little of it there is, is at the outside humidity level. Air exchange between the closed bag and house air is negligible.
p.2 #7 · Condensation Worries / Advice in Cold Weather
i caught the tail-end of a documentary on the radio this week talking about the photographer on Scotts 'silver medal' polar expedition, he was herbert ponting - some astonishing photos http://www.ponting-portfolio.com/prints.html
he was working at -30 or 40 centigrade, with fragile wet glass plates, developing them in a temporary darkroom he'd built himself (and slept in too, apparently). He'd take several hours to move anything in or out of the darkroom else it'd shatter or the chemicals on the plates would drop off - so be patient with your stuff as you move it too and fro!
p.2 #8 · Condensation Worries / Advice in Cold Weather
I put my money where my mouth is, so to speak.
Spent about an hour at -10°C outside then went into the +30°C tropical enclosure at the zoo with my D3s and 400mm 2.8. Very humid, lots of exterior condensation on the lens, but NOTHING inside. Spent 20 minutes in there and then went back out into the cold. Dry air cooled outside dried up the front element and the camera was ready to shoot.
p.2 #9 · Condensation Worries / Advice in Cold Weather
the mechanicals and electronics would not have a problem. it's the batteries that would and there is a battery that stays inside the camera even when you remove the main power batteries. that's the one that would not be happy and i can see there being odd things happening if you remove the main batteries and leave everything else outside. i don't think it would be a good idea to leave the main batteries out in the cold because i don't know how much capacity would be lost if you then warm them back up to put them into the camera later.
a plastic garbage bag is trivial to carry and frankly it doesn't even have to be all that airtight to protect against too much condensation on the outside. it's because you are going to be so long in the cold that makes cold condensation an issue. over that long period of time, the chance of moist air getting inside is higher. a few hours outside in -25 then back into a warm house to stay for a day is a lot easier to deal with. the camera won't even get to -25 because every time you turn it on, parts of it warm up.
Herb...
dickdoc wrote:
great, and thanks herb. no plan to shoot indoors, and will have a p&s along anyway. trash bag with twistie will hold entire camera bag, and cards removed while still outdoors...no problem with leaving the entire cameras and lenses outdoors overnite at these severe temps,eh? essentially 24/7 at -25 to -35F... good to know.
Jan 11, 2012 at 11:50 AM
AmbientMike Offline • • • • • • [X]
p.2 #10 · Condensation Worries / Advice in Cold Weather
Herb, if you want to bring your gear inside and not warm it up first, that's your business. But your cameras are not airtight and you are probably getting condensation/frost on your camera innards. If you don't mind that, take your cameras in from -10, straight in to the house.
The camera is cold, the indoor air is relatively warm and humid, unless nobody breathes. Warm air over cold camera means condensation. The lens cap has virtually nothing to do with it.
Doug Vann +1
Ryan karr: That is a really bad idea. I've put a 40d in the oven to clear out the moisture shooting in rain.They'll handle moisture to a point, but probably not infinitely. Did you actually take the camera apart and look at the innards? or just pull the lens off and look at the mirror? I can't pull a lens off going from a/c to 35 celsius/95 farenheit and humid without condensation forming on the mirror. So what were you looking at?
p.2 #11 · Condensation Worries / Advice in Cold Weather
dickdoc wrote:
Any suggestions re: gloves? Most finger gloves for those temps are bulky with camera adjustments. What @ mitten-style with light glove serfs, and removing outer mitten when stopping for photos, likely for no more than a minute or two at a time.
I've been using a pair of mechanic gloves and so far have found them to work pretty good with the controls of the 1Ds. Not sure how it would be on the 7D as I've never held one but on the XSi it wasn't as easy.
p.2 #12 · Condensation Worries / Advice in Cold Weather
i don't need them to be airtight. they just have to be airtight enough. do you know how much air transfer is taking place between the inside of the camera and the outside if it is just sitting there and not being used? none. if there is no air transfer, how is the moisture going to get in? modern cameras are not air sieves like film bodies and lenses. all i see are people who aren't bothering to use their brains, just like the people who religiously put UV filters on their lenses.
Herb....
AmbientMike wrote:
Herb, if you want to bring your gear inside and not warm it up first, that's your business. But your cameras are not airtight and you are probably getting condensation/frost on your camera innards. If you don't mind that, take your cameras in from -10, straight in to the house.
p.2 #13 · Condensation Worries / Advice in Cold Weather
I have been shooting Canon 5D`s and 1D`s in weather well below 0 degrees F (not Celsius but Fahrenheit) for years now and Canons are anything but weather tight. All I do when coming inside is pull the flash cards and put them in my pocket, then put the camera in a zip-lock freezer bag and leave it in my bag inside for a while without opening it. If I have a lot of lenses and bodies with me I put it all in a trash bad and tie it shut. Leave it in a cooler part of what ever building you are in for a hour or two. Never had a problem yet.....it is really not a big deal.....Peter
p.2 #14 · Condensation Worries / Advice in Cold Weather
Crazy how every time this subject comes up there are so many folks who are sure of their varied opinions. I'd bet there are 100 versions of this same thread over the past 10 years on this site alone.
Often wrong but always confident those cold weather photographers.
Living in Minnesota I've never seen nor heard from my friends of a single warm --> cold transition problem. Trouble comes when going cold --> warm, and for me the ziplock, plastic or tightly zipped backpack most have described here has always worked fine.
p.2 #15 · Condensation Worries / Advice in Cold Weather
AmbientMike wrote:
Ryan karr: That is a really bad idea. I've put a 40d in the oven to clear out the moisture shooting in rain.They'll handle moisture to a point, but probably not infinitely. Did you actually take the camera apart and look at the innards? or just pull the lens off and look at the mirror? I can't pull a lens off going from a/c to 35 celsius/95 farenheit and humid without condensation forming on the mirror. So what were you looking at?
Why would I take the lens off? Why are you pulling lenses off? The whole point I'm arguing is that you leave the lens on. I was in the cold for an hour, went into a humid space for half an hour, then went back into the cold. Lens stayed on the whole time, I didn't use it in the humid space.
I came outside, the cold got rid of the moisture on the element, and then the viewfinder was clear and the camera took photos just fine.
I just think people are worrying WAY too much over this.
