What was the lowest temperature have you brought your gears into?

[Vikmnilu]

Some time in February, I think 2009, I had the marvellous idea of going outside to shoot at -27C. Did not have a car, went biking for about 4km and back home. At the time, I had my old EOS 10D and sigma lenses 17-35 2.8-4 and sigma 105mm. Besides 50mm 1.8 II.
After 3 hours shooting with no problem, the LCD started to react much slower and the AF i the lenses to be very slow. I decided to leave home, that was the first time that my toes got frozen, very painful to get them back to life

This year in March we were outside photographing the aurora and it was -20C. Canon EOS 5D mark II, 24mm 1.4L II, Sigma 12-24mm and Canon 24-70mm 2.8 L.

Besides that we were freezing, toes again as well as hands, no problems at all, 4 hours outside in total. Batteries get empty quite faster than normally, but I did not miss any shot because of this.

I usually put my equipment back in my Lowepro old minitrekker and fastpack with lots of silica gels (I always carry them inside the bags) and I have not had any problem. Just be careful and leave the camera to warm up inside the backpack.

Next time, toewarmers for sure

Victor

 

[madspihl]

I regularly bring both my 5D III and 6D with me on northern lights sessions in the backcountry here in Sisimiut, Greenland. Both bodies have battery grips.

We're on the west coast of Greenland, about 40 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle, and I often work with the cameras in -25 Celsius, and usually there is a Canon 24mm f/1.4L II or a Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 on the camera.

I have done quite a few star trail attempts (often ruined by too much northern lights... luxury problem) where I've left the cameras outside in -20 Celsius and colder overnight. I then wrap the body and parts of the lens in fleece jackets and woollen stuff, and I get about 7 hours of operation out of a setup like that in -20 Celsius (about 400-450 60 second exposures). Actually the wired remote often dies before the camera, even if the remote is wrapped in it's own dedicated woolen glove and nursed with one of these thermal / heating packs you can put in gloves.

The climate up here is very dry, and I have never had any issues with camera malfunction or anything relating to condensation. Sure, everything gets a bit moist when I come inside, but I just leave the camera turned off until it has dried out. It takes less than an hour. And as long as you NEVER take it outside in the cold again before it is dry, I don't see much of a reason to begin wrapping it and bagging it and such. At least, I have never done so on 50+ nights of northern lights hunting, and I've never had an issue. But of course this depends a lot on the local climate and air humidity.

 

[extremeinstability]

-25F with rebels a couple times. You know it is brutal out when ice water is steaming like mad. -10F for hours doing star trails with rebels and 5D II. Only problem that happens is the LCD slowing down.

 

[Don Haines]

Scanning old slides and came across this one.... The town of Resolute, NWT, Canada, shot with an Olympus OM-1 and Kodachrome64, during a COLD!!!!! snap. The air temperature was at -65C (record low) and the air was insanely clear... you could see some mountains that were 180 miles away.... but all the pictures I took that day came out blurry and I am not sure why as it looked clear through the viewfinder...

Resolute was the coldest place I have ever worked.... we kept the 4x4 in a garage that was heated to -40C... that's right..... HEATED to -40C... at that temperature you could still get it to start if you plugged in the block heater and battery warmer/charger...

 

[Fleetie]

Where's Neuro, claiming to have personally built a cryostat with a cooled volume large enough to put his 1DX in and several BIFs, and taken a series of 14-shot-per-second bursts, all at 7.8 nanoKelvins?

 

[cid]

I have used my 60D from 0C to -15C (maybe even -20, but not sure about this)
with two lenses

• EF 100mm L macro - worked flawlessly at all temperatures used
• EF-S 15-85mm - this lens was bit controversial to my taste in low temperatures, on one event (skiing in Alps -15C, maybe even -20C) it worked ok and there were no problems, on the other event the outside temperature was higher (maybe -10C) AND all the shots taken with this lens were out of focus (while 100mm macro worked fine)
• EF 24-70 mk II - used only at 0C and higher, so no relevant info

EDIT: I had no problems with 60D body caused by low temperature

 

[cocopop05]

I have a new personal best of -33C, camera out for almost two hours. Used a 5D Mark III with 24-105 L. Camera still felt like a block of ice 4 hours later. LOL. I did notice that the battery drained a lot faster than at normal camera operating temperatures.

 

[blanddragon]

I live in Minnesota and my 7D and Mk III have been out in well below -25 to - 30F for several days. Hand warmers are on the batteries and I generally shut off the LCD to save power as it gets weirded out after a couple hours. Bag it before going into my tent or a warm lodge. Two winters with no issues.