10D, lenses, DVD+R, laptop, HDD in extreme heat

Death Valley, Arizona, Utah, etc etc. Mid-summer. Car trunk.

Will the gear survive the intense heat?

Is car trunk the coolest place in the car? (when it's parked)

I'm least worried about 10D and lenses, and most about DVD+R drive and DVD+R disks. Will they survive? I'm thinking about burning DVD+R's during the trip and sending them home once a week as a backup plan. Is buying a 50-disk DVD+R spindle and keeping it in the car for a month or two a sure way to render them useless?

I'm also taking a 120GB harddrive in Firewire enclosure. How do harddrives "like" the heat?

What about laptop? Any possible problems? LCD, built-in CD-R drive, hard drive?

Is there any cooler with waterproof container inside to keep the gear cool?

What power DC/AC car inverter is needed to power the laptop, firewire harddrive, firewire DVD+R drive, and charge BP-511 and AA batteries? How many watts? I think my inverter is 80 watt or so.

Will compact car battery handle this power? For how long?

Any advice about road trip with camera and other gear is appreciated.

Thanks,

--
Mishkin

Mishkin said:

Death Valley, Arizona, Utah, etc etc. Mid-summer. Car trunk.

Will the gear survive the intense heat?

Is car trunk the coolest place in the car? (when it's parked)

I'm least worried about 10D and lenses, and most about DVD+R drive
and DVD+R disks. Will they survive? I'm thinking about burning
DVD+R's during the trip and sending them home once a week as a
backup plan. Is buying a 50-disk DVD+R spindle and keeping it in
the car for a month or two a sure way to render them useless?

I'm also taking a 120GB harddrive in Firewire enclosure. How do
harddrives "like" the heat?

What about laptop? Any possible problems? LCD, built-in CD-R drive,
hard drive?

Is there any cooler with waterproof container inside to keep the
gear cool?

What power DC/AC car inverter is needed to power the laptop,
firewire harddrive, firewire DVD+R drive, and charge BP-511 and AA
batteries? How many watts? I think my inverter is 80 watt or so.

Will compact car battery handle this power? For how long?

Any advice about road trip with camera and other gear is appreciated.

Thanks,

--
Mishkin

Click to expand...

--
Mishkin

Greetings from the UK.

I would be very wary of leaving this type of equipment in a car even the trunk. I had a video camera destroyed by the high temperature. It didn't do my pack of gummi bears any good either.

Most consumer products are only good up to +40c operating. The 10D manual confirms this, you may get up to +50 storage but above this you could have problems with the LCD, adhesives breaking down, possible change in any polymers particularly the sensor filter. A friend of mine lost a pack of CDs by leaving them in the sun after only a few weeks.

You could mitigate this by using a cooler box even a cheap polystyrene one with ice or an ice pack in it with your kit in zipper plastic bags, be careful of the high humidity though, you will need to wait a few minutes if you use this method to stabilise the temperature differential or you will get condensation in your kit.

Remember though the ice pack needs to be above the kit as the cold will migrate downwards so check and double check that their is no chance of getting your precious equipment waterlogged. This method is probably good for around 5 hours +.

Any additional shade will help as well when you park your vehicle.

I hope all of the above is useful.

Mishkin said:

Mishkin said:

Death Valley, Arizona, Utah, etc etc. Mid-summer. Car trunk.

Will the gear survive the intense heat?

Is car trunk the coolest place in the car? (when it's parked)

I'm least worried about 10D and lenses, and most about DVD+R drive
and DVD+R disks. Will they survive? I'm thinking about burning
DVD+R's during the trip and sending them home once a week as a
backup plan. Is buying a 50-disk DVD+R spindle and keeping it in
the car for a month or two a sure way to render them useless?

I'm also taking a 120GB harddrive in Firewire enclosure. How do
harddrives "like" the heat?

What about laptop? Any possible problems? LCD, built-in CD-R drive,
hard drive?

Is there any cooler with waterproof container inside to keep the
gear cool?

What power DC/AC car inverter is needed to power the laptop,
firewire harddrive, firewire DVD+R drive, and charge BP-511 and AA
batteries? How many watts? I think my inverter is 80 watt or so.

Will compact car battery handle this power? For how long?

Any advice about road trip with camera and other gear is appreciated.

Thanks,

--
Mishkin

Click to expand...

--
Mishkin

Click to expand...

--
Frederick

http://www.pbase.com/fredgormer/

Thanks, Frederick, very useful. I wonder if there's a cooler with hard-sided compartment completely protected from ice/water...

Frederick Gormer said:

I would be very wary of leaving this type of equipment in a car
even the trunk. I had a video camera destroyed by the high
temperature. It didn't do my pack of gummi bears any good either.

Most consumer products are only good up to +40c operating. The 10D
manual confirms this, you may get up to +50 storage but above this
you could have problems with the LCD, adhesives breaking down,
possible change in any polymers particularly the sensor filter. A
friend of mine lost a pack of CDs by leaving them in the sun after
only a few weeks.

You could mitigate this by using a cooler box even a cheap
polystyrene one with ice or an ice pack in it with your kit in
zipper plastic bags, be careful of the high humidity though, you
will need to wait a few minutes if you use this method to stabilise
the temperature differential or you will get condensation in your
kit.
Remember though the ice pack needs to be above the kit as the cold
will migrate downwards so check and double check that their is no
chance of getting your precious equipment waterlogged. This method
is probably good for around 5 hours +.

Any additional shade will help as well when you park your vehicle.

I hope all of the above is useful.

Mishkin said:

Mishkin said:

Death Valley, Arizona, Utah, etc etc. Mid-summer. Car trunk.

Will the gear survive the intense heat?

Is car trunk the coolest place in the car? (when it's parked)

I'm least worried about 10D and lenses, and most about DVD+R drive
and DVD+R disks. Will they survive? I'm thinking about burning
DVD+R's during the trip and sending them home once a week as a
backup plan. Is buying a 50-disk DVD+R spindle and keeping it in
the car for a month or two a sure way to render them useless?

I'm also taking a 120GB harddrive in Firewire enclosure. How do
harddrives "like" the heat?

What about laptop? Any possible problems? LCD, built-in CD-R drive,
hard drive?

Is there any cooler with waterproof container inside to keep the
gear cool?

What power DC/AC car inverter is needed to power the laptop,
firewire harddrive, firewire DVD+R drive, and charge BP-511 and AA
batteries? How many watts? I think my inverter is 80 watt or so.

Will compact car battery handle this power? For how long?

Any advice about road trip with camera and other gear is appreciated.

Thanks,

--
Mishkin

Click to expand...

--
Mishkin

Click to expand...

--
Frederick

http://www.pbase.com/fredgormer/

Click to expand...

--
Mishkin

I agree with the other opinions ... be very cautious about leaving any equipment in a hot car in the desert. I live in Arizona and never leave my camera in the car for any significant length of time. There have been other posts on various forums about possible ways of keeping your gear at a reasonable temperature, so do a search on many of the forums on this site. Good luck.

Bill

Mishkin said:

Death Valley, Arizona, Utah, etc etc. Mid-summer. Car trunk.

Will the gear survive the intense heat?

Is car trunk the coolest place in the car? (when it's parked)

I'm least worried about 10D and lenses, and most about DVD+R drive
and DVD+R disks. Will they survive? I'm thinking about burning
DVD+R's during the trip and sending them home once a week as a
backup plan. Is buying a 50-disk DVD+R spindle and keeping it in
the car for a month or two a sure way to render them useless?

I'm also taking a 120GB harddrive in Firewire enclosure. How do
harddrives "like" the heat?

What about laptop? Any possible problems? LCD, built-in CD-R drive,
hard drive?

Is there any cooler with waterproof container inside to keep the
gear cool?

What power DC/AC car inverter is needed to power the laptop,
firewire harddrive, firewire DVD+R drive, and charge BP-511 and AA
batteries? How many watts? I think my inverter is 80 watt or so.

Will compact car battery handle this power? For how long?

Any advice about road trip with camera and other gear is appreciated.

Thanks,

--
Mishkin

Click to expand...

I have a laptop in my car everyday and I live in Charleston, SC where the temps get pretty high and hellaciously humid!!! I usually keep it on the floor in the front seat when not in use so the AC duct hits it and keeps it cool.... just a thought....

Why not just get a big Cooler and stuff your bag and lenses in that in the back seat like I do with my drugs that need to be kept at a certain temp?

Bill Mitchell said:

Bill

Mishkin said:

Death Valley, Arizona, Utah, etc etc. Mid-summer. Car trunk.

Will the gear survive the intense heat?

Is car trunk the coolest place in the car? (when it's parked)

I'm least worried about 10D and lenses, and most about DVD+R drive
and DVD+R disks. Will they survive? I'm thinking about burning
DVD+R's during the trip and sending them home once a week as a
backup plan. Is buying a 50-disk DVD+R spindle and keeping it in
the car for a month or two a sure way to render them useless?

I'm also taking a 120GB harddrive in Firewire enclosure. How do
harddrives "like" the heat?

What about laptop? Any possible problems? LCD, built-in CD-R drive,
hard drive?

Is there any cooler with waterproof container inside to keep the
gear cool?

What power DC/AC car inverter is needed to power the laptop,
firewire harddrive, firewire DVD+R drive, and charge BP-511 and AA
batteries? How many watts? I think my inverter is 80 watt or so.

Will compact car battery handle this power? For how long?

Any advice about road trip with camera and other gear is appreciated.

Thanks,

--
Mishkin

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Hi Mishkin, here is my take on your questions.

Mishkin said:

Death Valley, Arizona, Utah, etc etc. Mid-summer. Car trunk.

Will the gear survive the intense heat?

Click to expand...

I not so sure, it depends how long they are there and how hot they get.

Mishkin said:

Is car trunk the coolest place in the car? (when it's parked)

Click to expand...

Maybe, get a cooler and keep them in there while in the trunk.

Mishkin said:

I'm least worried about 10D and lenses, and most about DVD+R drive
and DVD+R disks. Will they survive? I'm thinking about burning
DVD+R's during the trip and sending them home once a week as a
backup plan. Is buying a 50-disk DVD+R spindle and keeping it in
the car for a month or two a sure way to render them useless?

Click to expand...

DVDR media is sensitive to extreme heat, the media has a dye in it that is burned away when written to, very high temps can cause the dye to reflow, thus destroying data. As far as the camera and lenses themselves, I would not store them under very hot conditions. Here is my reasoning, the mechanical parts of the lenses and camera have lubrication on them to make eveything move smoothly and last a long time (just like your engine). Under very high temps the lub that is on all the moving parts will become very thin and even flow off the points of lubrication where they need to be and once they do there is no oil pump to move them back and the camera wear will increase by a hugh amount leading to early failure. Also getting the LCD too hat can cause it be destroyed as well. If you have a cooler and an icepack that you can put in the bottom of it each day will keep everything from getting too hot in the trunk I would think. The thing is the inside of a trunk will get incredibly hot in no time out in the desert; if the outside temp is 100F then the inside of the trunk could easily get to 140 or higher in as little as 30 minutes or less. I'm not usre what Canon lists as the non-op temperature limits, but if you can find out what they are then I would not exceed them by more than 5% for more than an hour (just a guess on my part) or you will be asking for trouble. Getting back to the DVDR or CDR media, I know 1st hand that the heat inside a closed car (under the front seat) will destroy them over the course of 4 hours (lunch time to getting home from work) on a hot 95F Colorado day in the summer

Oh, hard drives as well won't like too high of heat as they too have lube on the moving parts. I've kept them under my seat as well on 95f summer days and they were OK afterwards, but don't use them until after a couple of hours of cooler temps to cool them off. This is no guarantee though as the temps where you will be could be 50F higher easily.

Jack

--
http://www.pbase.com/joneill

Jack O'Neill said:

Mishkin said:

Death Valley, Arizona, Utah, etc etc. Mid-summer. Car trunk.

Will the gear survive the intense heat?

Click to expand...

I not so sure, it depends how long they are there and how hot they
get.

Member said:

Is car trunk the coolest place in the car? (when it's parked)

Click to expand...

Maybe, get a cooler and keep them in there while in the trunk.

Member said:

I'm least worried about 10D and lenses, and most about DVD+R drive
and DVD+R disks. Will they survive? I'm thinking about burning
DVD+R's during the trip and sending them home once a week as a
backup plan. Is buying a 50-disk DVD+R spindle and keeping it in
the car for a month or two a sure way to render them useless?

Click to expand...

DVDR media is sensitive to extreme heat, the media has a dye in it
that is burned away when written to, very high temps can cause the
dye to reflow, thus destroying data. As far as the camera and
lenses themselves, I would not store them under very hot
conditions. Here is my reasoning, the mechanical parts of the
lenses and camera have lubrication on them to make eveything move
smoothly and last a long time (just like your engine). Under very
high temps the lub that is on all the moving parts will become very
thin and even flow off the points of lubrication where they need to
be and once they do there is no oil pump to move them back and the
camera wear will increase by a hugh amount leading to early
failure. Also getting the LCD too hat can cause it be destroyed as
well. If you have a cooler and an icepack that you can put in the
bottom of it each day will keep everything from getting too hot in
the trunk I would think. The thing is the inside of a trunk will
get incredibly hot in no time out in the desert; if the outside
temp is 100F then the inside of the trunk could easily get to 140
or higher in as little as 30 minutes or less. I'm not usre what
Canon lists as the non-op temperature limits, but if you can find
out what they are then I would not exceed them by more than 5% for
more than an hour (just a guess on my part) or you will be asking
for trouble. Getting back to the DVDR or CDR media, I know 1st hand
that the heat inside a closed car (under the front seat) will
destroy them over the course of 4 hours (lunch time to getting home
from work) on a hot 95F Colorado day in the summer

Oh, hard drives as well won't like too high of heat as they too
have lube on the moving parts. I've kept them under my seat as well
on 95f summer days and they were OK afterwards, but don't use them
until after a couple of hours of cooler temps to cool them off.
This is no guarantee though as the temps where you will be could be
50F higher easily.

Jack

--
http://www.pbase.com/joneill

Click to expand...

--
Mishkin