I've often wondered how my camera (D70s) would hold up in the cold, so I thought some of you might find this interesting. This is not meant to be scientific, just my personal experience with the D70s. I've recently returned from a trip to Banff, Alberta (50/50 snowboarding and photography) and overall, I was pretty impressed with how the camera and lenses performed under the conditions.
Some examples:
At -30 celsius one day, and -26 celsius a different day for about 5 hours (each time):
Camera body worked well for the first 3.5 to 4 hours, and then started to have issues after that. For example, the shutter would fire, but nothing would get written to the memory card (Sandisk Ultra II 2GB). At first I thought the card was at fault so swapped a warm card, but same problem occurred. I noticed that the green card-access indicator was not even coming on, so I presume the issue was with the camera body (a fresh battery did not resolve the problem). As well, the shutter sounded different on these occasions. This would happen for about 5-10 shutter releases in a row, then it would successfully take a few pictures, then the issue would repeat.
Although new images were not being recorded, the camera would redisplay the previously stored picture, which gave me a false sense that a picture was actually being taken. But later I noticed the problem when I realized the picture counter wasn't changing. In other cases a picture would get recorded but the top and bottom would have black vertical bands.
The battery did reasonably well, and I swapped to a warm battery after about 3 hours (I had two fully charged batteries: EN-EL3a, EN-EL3e).
Eventually (5 hours at -30c) the mirror slapped up and did not come back down (froze open?). After toggling the power switch a few times, it eventually released. I also started getting "this card cannot be used" errors. I was concerned that I would start corrupting the memory card and lose the photos I had already taken, so I decided to call it a day and go inside and warm up. I do not think there was any permanent damage from the shutter getting stuck as it has worked fine since then.
No issues with the lenses (12-24DX, 85/1.4, 10.5 DX), although the zoom ring on the 12-24 started to get stiff, but I never got the impression it was going to seize-up.
I wondered if the camera body would have lasted longer had I not been making so many lens changes, as opening up the camera let the cold get inside :biggrin:
In retrospect, it's good the camera gave-out as my toes were getting cold anyway :tongue:
At -15 celsius for about 6 hours:
No major issues with the camera or any of the lenses. The viewfinder LCD and back LCD became a bit sluggish after about 2 hours, but otherwise the operation of the camera was not affected. I got the sense the camera could have gone longer than 6 hours, but the sun was going down and I started heading back.
I started with fully charged batteries (x2) and swapped to a fresh/warm battery after approx 5 hours and 300 photos because the battery meter suddenly plummeted. I suspect the first battery would have recovered after being warmed up in my pants pocket, but I was not outside long enough to test this and the second battery held up until I got back inside.
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In all cases, the D70s was attached to a 681B monopod and RC head and exposed to the outside the whole time, and I didn't make any efforts to keep it warm or cover it up. I speculated that being attached to the aluminum monopod caused the camera body to cool down faster as the monopod was a giant cold-magnet, and that if I not used the monopod the camera may have performed better/longer. I also considered getting one of those chemical hand-warmers things and attaching it to the camera body to keep it warm, but never got around to it.
Also of note, When going from the outside back inside, I used zip lock bags on the camera body and each lens, and never had any issues with fogging/condensation (thanks to nikoncafe where I read this tip). Lenses that were not being used where carried in a lowepro backpack (so naturally, they were not exposed to the outside except while being used).
Some examples:
At -30 celsius one day, and -26 celsius a different day for about 5 hours (each time):
Camera body worked well for the first 3.5 to 4 hours, and then started to have issues after that. For example, the shutter would fire, but nothing would get written to the memory card (Sandisk Ultra II 2GB). At first I thought the card was at fault so swapped a warm card, but same problem occurred. I noticed that the green card-access indicator was not even coming on, so I presume the issue was with the camera body (a fresh battery did not resolve the problem). As well, the shutter sounded different on these occasions. This would happen for about 5-10 shutter releases in a row, then it would successfully take a few pictures, then the issue would repeat.
Although new images were not being recorded, the camera would redisplay the previously stored picture, which gave me a false sense that a picture was actually being taken. But later I noticed the problem when I realized the picture counter wasn't changing. In other cases a picture would get recorded but the top and bottom would have black vertical bands.
The battery did reasonably well, and I swapped to a warm battery after about 3 hours (I had two fully charged batteries: EN-EL3a, EN-EL3e).
Eventually (5 hours at -30c) the mirror slapped up and did not come back down (froze open?). After toggling the power switch a few times, it eventually released. I also started getting "this card cannot be used" errors. I was concerned that I would start corrupting the memory card and lose the photos I had already taken, so I decided to call it a day and go inside and warm up. I do not think there was any permanent damage from the shutter getting stuck as it has worked fine since then.
No issues with the lenses (12-24DX, 85/1.4, 10.5 DX), although the zoom ring on the 12-24 started to get stiff, but I never got the impression it was going to seize-up.
I wondered if the camera body would have lasted longer had I not been making so many lens changes, as opening up the camera let the cold get inside :biggrin:
In retrospect, it's good the camera gave-out as my toes were getting cold anyway :tongue:
At -15 celsius for about 6 hours:
No major issues with the camera or any of the lenses. The viewfinder LCD and back LCD became a bit sluggish after about 2 hours, but otherwise the operation of the camera was not affected. I got the sense the camera could have gone longer than 6 hours, but the sun was going down and I started heading back.
I started with fully charged batteries (x2) and swapped to a fresh/warm battery after approx 5 hours and 300 photos because the battery meter suddenly plummeted. I suspect the first battery would have recovered after being warmed up in my pants pocket, but I was not outside long enough to test this and the second battery held up until I got back inside.
-
In all cases, the D70s was attached to a 681B monopod and RC head and exposed to the outside the whole time, and I didn't make any efforts to keep it warm or cover it up. I speculated that being attached to the aluminum monopod caused the camera body to cool down faster as the monopod was a giant cold-magnet, and that if I not used the monopod the camera may have performed better/longer. I also considered getting one of those chemical hand-warmers things and attaching it to the camera body to keep it warm, but never got around to it.
Also of note, When going from the outside back inside, I used zip lock bags on the camera body and each lens, and never had any issues with fogging/condensation (thanks to nikoncafe where I read this tip). Lenses that were not being used where carried in a lowepro backpack (so naturally, they were not exposed to the outside except while being used).
