Winter is a great time of year for outdoor photography, but keeping your camera alive in cold weather can be challenging!
Our Calgary native, Doug, passes on his top tips for cold weather photography, helping you to keep your camera alive this winter!
Winter is coming! And with that the challenges of photography in cold weather!
In extreme cold weather batteries freeze, and that can bring most cameras to a rapid halt.
As well lubricants start to solidify, so moving parts don’t.
Back in the day, film became brittle which was a real problem if it tore in the camera!
So all of these were challenges that had to be overcome when I was working in Calgary. But of course in the UK we don’t see -40’c very often!
If you are photographing outdoors for a long period, keep spare batteries in a warm pocket.
Ensuring the camera doesn’t get “Cold Soaked” for any lengthy period is also a good plan.
If you have left the camera overnight in the car at -10’c then get the camera warmed up a bit before using it to ensure there is no damage to moving parts caused by solidified lubricants.
I used to own a second set of cameras that had been winterised just for working in extreme cold… (Though I often wonder if this was a bit of a scam by my local repair guy…. I still ruined at least 3 Contax RTS’s in bad weather…)
Warm cameras used outdoors when it’s snowing risk snow landing on the camera, melting and potentially causing water damage.
So you need to be carefull to avoid snow as much as rain. If you do get snow on the camera get it brushed off as rapidly as possible before it melts.
Don’t blow it off as your hot breath will help to melt it and drive water inside the camera.
Carrying a small brush to clean snow off cameras is a good idea, as well as some tissues to blot up any damp.
The big danger lies in bringing your cold camera back into a warm and humid environment!
Humid air gets into the interior of the camera, condenses and destroys your camera’s electronics. So lots of care is needed when bringing cold soaked equipment inside!
The best solution is to seal the camera into a ziplock airtight bag outside in the cold before bringing the camera into the warm. Then allow the gear to warm up before exposing it to the much more humid warm air.
So, in a nutshell… Keep you batteries warm, carry a little brush to get the snow off the camera, and put your equipment into an airtight bag of somesorts to allow it to acclimatize before using it indoors.
Do all of that, and you’re good to go, no matter the winter weather!
Page One has been providing commercial and corporate photography from its Nottingham Studio since 1996!
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