Beating Old Man Winter
Text and images copyright E.J. Peiker, all rights reserved

Winter is upon us! While many stow away their gear during winter, many others find that this is a time for extraordinary photographic opportunities. The sun is lower to the horizon resulting in sweet photographic light for a much longer part of the day. In the northern United States and Canada, light is good for photography from dusk to dawn. Snow and ice can add a dramatic touch to many photographs. There’s just one problem – it’s darn cold out there on people bodies and camera bodies – not to mention lenses and other accessories.

This article will offer some tips on how to deal with the cold so that your equipment operates smoothly and flawlessly on those cold winter days.

Moraine Lake, Banff National Park, Alberta - Temperature 5° Fahrenheit

THE CAMERA
Camera bodies take the brunt of low winter temperatures. They are primarily mechanical instruments, albeit with lots of electronic controls. They are, therefore, very susceptible to the ravages of a cold winter. The biggest problem modern cameras face in the wintertime is having enough power available to operate them reliably. Batteries lose a significant amount of drive current as they get colder, and high power-draw cameras with lots of electronics like digital SLR’s can really sap a cold battery’s energy. There are a number of remedies.

The most common solution is to carry spare batteries of all types needed and keep the spares warm by storing them close to the human body. As the batteries that are in the camera drain their energy, cycling in a fresh warm battery can keep things running perfectly. By placing the cold and spent battery in the same warm storage spot, a significant amount of battery power can be regained. In cold weather photo shoots, I will usually work with three camera batteries for my Canon digital bodies and change them at regular intervals. This allows the camera to keep working at peak functionality for an entire day. Another remedy is to power your camera and flash from a remote camera battery such as the Quantum Turbo 2x2 or other external camera battery. These can be carried beneath your coat connected by a camera cable. This will also keep the camera running all day long, even in extreme conditions.

LCD’s may not function in the cold. LCD’s have a tendency to stay clear when too cold and turn black when too hot. This typically does not damage the LCD and it will return to normal working-order as soon as the temperature of the LCD rises to its operating range.

Newer cameras tend to do very well mechanically even in very cold temperatures approaching -40 Fahrenheit as they use modern lubricants that do not harden until encountering much colder temperatures. Older cameras can be cleaned and re-lubricated with these newer lubricants. Your best bet is to contact a camera shop in a cold climate for the names of service providers that will do this. Some of the older fully manual camera bodies that do not rely on battery-powered electronics, when re-lubricated for cold temperatures, can be the most reliable choice for extreme conditions.

Big Horn Sheep, Jasper National Park, Alberta - Temperature 20° Fahrenheit

LENSES
Lenses have some of the same lubrication concerns outlined above for camera bodies and can be dealt with in a similar manner. An additional concern for lenses is condensation and even freezing of condensation in the lens. Condensation can best be kept at bay by not subjecting your equipment to sudden temperature changes. Allowing the equipment to cool or warm slowly will avoid or at least minimize condensation. When in the field, unless it is going to be very cold, such as less than 15 degrees, I prefer to leave my lenses in the trunk of my car so that they slowly cool to the ambient outdoor temperature overnight and slowly warm with the ambient air during the day. This avoids condensation on or inside the optics. Do this at your own risk though, as the threat of theft increases considerably.

If you do subject your lenses to a sudden temperature change, you may have to wait for a while to allow the condensation to go away. If there is condensation in the lens and temperatures are going to be below freezing, you run the risk of actually freezing water vapor on a lens element internally. This is not a good situation and can lead to corrosion, lens coating damage, fungus growth and degraded image quality. If you suspect your lens of having trapped moisture in it, desiccate the lens for several days prior to leaving on any photo adventure. The simplest way to do this is by placing the lens in dry air in an enclosure with several silica gel packs. The fastest way to dry out a lens, short of disassembling it, is to leave the lens overnight in a nitrogen filled enclosure, but, unfortunately, most of us do not have this capability.

ACCESSORIES
Your battery-powered and mechanical accessories are also prone to the battery drain and lubricant-congealing phenomena to which camera bodies are susceptible and similar precautions should be taken. Flash units are especially prone to battery problems as they rely on short periods of very high current draw from their little batteries. If these batteries are just too cold to supply the current required to fully charge the flash tube capacitors, you will not get the flash output that you need. An external flash battery such as the Quantum product previously referred to is highly recommended.

DIGITAL MEDIA
Most digital media is rated down to temperatures between 30 degrees and 0 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s not that our flash cards and Microdrives won’t work at these cold temperatures but they haven’t been tested or certified at those temperatures, so the media could stop working. While I have not experienced this, it is a possibility. The problem for flash cards lies in internal circuit timings – as it gets colder, drive current increases due to fewer electron collisions and circuits speed up. This can lead to internal timing conflicts within the flash card’s circuitry or between camera and flash card. SanDisk is the first manufacturer to market an extended temperature range card called the SanDisk Extreme flash card. I have used Lexar Professional cards in temperatures as low as -27 degrees in Canon EOS cameras with no problems.

Microdrives require special consideration. It is not a good idea to install a cold-soaked (less than 20 degrees) Microdrive and power it up. For Microdrives, I recommend storing them at room temperature overnight to keep the micro lubricants from congealing and thermal contraction of the materials from causing a failure. Keep the Microdrive warm until you are ready to insert it into the camera, and then immediately power up the camera. Microdrives generate significant heat and as long as they are spinning, they will be OK even at very low temperatures.

Digital sensors in your camera work optimally at lower temperatures and are typically not a concern as long as no electronic timing issues result from the cold. Canon CCD sensors, Canon CMOS sensors, and Nikon CCD sensors all appear to work fine at temperatures well below zero. A cold sensor has a better signal-to-noise ratio and actually will record a lower noise image. In many scientific applications, CCD digital sensors are actually cooled to keep image noise down.

Dark Eyed Junco, Sandia Crest, New Mexico - Temperature -10° Fahrenheit

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
Not all batteries are created equal. Lithium Ion rechargeable and Lithium non-rechargeable batteries have superior performance at colder temperatures compared to other alternatives.

Be careful around metal and plastic parts. Metal parts can seriously injure the photographer by either inducing frostbite on skin with which cold- soaked metal is in contact or by actually freezing your skin to the metal. Metal tripods are especially brutal in cold temperatures. Many photographers use pipe insulation on the upper leg section so that they will not freeze their hands when carrying their tripods.

Plastics get very brittle at colder temperatures. I would not recommend opening cable covers on your camera body that are rubberized and attached to the body. There is a good chance that you will break them off. Also, bumping your flash while it is mounted in a hot shoe on a warm day will most likely not do anything. On a cold day, there is a good chance you will snap the flash off at the shoe.

CONCLUSION
While winter temperatures are not the ideal environment for equipment or photographers, the spectacular light that winter offers us makes it a prime time for creating memorable images. With a bit of preparation and forethought, plenty of spare batteries and avoiding sudden temperature changes, even the coldest climates can be tackled with confidence.

E.J. Peiker is the Senior Technical Editor at NatureScapes.Net and has been photographing seriously for over thirty years. For more information on E.J. please visit his website at www.ejphoto.com.

Feel free to send your comments on this article to the editors at NatureScapes.Net.

All content on this site is copyrighted material as indicated. Unauthorized use or reproduction is prohibited.