OM2 cold climate

Hi everyone!

 

I'm mulling over whether to get an om2 slr as a beginner into slr

photography, but I live in canada. I've heard of various reports of

poor low temperature performance for the electric om's because of

battery problems. Where I live, the temps in winter go down to -20

celcius at most. In my opinion, that's not very low at all for

batteries ... I always take my walkman out and it works fine ...

Would the om2 have any problems with shooting outdoors? just how

cold is the "extreme cold" that the literature refer to?

 

i'd like to know just in case i decide to travel to other parts of

canada that might be way colder

 

thanks

I've used an OM2 in the Arctic in winter with no problems. Of course I may just be lucky, and it's always a good idea to have spare batteries.

Indirectly, Olympus has acknowledged that the standard OM-1/OM-2 equipment is suboptimal for very cold conditions: a) in the late 70th, early 80th, it offered a specialized lubrication change (e.g. for Himalaya expeditions), and b) it offered an external 3V battery pack to keep the batteries warm in your body clothes (see http://www.star.ucl.ac.uk/~rwesson/eSIF/om-sif/phototechnicalgroup/3v_battery_holder_1.htm). In any case, consult your manual for resetting any mirror lock-up (hint: Reset bottom), and remember that you can use 1/60th exposure w/o batteries. For snowy conditions, you might want to take a 4x neutral density filter with you (i.e., to extend the 1/60 operating range).

 

P.S. I had run into battery problems with an OM-4Ti when in early July we were catched in a 3-day snowstorm in the Austrian alps. The manual 1/60 has saved quite a number of good shoots.