Can anybody tell me if cold weather affects your camera? I was out in about -2*C this morning and my shots seemed to be under-exposed. I don't know if it was my imagination, something to do with the sensors misting up or the detectors not working properly?? Would -2 really be cold enough to cause a problem? And if that isn't cold enough what temperatures would have an effect and can you do anything apart from stick it up your jumper?!
Sorry I'm sure you'll get some sensible replies. I did notice that my battery died very quickly in the cold. Maybe it's the frost that confuses the light sensor?
I know the canon LP series batteries are tested and proven to work best between 0c-20c anything more or less with result in battery power loss. I have been out at morning sunrise on a frozen river at -25c with wind chill. I was laying in the snow for close ups of huge blocks of ice and actually ice formed on my camera body and after a short time the camera turned off, I just wipped off the ice and put the camera under my jacket to warm up and continued later (15 minutes) in the snow for 20 minutes and seems ok since.
Although if you were taking pics this morning and snow was in your picture the reflection is great and will throw off the cameras exposure meter.
Weather extremes can do all sorts of bad things to digital cameras--not just heat and cold, but humidity as well. The documentation that comes with digital cameras usually includes the relevant information in the specification list. For example, the C-7070's specs indicate:
Operation: 32 to 104 degrees F (0 to 40 degrees C),
30 to 90 percent humidity
Storage: -4 to 140 degrees F (-20 to 60 degrees C),
10 to 90 percent humidity
If you think back to your last physics class, you may remember that heat excites electrons, and cold inhibits them. The sensor in a digital camera is basically a bunch of buckets full of atoms, just waiting for a photon to come through the lens and get them excited. Thus, the sensitivity of the sensor fluctuates with the temperature. The same goes for the electrical flow through the battery: a benign but perceptible result is a significant decrease in battery life in cold weather, even within the approved range.
Some components may also expand or contract with changes in temperature; even a minute change in size can make mechanical as well as electronic parts fail. Furthermore, the combination of a rapid temperature change and high humidity can cause condensation to form within the camera and the optical system. And don't forget your media
--it has limits as well.
You can take some steps to minimize these effects, though. For instance, if you're traveling in a humid climate, get a really good camera bag that's fully sealed against humidity, and throw in desiccant packets to take care of the rest--you'll need to replace them frequently if you plan to stay a long time. Always give your camera time to slowly adjust to changes in temperature to avoid forming condensation. In cold weather--say, you decide to scale some mountains--try to keep it inside your jacket when you're not shooting. The key is to know where the pitfalls are and get creative to avoid them.
oh yea, ive heard its wise to let your camera adjust to the temperature, from room temperature to -2c might cause some moisture build op, and vice versa, next time spend a bit more time outside -2c should be no problem
@eryck Thanks very much! OK so that's a bit more extreme than our weather - I'll remember not to lie on my belly in the snow too!! I was wondering about condensation but I had been out for over 30 minutes. It could have been the low sun but I've shot a lot of low sun shots and I can adjust the exposure usually.
I've shot at -20C without any problems with exposure. Batteries are not happy with the cold though, and autofocus motors cry for mercy ... Canon EOS500D is my DSLR
@eryck
I had my camera set on Auto which normally (in my view) over-exposes. I switched to P and upped the exposure a few notches in later shots (but I didn't re-shoot this unfortunately).
Yea I learnt in college you should leave your camera to adjust to temperatures. A few mins for example in the camera bag outside before getting it out and turning on.
@judithg I just did a test shot, will upload the final image soon as my photo of the day. It was my rebel xs on white board, i wanted a large range in focus so i set aperture to f22, and iso 200 the exposure was reading at 2.5 seconds. Then I chose a black board paper as my background and same setting this time the exposure was suggesting 5 + seconds, the image processed was highly over exposed. In the case of your image half is exposing the water reflection, Im thinking the camera wanted to set the image to expose the lower half reflection while compensating for the overall dark cast in this reflection. After my personal experiment I doubt your camera was experiencing issues related to cold (i could be wrong tho) rather it was an instance where your composition was not consistent in lighting, I would recommend a graduated neutral density filter which would darken one half the image (in your case the sky) and allow you to get the correct reading for the reflection. I have yet to get one but have seen a great demo by Karl Taylor on youtube demonstrating the graduated ND filter.
There's a great issue on cold weather and how it affects cameras in the current issue of Outdoor Photographer. If you don't have that publication, maybe you can check on their website????
I used to have a couple of the cheap plastic kit lenses for Nikon AF-S. Their Autofocus motor sounded like a junk Chevy Chevette in cold. So I got real lenses and got rid of the POS'.
Thanks for bringing this up, because I had trouble the other day. I had a great subject, fabulous lighting and blurry shots. Ugh. I would say of the 30-40 I took, 4-6 were desirable. It was 7*, but the wind chill off the open ocean of the Atlantic was probably -20. I couldn't feel my fingers after 5 minutes in the elements.
@judithg Thanks very much for that - I know it doesn't look terrible but I've taken that scene lots of times and it's definitely darker than I expected. In fact my camera was doing some odd things in the morning e.g. as I increased the shutter speed the shots seemed to get more over-exposed - I'm beginning to think it had damp inside affecting the electronics as it was OK in the afternoon after it had warmed up in the air. I'm going to stick my camera bag on a radiator to make sure that's dry as well.
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Although if you were taking pics this morning and snow was in your picture the reflection is great and will throw off the cameras exposure meter.
Weather extremes can do all sorts of bad things to digital cameras--not just heat and cold, but humidity as well. The documentation that comes with digital cameras usually includes the relevant information in the specification list. For example, the C-7070's specs indicate:
Operation: 32 to 104 degrees F (0 to 40 degrees C),
30 to 90 percent humidity
Storage: -4 to 140 degrees F (-20 to 60 degrees C),
10 to 90 percent humidity
If you think back to your last physics class, you may remember that heat excites electrons, and cold inhibits them. The sensor in a digital camera is basically a bunch of buckets full of atoms, just waiting for a photon to come through the lens and get them excited. Thus, the sensitivity of the sensor fluctuates with the temperature. The same goes for the electrical flow through the battery: a benign but perceptible result is a significant decrease in battery life in cold weather, even within the approved range.
Some components may also expand or contract with changes in temperature; even a minute change in size can make mechanical as well as electronic parts fail. Furthermore, the combination of a rapid temperature change and high humidity can cause condensation to form within the camera and the optical system. And don't forget your media
--it has limits as well.
You can take some steps to minimize these effects, though. For instance, if you're traveling in a humid climate, get a really good camera bag that's fully sealed against humidity, and throw in desiccant packets to take care of the rest--you'll need to replace them frequently if you plan to stay a long time. Always give your camera time to slowly adjust to changes in temperature to avoid forming condensation. In cold weather--say, you decide to scale some mountains--try to keep it inside your jacket when you're not shooting. The key is to know where the pitfalls are and get creative to avoid them.
also found some really good tips here.
http://photography24seven.com/17-tips-for-photographing-in-extreme-weather-conditions/
I had my camera set on Auto which normally (in my view) over-exposes. I switched to P and upped the exposure a few notches in later shots (but I didn't re-shoot this unfortunately).
@janmaki @judithg