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Traveling to Alaska with A7ii- the cold weather factor (Advice needed)


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Hello,

 

I am travelling to fairbanks, Alaska for a few days in late march. I have heard horrible stories of people's cameras stopping to work or condensation forming inside the lens or sensors in cold weather. Is there anything I should be mindful about taking the camera outside? I do not think the a7II is weatherproof in anyway. some people online have mentioned using a ziplock bag. How would that work/help? I will be primarily shooting landscapes and aurora (if lucky). Any advice will will be immensely helpful.

 

Thank You

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Its really hard to operate the camera with gloves on, so I would set up a few M (Memory) positions with the settings you will need, and get a remote shutter release cable (USB thing) which is easier to operate when your cold and wearing thick gloves. Take a spare battery or two.

 

Oh, practice a shot when you first get there (Alaska), so you know you and your camera behave in the cold. Condensation forms in funny places, good to practice so you learn where and why (warm air, cold camera == condensation). Although the plastic bag is good idea to use, you can also place your camera on/near a radiator which pretty much takes care of condensation, or just let it warm up - the camera will get wet on the outside, but not a big deal, unless you change a lens, then it gets wet on the inside. Do you think that is a good idea?

 

I just took a walk in the cold, -10°C, aside from the camera being cold (it worked fine) the biggest problem I had was that I got cold after an hour and had to stop. If you get cold and start to think that "having a lie down in the snow to rest" is a good idea then you want to get somewhere warm fast!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Not much to add, but I did use my a7sii in 21 degrees for about an hour and I immediately returned to the 68 degree house. No condensation in camera or FE 1.8 55mm lens.  I recorded video, to be specific, and the results were good, very sharp with this set up. 

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15847005484_3911aed3cd_b.jpgCondensation will occur when coming from cold to hot. Ambient humidity will be the thing to watch for.

As long as you are outside or keep your equipment (less the spare batteries) in the cold, this should be no problem.

Put the lens cap on, store in camera bag BEFORE going inside hoping you are not coming back out too soon.

 

Batteries ( worse with the to me, too small NP-FW50 of A7 bodies) will be your biggest challenge, Keep the spares in a warm pocket close to your body warmth. 

A full day ( from 8AM to 4PM) of shooting a skiing event this past month at temperatures ranging from -25C in the morning to -10C (-13F to 14F) in the afternoon required only 2 batteries but they were the larger NP-FM500H on my A77 A-Mount camera.

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To shoot my aurora video (a short sample is linked in the video showcase section) I used hawkwoods v-lok batteries with my A7S. At -28 (Lapland) the main issue was the fluid head freezing making camera movement of any kind difficult and smooth movement impossible. One evening at below minus 30 the camera did stop functioning but I'm not sure this was the actual camera or a power connection issue.

Yes, you'll get condensation if you go into a warm room - let everything dry before switching anything back on. That seems to work for me.

Shooting video to an external recorder did mean that I didn't have to worry about the silly video button whilst wearing gloves - definite bonus.

To some extent, it helps to adopt the attitude that you're using a tool in a very hostile and extreme environment... It might not survive! But hope that you've got your pictures/footage by then!

Enjoy the trip!

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