p.1 #1 · Help with Cold-Weather & Astrophotography
I'm not entirely sure where this post belongs, but since I'll be photographing a landscape (well skyscape) I figured this was as good as any as you all have the most experience with this kind of thing.
Here's my problem:
I'll be in Zion/Monument Valley/Natural Bridges in January and with the legendarily clear skies I want to try and take some pictures of the stars. I've done a bit of reading on the subject and wondered if any of you could share some tips. I'll likely be using my 17-50 and 100mm Macro as they're the fastest lenses I've got. My chief concern is the cold weather. Awhile ago I read something about needing to keep the lens from getting too cold, now I can't remember who said that or where it was, it did seem plausible. I was thinking of using glove/sock warmers and wristband (or something similar) to hold the warmer in place, is this over kill? Please share your thoughts and experiences, I'd be very grateful.
p.1 #2 · Help with Cold-Weather & Astrophotography
Not sure you will need to keep the lens warm except to prevent dew on the front element. And at that you, may be able to get away with keeping the warmer wrapped around the lens hood. It really does not need much to keep dew away. But, if there is little or no moisture in the air, you may not need to worry about it.
Since you will be doing sky scapes, you will not need to change focus unless you are trying to keep some foreground objects in focus too so this would mean no focusing or manual focusing.
Where cold weather really becomes an issue is with batteries. I would recommend keeping 2 batteries. 1 in your camera and 1 in your pocket. This way you can swap the batteries out when one seems to die. The you put the warm one in until it dies, the swap it again with the warm one from your pocket.
Try doing a search on dew heaters in astronomy and that may help with your delimma.
hope this helps.
p.1 #3 · Help with Cold-Weather & Astrophotography
I shoot in weather down to -35 [actually today is -27 and I was shooting] and the lens getting cold has not been a problem. [-45 or so was a problem with film because it caused static when winding but thats gone away with digital. Also cracking slowly to avoid brittle film has gone away]
Cold has a few challenges:
- Bringing the camera back into the warmth causes condensation. Do it slowly in your bag.
- Batteries don't last as long. Bring more
- Fingers get cold - get some light gloves to fit in your mits
- you breath on the lens and it freezes. Exale 1/2 way before shooting.
- you breath and the steam gets in the picture. don't breath while you shoot.
p.1 #4 · Help with Cold-Weather & Astrophotography
It's been awhile since I first asked the question, but I really appreciate your responses. It sounds like some solid advice that will help me a lot come January. Thanks!
