Coming in from the cold

<p>After being outside in 30-35 degree weather for about 1-2 hours, is it recommended to remove the lens from the body while they come back up to temperature?</p>

<p>No. Warm (humid) air comes in and water condensation occurs on every surface.<br>

<br /> Put the camera (w/ lens) in a big plastic bag (at cold temp while still in the cold), then bring it in to come to temp. THEN remove from bag, and disassemble. It's not an absolute must (though the bigger the temp dif, the more important), but minimizing contact with the warm (moister) air is better while a significant temperature difference is in place. It helps avoid condensation marks on things like lens elements and sensors.</p>

<p>I would recommend the big (2.5gal) ziplocs for turkey/hams. Works great and is fast and easy!</p>

<p>Alternatively, you could put your gear bag in a plastic trash bag and tie it up to come to temperature.</p>

<p>I'm based in Iceland and regularly go out for the day in temperatures much lower than this.</p>

<p>A padded camera bag provides plenty of insulation. Zip it up before you go inside and let it sit unopened for 1–2 hours to acclimatise. In my experience there's no need to put everything in a plastic bag nor to disassemble afterwards.</p>

<p>...but remember to pull your CF cards out of the camera and stick them in a pocket before going inside, as they do not need the same type of acclimatization, and it stinks to be waiting an hour or two to start downloading images. </p>

<p>You need a vapour barrier (heavy duty freezer bag) with an impermeable rating of ≤1 US perm, or ≤57 SI perm to prevent the movement of warm and moist vapours from the heated building through the plastic bag coming in contact with the cold surfaces of your camera/lens where the warm vapours will condense on these surfaces causing you and your gear grief. Allow your gear to reach normal (occupiable) room temperature before opening the bag.</p>

<p>Do not take the lens off. You really need to let the camera acclimatize. I like to have an intermediate step if it is very cold (I live in the Canadian Rockies where it can reach -40). What I do is wrap the camera and lenses in a blanket in the garage (this is heated to about 0C or 32F) and leave it for a few hours before bringing it inside. Despite hundreds of times with many different cameras over the years I have not had an issue.</p>

<p>No, don't remove the lens. If you bag your camera, there shouldn't be any condensation, but IF there were somehow to be any condensation, wouldn't you rather it be on the outside of the camera than on the inside?!</p>

<p>What you should do might depend on where you live, how you heat, etc. Do a quick experiment: Do you get condensation on the sides of a glass of ice water (at 32 deg F)? If so, then it's humid enough inside that you need to bag (assuming your camera is at the stated 30-35 deg F). Here in Coastal Virginia, I live in a soup, so I do quite a lot of bagging.</p>

I have regularly used non-weatherproof SLRs in sub-freezing temps for years with no problems by merely putting the

camera in its zippered case before bringing it inside and leaving it for a couple of hours. My current case is an ordinary

toploader.

 

I don't know what removing the lens would accomplish, but I wouldn't do that, personally.

<p>I used to ziplock all my gear before heading inside, but found that keeping it in the zippered camera bag that was outside with me worked just as well, provided I wasn't putting the whole lot down on top of a heat vent or radiator. </p>

<p><strong>"Keeping it in the zippered camera bag that was outside" </strong>should work. Provided that the bag acts as a seamless vapour diffuser. No vapours will pass through the bag.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Don't take the lens off. That's asking for trouble.</p>

<p>Here in Colorado this is not an issue, but when I lived in Florida, Texas and Oklahoma it could be an issue. The water glass condensation test is a good idea.</p>

<p>When using the ziplock bags, still put the lens cap on and press out most of the excess air. Once the camera gets to room temperature, take it out of the bag in case there was any moisture in there.</p>

<p>Thank you for all your responses.</p>