Baby it's Cold Outside II

In Part 1 I talked about photographing in extreme cold weather conditions and mostly concentrated on keeping your most important piece of equipment, yourself, warm and comfortable.  When temps drop into single digits or negative numbers like my trip to Castlewood Canyon this morning, it's not just metal that suffers from fatigue and you can't concentrate on images when you're shivering.  I didn't talk much about camera gear though, hence Part 2.

Back in the day when camera bodies and lenses were all manually operated there were a lot of special problems you had to deal with.  Pro shooters knew that for extreme cold weather shooting you had to have your gear winterized.  Early in the season all their gear went to the repair shop of choice where they were tuned up and set up with special cold weather lubricants.  When you shoot for a living you can't afford to have equipment fail because of the cold.  When spring came around the stuff went back to the shop to be cleaned and set up with normal lubricants.  The only batteries they had to be concerned with were the ones that ran the metering systems and any pro worth his salt could function without a meter most of the time. 

What if a camera wasn't winterized you ask?  Well, many years ago I was visiting my wife's family in the Black Hills of South Dakota the week between Christmas and New Years. They live on a ranch near Sturgis and Deadwood in a beautiful little valley.  A beautiful little valley that gets beastly cold in the winter.  This particular winter was one of those times and for several days the temperature stayed below zero, at times approaching -30 degrees F.  Some folks say that when it gets below -10 you can't tell the difference but don't believe it.  Been there, done that.  Anyway, I went out one afternoon as the sun was setting to photograph the bluffs at the east end of their valley with my trusty 4X5.  Sparing you the details, I got the shot set up and pressed the cable release.  My Copal shutter set for 1/2 second should have been "cliick."  At -20 the shutter was more like "cliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick."  Closer to 5 seconds than 1/2 second.  Problem?  No cold weather lubricants.  I stopped down a couple of stops and used the shutter on Bulb to get the shot.

But what about today's cameras?  Fewer moving parts and no spring loaded shutters to worry about but everything is run on batteries and as we all know, when the batteries are dead your camera turns into a $2000 paperweight.  So how can you avoid this?  Well, the pros spend mad cash on external battery packs.  They can have a cord running to the battery compartment from the external pack that resides inside their jacket.  Keeps the batteries warm and the camera functional.  No external pack?  No problem...make sure your batteries are fully charged and keep the spares in an inner pocket to stay warm.  If I'm walking a considerable distance between locations I'll even take the battery out of my camera and put it inside my jacket.  Keep in mind, at 10 degrees a fully charged fully functional battery will last about 70% less than it would on a nice sunny warm afternoon.

As far as lenses, if you're going to be doing a lot of cold weather shooting you may want to spend the extra money to have your repair shop install cold weather lubricants.  I'd hate like heck to pay for a workshop, travel to Yellowstone in the dead of winter, and find out my lenses won't autofocus in the cold.  If you've already spent thousands of dollars on said workshop then a couple hundred more to have your lenses conditioned won't matter and it just might save your trip.  A word of caution though....don't forget to have normal lubricants put back in before heading out for a summer shoot.  I've seen a lot of lenses with cold weather lube dripping out of them like water when the temps go up in summer.  Not a good thing.  If you decide to leave lenses as they are, consider using them on manual focus.  It will result in sharper images and save battery life.

Another thing to be aware of is taking gear from a warm vehicle to cold weather.  Condensation is NOT your friend.  Carry a lens cloth in an outside pocket where you can easily reach it and wipe the moisture off your lenses before they freeze.  Above all do NOT breathe on your lenses to clean them.  You'll be amazed at how quickly the moisture in your breath freezes when it's below zero.  Also you need to avoid the urge to carry a camera and lens inside your coat.  Once they cool down to ambient temperature leave them out until you're done shooting.  Otherwise you have to go through the condensation thing all over again.

Finally let's take a look at your tripod.  Is it carbon fiber or metal?  We all know that CF tripods are lighter and stronger than aluminium sticks but there's a major advantage to CF when the weather is cold.  It's not ideal to carry but CF will not suck the warmth out of your hands nearly as quickly as metal.  Next to losing heat through your head, carrying a metal tripod on a cold day is the next quickest way to lose body heat.  CF is a lot more efficient in this area but still cold.  Good gloves are paramount to keep your hands warm.  There are some companies out there that sell "sleeves" for tripods and many tripods including the Velbon El Carmagne and Induro brands insulate the legs with foam rubber grips.  Got a metal tripod and can't find the "sleeves?"  Simple...head on down to your local hardware big box store and pick up some foam pipe insulation and a roll of gaffers tape.  Bingo Bango, you got tripod sleeves made to order.

So there you have it, some tips on keeping you and your gear warm in extreme cold weather.  Got some other strategies?  Leave a comment and let's share best practices with everyone.