Camera tricks?

[neve_r_est]

So I carried my camera with me on the Arrowhead 135, tucked inside my coat in my front mounted hydration pack. I took it out somewhere around the 9mile mark, hit the on button, the lens extends and then immediately retracts and shuts off. Already too cold to function. Thankfully MC was there to capture the experience. Many of the shots I would have taken, he did, and likely did a better job than I would have, so thats pretty cool. Of course I aspire to reach a similar level competence, so I really need to figure out how to keep my camera functioning.

Obviously I need to carry it closer to my body to keep it warm. Any other tricks to keep these things functioning in sub zero temps?

DG

[Jilleo]

I keep my camera in a pocket in one of my pogies, and even that isn't enough to keep it functioning below about -10. Keeping it close to your body may be more effective than keeping it in pogies, but it's harder to access that way. One trick I use once my camera freezes up is to remove the battery and stick it in my mouth. Just the battery. Usually I hold it with my fingers so it doesn't touch my tongue, which would probably lead to further icing. A couple of seconds of that usually nets me enough battery power to snap three or four simultaneous pictures before the battery dies again.

I lost my spare battery during the Ultrasport last year, so this is the trick I used to take a picture every time I wanted to use my camera for about three days, when the temperature was at or below zero. The battery fired up every time, but after a while I really stopped caring about taking pictures ... strange for me ... but I stopped trying. I still got a handful in deep subzero temps.

[WillyK]

I always carry spare batteries, (AA's), even in the summer. In winter I take the spares out of the camera case and keep them somewhere close to my body. Places I've tried include against my thigh under my shorts, in a jersey pocket with my pack against them, in my glove against the back of my hand, stuffed up my sleeve against my wrist, inside the cuff of my Lake mxz 300's (didn't really work to well)... and also one of my base layers has a nice little chest pocket. If I pull out the cam and it does what yours did, I pop in the warm batteries, and can take several shots (sometimes I have the cam out in the open air for a few minutes) before the lens retracts. So in my case it's much more about keeping the batteries warm, than the camera itself.....and the cold batteries I took out go inside my clothes to re-warm. Granted, this is not ideal for quick shots of wildlife or something, but it has been working for me. I've done this method down to about -10 f.  Depending on what gloves I'm wearing, (no pogies), I can usually change the batteries without taking a glove off.

I think up my sleeve against my wrist has been the best place to access them quickly.

Depending on roughness of the terrain, sometimes they migrate, other times they stay where I put them. No rhyme or reason to that, so far.

I guess if I only had one pair of batteries, I would keep them warm, and only put them in the cam when I used it, then take them back out and tuck them away until next time. Again, not ideal, but better than no pics at all.

That's all I've got....................

I would like to avoid all that by keeping the camera warm enough, so hopefully someone's got some better tips.

FWIW... I'm using a Nikon coolpix L10 camera and 'Digital Concepts' brand NI-MH 2200 mAh batteries.

[Eric]

Its almost always the battery, keeping the camera in a chest pocket or pogies helps. To quickly warm batteries I slide them into what ever gloves I'm wearing, or if no gloves, just hold them in my hands.
if you have a small camera you can stick a toe warmer on it. That works pretty well.

Jill - you're crazy, didn't your mom tell you not to bike with batteries in your mouth?

[sean salach]

lithium batteries seem to work really well for me down to about -25f in my sony p&s work camera. haven't had it out at any colder temps, but so far no problems. i keep it in the camera bag, strapped around my neck, on the outside of my clothing, but tucked under my safety vest. i'm usually outside for 5-10 hours at a time with it, and even on days where the temp never got above -15, it still worked fine at the end of the day.

[MikeC]

Any other tricks to keep these things functioning in sub zero temps?

I just used lithium AA's.  Shot something like 160 pics and a few minutes of vid (all worthless, btw) on the same two batts.  Granted, temps were pretty comfortable (for us) that day, so I don't think the camera/batts were taxed.

The trick is finding a camera with the features/size/price that you like that *also* uses AA's. 

Lithium AA's are nice but not critical in summer.  Much more important in winter.

MC

[Chad B]

On really cold days, I put the camera down my pants and the batteries in my armpit (the armpit is also a good way to get the freeze dried food nice and warm). This seemed to work on the coldest of days during the AZT 300.