digital cameras in lappland?

[Wulfman]

hey guys,

I'll be leaving for an about two week long trekking tour through lappland in early september. I've decided to take my d70 with me, even as weight is a concern (travelling alone)..

now the interesting questions: how will the batteries (and the camera) survive the (if I'm unlucky) low temperatures? when I was there two years ago, we had to hike through freshly fallen snow - at the end of august.

so - I plan to take the normal li-ion battery with me (which is cold sensitive, from my experience) together with a set of "normal" batteries, which can replace it. if it gets really bad, I can keep them in a pocket close to the body, to keep them warm. other suggestions?

for the camera.. well, officially it shouldn't be operated below 0°C. anyone ever cooled the camera down below this point for an extended timespan?

thanks,
wulfman

[GNEP]

Possibly some sort of communique (pm/email?) with Nappe1 is in order?

[Wulfman]

yeah, I hope he will stumble across the thread.

mfg
wulfman

PS.: spent the evening sealing most seams of my tent.

[Nappe1]

okay, soo... lappland, september...
I don't think the battery life isn't gonna be a big problem, as far as I know, D70 (and 350D, E-350C, etc.) don't lose much of their battery energy even in very low temperatures. Of course it does affect, but as much as it could. (Still, I would buy another set of Li-Ion and full load them before trip, plus a one pack of batteries. you know, the best shot places comes always you have ran out of memorycard space or batteries. that's why it might be good idea to make that happen as late as possible.) I have seen shots taken with 350D in late december (-10 to -20 Celsius) and even in february (-15 to -30 Celsius), so as long as you keep the camera somewhere it does not get too cold. (not hanging in the neck openly like during Egypt tourist tours. ) I usually keep my camera inside the jacket so that I'll take it out only for photographing. This makes certain limitations with objectives you can keep attached, but if you have something multipurpose like 35-50mm lens, I think it should not be a big problem. (you cannot carry a regular studio equipment with you in any case. )

I would be more considered about possible humidity. if the weather is rainy, then you might end up with problems having too high humidity. especially if you plan having more lenses with you, this might give you some troubles if you need to switch them in wilderness.

can I ask what's your route plan? where are you heading to? I might have some tips, though I haven't done much night trekking, just daily trips. (This year, at Kilpisjärvi area longest day distance was whopping 35 km, though about 10 km of it was on the paved road, it still makes 25 km on rather challenging trails...)

[Wulfman]

one lens (in this case, the kit-lens, 18-70mm) will have to suffice, my backpack keeps getting heavier and heavier. for the batteries - I'll check the price for a set of CR2-batteries, if it is reasonable I'll just take 6 of them. I want to avoid paying 45-50€ for the official rechargeable battery, which I will hardly need in the future. I charging the camera once in one or two months, usually.

keeping (at least) the batteries (and the camera, will see) under the jacket seems reasonable. I need to remind myself to put the camera into a sealed bag if I enter a warm place...

thx guys,
wulfman

[Wulfman]

I'll check the price for a set of CR2-batteries, if it is reasonable I'll just take 6 of them.

bastards, they charge about 50€ for 6 of these batteries. it's cheaper to get another en-el3-akku.

mfg
wulfman

[Wulfman]

good bye gents, wish me luck.

first lappland, then tanzania...

mfg
wulfman

[GNEP]

G'luck! look forward to seeing the photos!

[VJ]

Perhaps too late: cold can make plastic brittle, so be more careful with the keys.

Also, beware not to exhale to much with the camera in front of you (humidity). It shouldn't matter that much, but it could fog up the viewfinder.

Also, Nikon now has a new Li-ion pack: the EN-EL3a succeeds the EN-EL3. It works in the same cameras and chargers, but offers slightly more power.


Jorg

[Nappe1]

Perhaps too late: cold can make plastic brittle, so be more careful with the keys.

I don't think this being a big problem... I have used now plastic cased digital cameras 4 winters (coldest picturing temps being below -27 Celsius) and so far without breaking any buttons. If we would be talking about 10 years old camera or older, then I'd say that cold brittles could be problem. But with D70? no, I really don't think so. You need to weather being really cold (I'd guesstimate that camera itself should be something like -25 - -30 Celsius) to make quite new nowadays plastic brittle. (plus the camera would be already so cold that you wouldn't taking pictures at all. also, A) your fingers will froze and B) the camera battery won't be really lively )

Wulfman seems to get a nice weather up there. not too cold at all. during nights temp might drop below the zero, but otherwise should be between 7-15 degrees celsius.

[Wulfman]

nice weather? interesting idea.

I'm currently sitting in narvik, had to cancel the tour after the first 120km, as the weather forecast promised 20-40cm of snow for the next two days on my route. and the guys operating the motorboats are hunting moose instead of doing their job. whatever - the first part of the tour went well, after 6hours of sun I had plenty of clouds, lots of rain, storm up to 19 m/s, snow/ice-rain - you name it. no sun for 5 days straight, but several hours of rain a day. the temperatures stayed slightly in the positive part of the scale nevertheless, but usually well below 10 degrees.

I have seen two broken hilleberg tents, nice weather - pff...

hope to get back to abisko tomorrow and stay in the woods for some more days. expect some pics after the 15th.

mfg
wulfman

[Fred H]

Wellcome to Scandinavia. Today we've had the first 0°C in the south of Sweden.
I own a Nikon a D70 and a lot of people at the photo forums complains not about the D70 malfunctions in cold, but about condensation on the mirror or CCD.
Be careful when you go out or in. Keep the camera in the bag and let it adapt itself to the surroundings temperature, just to avoid the condensation.
Sure you've experienced some condens. on the LCD even with normal use. A condensation from breathing.
/Fred

[Nappe1]

the weather discussion has gotten a new level. right now we are having temperatures between 10 and 15 degrees, which is a waaaaayyy much higher than usually this time of year.

(there's problem coming in Lappland, due the fact that it is so warm. some big winter sport facilities have orders in from national nordic ski teams of different countries about providing practise enviroment with in a week or so. Aparently they are unable to use snow blowers to make that enviroment available, because water does not turn in the snow when temeprature is around +10 celsius degrees.)

[Wulfman]

took some time, but here are a few examples:

cheating, that's still austria (leaving the country, so to say).

never saw that much blue sky again after the first day.

weather getting worse...

kitschy, I know.. but I couldn't let them pass just like that.

highest pass on the trek, stormy & nearly freezing.

[Wulfman]

nice bridge, much better than wading through.

some fjäll.

never saw that many people again, all coming down from the mountains after a stormy/snowy night.

no comments on the cap - at least its warm.

well, at this point the lens was already damaged - kind of blurry. speaking of the damaged lens - they took 190€ to repair it.


mfg
wulfman