Operating camera in low temperature conditions

Astrotripper wrote:

I've been using my E-PL1 and E-M10 in sub zero temperatures for prolonged periods of time. A lot of those times they were on a telescope, which means the sensor was directly exposed to the environment. The cameras are still working perfectly.

Just remember to not bring the camera directly into a warm room. You need to put it in a bag. And don't open it for a few hours after coming back. Let it slowly warm up to room temperature. Otherwise you will have water condensing, which is not a killer on the outside of the camera, but if it happens somewhere inside it, bad things may happen.

Yes, that's what I was thinking too. I think my garage will do nicely As far as bags are concerned, are camera bags alright?

Also, since you are here, I'm testing out different settings for taking wide angle pictures of Orion and other constellations under light pollution (between 14mm and 20mm). I'm doing RAW+JPEG so I need a quick comparison of different settings I'm using (shutter speed, aperture and ISO). Would you set contrast and saturation to default (0) and sharpening to its lowest (-2) (in natural picture mode) to get the best possible OOC Jpegs to compare the results at different settings quickly or would you use a different combination of settings for contrast, saturation and sharpness? I want the optimal settings to preserve star colors, and to achieve clear easily detectable differences between stars of different colors and classes and to detect the dimmest possible stars above the noise floor and background sky while keeping ISO noise to a minimum.

I had GX1 and GF3 shooting in -25°C without problem. 2 years later they were retired, but still in perfect operating condition. Just bring more spare batteries.

OutsideTheMatrix wrote:

Astrotripper wrote:

Just remember to not bring the camera directly into a warm room. You need to put it in a bag. And don't open it for a few hours after coming back. Let it slowly warm up to room temperature. Otherwise you will have water condensing, which is not a killer on the outside of the camera, but if it happens somewhere inside it, bad things may happen.

Yes, that's what I was thinking too. I think my garage will do nicely As far as bags are concerned, are camera bags alright?

Sure, anything that will keep the camera from rapidly warming up. I usually just had my cameras in an ordinary backpack. It might also be a good idea to have some of those silica gel bags inside to absorb any moisture that might appear. Cannot hurt. Just make sure you avoid the ones that actually turn into gel once saturated with water.

Also, since you are here, I'm testing out different settings for taking wide angle pictures of Orion and other constellations under light pollution (between 14mm and 20mm). I'm doing RAW+JPEG so I need a quick comparison of different settings I'm using (shutter speed, aperture and ISO). Would you set contrast and saturation to default (0) and sharpening to its lowest (-2) (in natural picture mode) to get the best possible OOC Jpegs to compare the results at different settings quickly or would you use a different combination of settings for contrast, saturation and sharpness? I want the optimal settings to preserve star colors, and to achieve clear easily detectable differences between stars of different colors and classes and to detect the dimmest possible stars above the noise floor and background sky while keeping ISO noise to a minimum.

Cannot really help you with JPEG settings, always used RAW, and stacked when possible. Under light pollution, you will have a hard time achieving any of your goals. I've been playing with a light pollution filter recently, but had not had time to process the images. I'll probably have something to post on weekend.

As others have said, spare batteries to keep going. On avoiding condensation when returning to normal / warm temperatures, I used a dry bag, with a roll top, as used for keeping kit dry in boats/ canoeing. They're available in many sizes at reasonable prices on Amazon/eBay. Before returning to warmth put cameras/ lenses in the bag and seal it, leave for several hours. I had no issues in -6 to -16C for a few hours.

Amazon link https://www.amazon.co.uk/Karrimor-Drybag-15L-Green/dp/B00I91WFJG/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1480500381&sr=8-5&keywords=kayak+dry+bags

Astrotripper wrote:

OutsideTheMatrix wrote:

Astrotripper wrote:

Just remember to not bring the camera directly into a warm room. You need to put it in a bag. And don't open it for a few hours after coming back. Let it slowly warm up to room temperature. Otherwise you will have water condensing, which is not a killer on the outside of the camera, but if it happens somewhere inside it, bad things may happen.

Yes, that's what I was thinking too. I think my garage will do nicely As far as bags are concerned, are camera bags alright?

Sure, anything that will keep the camera from rapidly warming up. I usually just had my cameras in an ordinary backpack. It might also be a good idea to have some of those silica gel bags inside to absorb any moisture that might appear. Cannot hurt. Just make sure you avoid the ones that actually turn into gel once saturated with water.

Thanks, I have quite a few of those too.  Helps a lot in this dewy weather (dew points here can get into the 70s in the summer.)

Also, since you are here, I'm testing out different settings for taking wide angle pictures of Orion and other constellations under light pollution (between 14mm and 20mm). I'm doing RAW+JPEG so I need a quick comparison of different settings I'm using (shutter speed, aperture and ISO). Would you set contrast and saturation to default (0) and sharpening to its lowest (-2) (in natural picture mode) to get the best possible OOC Jpegs to compare the results at different settings quickly or would you use a different combination of settings for contrast, saturation and sharpness? I want the optimal settings to preserve star colors, and to achieve clear easily detectable differences between stars of different colors and classes and to detect the dimmest possible stars above the noise floor and background sky while keeping ISO noise to a minimum.

Cannot really help you with JPEG settings, always used RAW, and stacked when possible. Under light pollution, you will have a hard time achieving any of your goals. I've been playing with a light pollution filter recently, but had not had time to process the images. I'll probably have something to post on weekend.

Thanks, a physical light pollution filter? I have a few of those but only in the 1 1/4" inch format; I wonder if that will cause vignetting issues? I have the Astronomik CLS, CLS-CCD and UHC.

But in general do you want to keep standard contrast and saturation settings and turn the sharpening down as low as possible? I find that lowering the contrast causes the background sky to appear brighter- not what we want.

I also stack JPGs with DSS and Sequator, I find the quality improves nicely when stacking 5-10 images.

windmillgolfer wrote:

As others have said, spare batteries to keep going. On avoiding condensation when returning to normal / warm temperatures, I used a dry bag, with a roll top, as used for keeping kit dry in boats/ canoeing. They're available in many sizes at reasonable prices on Amazon/eBay. Before returning to warmth put cameras/ lenses in the bag and seal it, leave for several hours. I had no issues in -6 to -16C for a few hours.

Amazon link https://www.amazon.co.uk/Karrimor-Drybag-15L-Green/dp/B00I91WFJG/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1480500381&sr=8-5&keywords=kayak+dry+bags

Thanks for the link!  I think I should probably seal the camera overnight to be sure.  I guess I should just leave the SD card in there also and not risk opening up the camera just to retrieve my pictures early.

I resist the temptation to take out the card, though it should be resistant to temperature issues and could be separately secured when you put the camera/kit in the dry bag and before entering the warm/humid environment. If you put in the card case, in its plastic case and then seal in a plastic bag, it should acclimatise quickly because it has very low mass/thermal mass.

windmillgolfer wrote:

I resist the temptation to take out the card, though it should be resistant to temperature issues and could be separately secured when you put the camera/kit in the dry bag and before entering the warm/humid environment. If you put in the card case, in its plastic case and then seal in a plastic bag, it should acclimatise quickly because it has very low mass/thermal mass.

Thanks, the key seems to be doing all this before any sudden temperature changes are introduced into the environment surrounding the camera.