Artex said:I definitely notice a drop in battery performance the more below freezing it gets. If keeping the camera inside your jacket to keep it warm is a problem, you may want to consider throwing one of those chemical handwarmers inside your camera case, so long as it's not right up against the camera itself. To maximize efficiency, you could also try lining the inside of the camera case with a space blanket. I haven't tried either yet, but plan to this winter. I'll post results once I do, but it seems simple enough and I don't anticipate any problems.
I've operated several digital cameras in temps below -20 and I can assure you that they do work just fine, as long as they have battery power. I've had film actually break in the camera at those temps, so from that standpoint I'd say that digital is better.oldfogie said:It may be that digitals can operate well below freezing as long as there is no moisture in or around the camera. I used to be an amateur astronomer and I always had to put my telescope outdoors to acclimate it before viewing. Fortunately winter is usually pretty dry, so maybe just keeping lithium batteries in it and carrying the camera in, say an outside pocket would do the trick. I do hike and camp in temps as low as -20 and would hate to lose a photo record of such craziness.
It's true summer or winter. If you are going to be hiking for several days, use the optical viewfinder and keep the previewing (and flash usage) to a minimum. You can increase battery life from 150 shots to 400, for example. In winter, scale those numbers down but the ratios are probably the same.Adi said:This may be stating the obvious but, when using my digital camera in the winter, I find that not using the LCD display makes an enormous difference in battery conservation.
I use an external battery pack with my Canon A2E (film camera). It works just fine for keeping the batteries warm under layers of clothing and the camera cold for no fog and no condensation usage. bobmak, It sounds like your digital camera has a simple plug to easily detach the battery pack. That will sure help when you are adding/removing layers of clothing, or making other equipment adjustments. I wish my older setup was that easy as the connecting cord is not easily detached. As you would expect the cord often gets in the way.bobmak said:My digital camera is a Nikon Coolpix and it has a an external power jack on the side for 4.2V. It seems like it would pretty easy to set up an external battery pack that you could keep warm which would allow you to keep the camera outside and still have normal battery life. Has anyone tried this approach?
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