I left my Canon 5D on my Cable Box for 2 days

[hjoseph7]

I was doing some belated Spring Cleaning at my place the other day, and decidet toI lay down my Canon 5D which I just

purchase recently, on my Cable Box. Little did I know that those things give up allot of heat. I finally came to my senses 2

days later and removed the camera from the top of the cable box. In a state of panic I checked the body to see if anything

had melted. Then I checked all the functions. Everything was working fine. Goes to prove that the 5D can take a liking and

still keep on ticking.

[johnson_d.]

I find this proof lacking. If would be much more persuasive if you would measure the temperature of your cable

box and/or provide us with the name of your cable provider as well as specify the orientation of the camera as it

was placed on top of the box. A description of the airflow dynamics of the surrounding environment would also

provide additional valuable information. This would allow us to determine for our selves whether or not your 5D

did indeed take a lickin'.

[jim_rais]

<p align="justify">

This post made me remember my friend's story about leaving his Lowepro bag containing the 5D + 24-105 + 58 EX in a corner of a restaurant in Sweden when he was on holiday summer last year. Not until 4 or 5 hours later he did realize that he missed "something" and rushed back to that restaurant. The bag was found on the same corner where he left it, untouched! Try other countries. You all must have very effective guardian angels :-) </p>

[mike dixon]

If that's your idea of harsh conditions, you need to get out more.

[sarah_fox]

Harry, others have wondered about how to dry out their cameras and what heat levels are safe. If your camera ever gets a bit damp, repeat what you did with the cable box. :-) Also, if you live in a high humidity climate, you might consider storing your camera equipment in the shelf above the cable box, assuming there is one.

[ty_mixon]

I work for a cable company as an installer/trblshooter. While DVR's will get hot (they have HD's & are basically dedicated computers), they only get 'warm' in the sense of electronics. If you lock them in a cabinet w/ no air flow & no a/c on a LA summer day, you might get upwards of 100 degrees. But most electronics can take heat for a while. The LCD might look funny until it cooled off, but I've had more issues with cold LCD's than hot ones.

 

Now, leaving it on the dashboard all day on a sunny day . . . that would be impressive. :)

 

I dropped my 450D w/ 70-300 4-5.6 IS on concrete the other. Seemed ok, except the viewfinder was out of focus, even tho AF took great shots, clear as crystal. Took me a day & half to realize I needed to readjust the Diopter by a click or 2.

 

:)

[hjoseph7]

"If that's your idea of harsh conditions, you need to get out more"

 

I was thinking about putting it under the air conditioning for a while so it could cool off.

 

To answer Johnsons question, I have FIOS from Verizon. The Cable Box is actually a Modem that sits on top of the Cable Box. I'm not sure how much heat it generates since I never measured it, but I would not recomend putting anything on top of that thing.

[baivab]

Just a thought - maybe the 5D was also automatically coming on and taking snaps of cable TV's output into the TV ... ? Hey .. no offense but I'm truly glad nothing happened to your 5D.

[sarah_fox]

Harry, NO! Don't put it in front of the AC to cool off! The problem is that it will be sitting in 100% relative humidity air and that it will also be getting cold. Then when you remove it from the AC, moisture from the warm air will condense on/in it. Just remove it from the heat, and put it away. That's quite enough.

[bobatkins]

Just don't put it in the microwave.

[anthony_zipple]

I left mine on the cable box for a week. I works fine, but the LCD is useless now except for watching Three"s Company reruns! :)

[juans eye]

I dont think your set top box gets any hotter than a summer's day in Palm Springs CA. It should be OK :)

 

/bing

[alan_green4]

i dropped my 5d in molten lava once. in a panic i reached in a grabbed it. the camera was fine but all the flesh had burned off my arm up the the elbow. i'll never do that again -- to hell with the camera

[mike_s.3]

In the words of Jack Handy " if you drop your 5D in molten lava...forget it man, its gone."

[abzphotoz]

Alan-good shit man!.....Harry-the cable box thing is seriously not a thing that would test the durability/heat sensitivity in any way. I would worry more about my camera being on a tripod for 3 hours while shooting pelicans at the beach on a hot summer afternoon. I feel a new trend coming on-testing camera's on top of cable boxes...which one lasts longer. I'm seeing it now on the cover of the next Digital Photography magazine. A complete in depth review...We test Time Warner dvr's, Dish Network, old school set top boxes and many more. PLUS-is your dvd player safer than an X-BOX to put your digital camera on?