Will my camera freeze in antarctica?

[jedly_hohf]

I am going down to antarctica next week. i am working at the south pole for the

summer season. i have a pentax k100d super and am wondering how long i should or

shouldn't hold it out in the cold while taking pictures. they say that the

temperature will be from -60F up to -20F.

[mike_earussi1]

You might get some idea from here:

 

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/locations/antarctica.shtml

[SCL]

You should contact people who either are there or have been there; I'm sure you can quickly get some references. As I recall when I volunteered to winter over with the Navy, I was strongly encouraged to talk with people who were experienced and could answer the direct questions I had. I'd offer to help, but somebody else beat me to the job.

[NetR]

You will be a long way from a specialist repairperson and it will depend how cold the camera gets. It might be a good idea (just in case) to buy up a couple of dozen disposable cameras. If you have a problem with your main camera, you will still be able to get shots using these cheap film ones. When one freezes up, just pack it away and open a fresh one up.

 

Regards, Ross

[steven_moseley1]

Hi,

 

In those sort of minus temperatures, any electronic camera will struggle. You need one that takes a separate cold weather battery pack, that will stay inside your clothes and link to the camera via a long power cord. Batteries in those temps will just not work.

 

The alternative is to use an older mechanical SLR like a Nikon F2, Leica R6, Nikon FM2n etc. But even then, the light meter will not work.

 

These are extreme conditions and you need gear made to work in it. Amateur DSLR's like the Pentax you have are wholly out of their depth in these conditions.

 

cheers Steve.M.

[garydem]

it is not the camera that you have to worry about freezing up, it is the batteries. one solution that i read about from people who have been south is to use muliple sets of batteries and the ones not being used are inside your clothes, next to you for warmth.

 

also forget the rechargeable batteries unless you want to use them inside the buildings. for outside go to lithiums, they can take the cold far better. unfortunaltely they are not rechargeable.

[Jerry_]

You will have to wind (re-wind) your film very slowly. [survived 1984 to 1987 in central Alaska, using a Nikon FM2n body.] Once you have the temperature drop hit your camera batteries, you may have 'estimate' your exposures. Plus, the lube in your lens may cease to work just right. If you have time (and the $$$$s) you might try to get one lens de-lubed so the extreme cold effects will not be extreme.

 

 

 

A tripod may help, too. You do not want to stick a frozen camera up to your face...you could frost-bite your exposed skin.

 

 

 

 

Good luck and try to stay sort-of-warm....

[jedly_hohf]

thanks everyone for the advice. what i'll try to do is just keep the camera in my coat and then take it for a few seconds to take a photo. i'll try to keep it as warm as possible.

[herman_hiel]

What I read on the subject is that, when you switch your camera between warm and cold places, the lens will fog and you won't be able to see anything. I remember a stay in Mexico, with (cold) airco in the hotelroom. When I came out of the room, my lens would fog and it would take several minutes before I could see anything. Maybe somebody here has an idea about it. Anyway, this subject has been treated many times before, so check the archives. Good luck.

[reiley_mckerracher]

Not really an answer, but I use to do land surveys, and on occasion we would see temperatures down around -30C to -40C (-40C is close to -40F), although when temperatures got that low we usually called in on a snow day, we sometimes didnt have a choice. The total stations (they measure distance and angles, and had some sort of coordinate geometry software build in) we used all performed fine, but we routinely had 3 main problems. 1, the instrument had to be the same temperature as the ambient temperature, as when things cool, they cool at different rates (from the optics, to steel or plastic housings), which introduced a lot of error into the instrument. 2, the screen (lcd) was very sluggish, you would shoot a point and wait for ever for the numbers to come up on the screen. 3, the batteries never lasted. During summer you could go all day on a set of batteries, in winter, you would get 15 min tops. My crew had a couple of batteries, and we just kept swapping them in and out, once out, they would go to the warm truck on the charger. Other crews would use car batteries to power the instruments which worked well as well.

 

Thankfully Ive moved on to an office job!