[LRFlex] Re: Adventures at 32 Below...
- From: Ted Grant <tedgrant@xxxxxxx>
- To: leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 08:08:43 -0800
David Young offered:
Subject: [LRFlex] Adventures at 32 Below...
Along the way, I had the chance to grab some shots of Grosbeaks,
Magpies,
Chickadees and some other, unrecognized birds who had congregated in a
tree near the home of a lady we were visiting. The distance and angles
were good, so I grabbed my R8 with the 400/f6.8 and went to it.
Now, we'd been travelling - so the camera case had been in car for some 48
hours - and it was a brisk 32 below (Celsius). The lens refused to focus!
The follow-focus rails were frozen solid. :(<<<<<<<
Now David mon ami, a small thought for a moment. If you were left
un-attended for 48 hours at 32 below don't you think you might be a little
slow at responding? ;-) And I'd bet my sweet bippy you may well be solid
also! :-)
It would be... "stand him vertical, put funny hat on, scarf and pipe, we'll
have a Christmas snowman until spring!" ;-)
> For it's part, the R8 seemed to work, but the viewfinder display took
several seconds to come on, and several more before the numbers were
legible! Amazingly, the camera back LCD display (such displays often give
trouble in low temps) ran just fine.<<<<<<<
yer lucky you could get it off your "frozen to your hands!"
I gave up on things for a couple of hours. Later, in "the heat of the
day" (-27C) I tried again. This time, the lens focused cleanly, though a
little slowly. The camera still had trouble with it's displays but the
camera appeared to work perfectly, though I won't know this for sure until
the film comes back... and my processors developing machine has 'gone
south', so nothing will be ready until Thursday, at best. :(<<<<<<<<<
My first thing upon arriving at the destination would be....... "get gear in
house immediately, that's mandatory!" Next, other stuff, booze, food,
clothing etc. Oh yeah and fer sure......"get Rose in first after the
gear!!!!"....... Our wimmin folk have this incredible "I remember etc" mind
that puts an elephant to shame when it comes to remembering the minor
thought of "You left me out in the cold and took all those cameras in the
house first! No you can't buy that lens, NADA, forget it!" Bad scene. :-)
:-)
I mean a guy has to have some senior gear priorities! Gear first. "wimmin
and whatever second!" ;-) Don't tell Rose I said that. ;-)
No the gear isn't going to get all sweaty and dew like if you get it in
right away, put it on the floor and forget it, particularly if it's in the
case. It'll gradually warm to room temp and you're ready to go and shoot..
at whatever below temps.
The Winder had some trouble, winding very slowly... but I think that was
more due to cold batteries than anytime else.<<,
Obvious conclusion above.......... batteries cold! Heck even if you took the
winder battery container in the house would have been better.
Has anybody else had experience with any brand of camera at these
temperatures? Problems? Triumphs? Now, I'm curious!<<<,
The bottom line is, think about yourself as being left in the cold like that
and would you function immediately when kicked into action? So no reason to
think you can expect the gear to light up and ready to rock and roll.
Nikons, Hassleblad, Rollieflex and Leicas of many models get "slow" if left
in this type of weather. And "dead stopped some times!"
There are several on list with "winter, I mean real winter shooting time"
Tim Atherton for one up in Yellowknife NWT has major experince shooting in
condiftions like this and how he keeps his gear when travelling at -50,-60
below zero.
Mine has always been simple. I buy larger than correct size parka so cameras
will fit underneath, I don't carry much, I also wear a light vest between me
and cameras. Cotton gloves under big mitts on strings so I can shake mitts
off and they drop to my side, shoot and mitts are ready to put back on
without looking for them. Just like you see little kids with their mitts on
a cord.
When I need to shoot, camera is out and I shoot as quickly as I can and pop
the camera back inside.
I definately do not wander around with everything hanging out in the breeze
while looking for pictures, you only need your eyes for that.. find
something, gear out, shoot, back under cover.
I think the methods of shooting and carrying gear under winter conditions
are endless and nearly every shooter has their own system that works. But
definitely the next time "don't leave the gear in the car for 48 hours and
then expect it to work like yer here in Victoria." ;-)
Get on Tim Atherton as he's well experienced in high Arctic cold weather for
about 7 months ;-) of the year.
ted,
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