Taking photos in cold weather

[BudLightJaguar]

Well, at first as a Finn, my opinion about what is ‘cold’ weather may be different than the most TenTenths users’.

But what do you think are the best tips for shooting in cold weather without shortening the camera's expected lifespan? I think cold weather itself won't be the biggest problem but condensed water will be if sudden changes in temperature happen. That's why I never rush uploading pictures after a cold-weather photo shoot.

One experience from a winter rally in January: In the morning it was about -32 C and after the sunrise around -25. I had a Nikon P80 and a GoPro with me. With Nikon, zoom motor worked fine, LCD display was a bit slow but ok. But the battery died just after taking a few pictures from the parc fermé. As well as the spare battery. Warming up a battery between hands helped a little bit but it just kept dying after a few. The GoPro seemed to work in extreme cold with no effort. Even with the skeleton housing.

Next winter, I'll see how does my current Sony NEX 3 work in cold climate.

[GORDON STREETER]

It was always a problem with camcorders that used tape as it used to stick to the head.
Seriously cold weather has always killed batteries whatever type from cars to lithium and it would appear that using a remote battery that can be kept warm in some way is the answer. Presumably top Arctic photographers/film makers do ?
If I am filming in cold weather I always make sure that the equipment is left in the temperature that it is going to be used at for about 30 minutes before use as condensation on very low micro volt PC boards can cause major problems as well as misted lenses.

[Sodemo]

A modern dslr should be reasonably robust enough to live with the majority of weather conditions, the one area of concern really is the lenses. Cheaper lenses suffer more than the fully weather sealed variety, but just take care if you are shooting with consumer grade lenses. I've had my Nikon in just about everything the uk can throw at it, I was using it at the freezing btcc brands hatch round in 2013, the baking hot blancpain rounds and the very wet oulton park gold cup.

I think the bigger area of concern was to not store the camera long term in a damp location. When I got my camera in 2012 I had just moved into a new flat, unbeknownst to me, this flat had a serious damp and mould problem. Anyway after many weeks and months of arguing back and forth between the landlord and letting agents and myself, nothing was done about it, so I quickly decided that I couldn't store sensitive stuff in the flat, so all my old photos and any sensitive gear I stored at my dads, including my camera and lenses. It's all good now though, I'm in a much better, more modern flat which has no damp, so my camera gear is all stored safely here.

[BudLightJaguar]

Originally Posted by Sodemo

I think the bigger area of concern was to not store the camera long term in a damp location. When I got my camera in 2012 I had just moved into a new flat, unbeknownst to me, this flat had a serious damp and mould problem. Anyway after many weeks and months of arguing back and forth between the landlord and letting agents and myself, nothing was done about it, so I quickly decided that I couldn't store sensitive stuff in the flat, so all my old photos and any sensitive gear I stored at my dads, including my camera and lenses. It's all good now though, I'm in a much better, more modern flat which has no damp, so my camera gear is all stored safely here.

Yes, damp is actually a bigger problem than the cold. When the temperature goes far below zero Celsius air is usually very dry. Indoor humidity here in Scandinavia stays around 30% during the winter, when the ideal humidity is between 40 and 60%.