p.1 #1 · Leaving camera in car with low temperatures
Question? I want to take my camera with me in the morning when I leave to go to work so I can take photos when I get off but employer won't allow personal items like this to be brought into the facility. The temperature here is freezing at night. Will it hurt to leave my camera in the vehicle during work hours. Didn't know if it would cause condensation or something to get in the body or lens. How to you guys handle that. Thanks
p.1 #3 · Leaving camera in car with low temperatures
Yep -- just take out the battery and you should be fine, cold temps will just drain it. Just keep your gear in a camera bag so it doesn't warm up too fast in the morning when you crank up the heat, that way when you are out shooting you don't have a warm camera back out in the cold.
Paul
p.1 #4 · Leaving camera in car with low temperatures
tmpollard wrote:
Didn't know if it would cause condensation or something to get in the body or lens.
This is what you need to be concerned about. When it's out in the cold, or if you go from warm home or car to cold, no need to worry.
But going from cold to warm, condensation can occur. What I do is to turn anything electronic off when going from cold to warm if the change is great enough to cause your eyeglasses to fog. Wait for the electronic gadget to warm up enough for that to not happen, and then you can use it.
p.1 #6 · Leaving camera in car with low temperatures
A lot of times, when I take my camera in the car I put it in a small hard plastic thermal cooler. This accomplishes two things, it keeps the extremes of temperature tempered, plus if it is in view of a thief they just think it is a soft drink cooler.
I learned the cooler trick when I was using film cameras that were more apt to be affected by high temperatures. Learned it from other photographers.
p.1 #7 · Leaving camera in car with low temperatures
I have had two coolers stolen from vehicles - luckily in those days they had film in them. One of them was in the dead of winter - the thief stood on a snow bank to kick my window in. Anything in view can be stolen. I have left cameras in vehicles at much below freezing temps and taking the battery with you is a good idea if you plan on using the camera quickly. Otherwise, I have just let the gear warm up while I drive down the road and the interior heater on.
p.1 #8 · Leaving camera in car with low temperatures
I don't think he wants it to warm up.
He wants to shoot after work. Keep everything relatively cool in the trunk, in a padded case. Then when he takes it out, the camera temperature is around the same as the outside temperature (hopefully).
This isn't Gunnison where everything creaks and snaps and breaks when cold...
p.1 #9 · Leaving camera in car with low temperatures
How cold are you talking about? I leave my camera out in my car all winter long. I don't like to bring it in and out of warm places. I live in South Dakota; winter can be six months long, and it can hit 30 F below here from time to time. The coldest I had my Nikon D300 out in was about 42 F below. No problems, and the camera is working great. In winter I shoot at night a lot and just leave the camera sitting on a tripod while I wait in my car or in a snow cave I make to stay out of the wind. Camera can sit out on my tripod for hours in conditions that would kill a lot of people.
p.1 #11 · Leaving camera in car with low temperatures
While it is true that battery suffers greatly at low tempatures don't forget that the camera is jammed with lots of electronics. The chips, connnectors, and packages all have different thermal expansion coefficients. Most manufactures and the integrator of those things ( read Nikon here ) insure that they all hold togather for some stated expected usage condition and number of cycles. I'm sure Nikon has expectations for its electronics and then does its own testing, but frankly probably not good business to say good for 10, 100, 1000, 10000or even 100000 cycles
IMHO its a very bad idea to let your camer sit in the trunk of your car or other place where it will see extreme temperature cycling. Will it mean it will break after 20 or 50 such cyles no body really knows but the manufacture, but even here what they simulate versus real work cycling can be different. If you can avoid it, I would, would I fret to shoot in freezeing -10C on the mountain, no. But I'd not make it a habit of leaving my gear in the garage to safe time or work. Keep your gear from cycling is a good rule of thumb when it doesn't have too!
p.1 #12 · Leaving camera in car with low temperatures
Did everyone buy their cameras to keep in temperature/humidity controlled shrines or were they bought to be used?
I've had a DSLR in my work truck for over 2 years, changing out the battery as needed. It's been through subzero winter weather and midsummer heat with no problems. It was behind my seat, covered only with a towel for camouflage.
p.1 #13 · Leaving camera in car with low temperatures
I just keep my camera in my car all winter long. There are no wide temperature swings such as 70 degrees to 30 below. In my car, it just stays cold. I've had no problems
p.1 #14 · Leaving camera in car with low temperatures
I have a beater D40 plus 18-70 seating in my car for over two years now. It's not very cold here, but summers are in the 90's and inside the car is well over a 100. The only issue I have is shorter battery life. Even the spare batteries die in a few months during the summer. But they charge right back up and work just fine.
Btw, I don't think it's a good idea to leave the battery out of the camera. The little battery inside that keeps your time and some settings relies on the main battery to keep it charged. Just keep a spare battery or two around and you'll be fine.
