Sun, snow and freezing equipment

[Ed Winchester]

Hi all,
I am pleased to see some excellent photography on this forum. Very humbling for a newbie

I will be traveling to Finland next week on snowboard holiday and want to take my Nikon D100.
Do any of you know: Will it be too cold for the camera? (typically -5 to -20)
Will I need a neutral density filter due to the amount of reflected light? I like to try and catch as much movement as poss in my pics which obviously requires slower shutter speeds.

[V6GTO]

Take a circular polarizing filter, it will do the same job of reducing the EV, cut out unwanted reflections and give lovely deep blue skys at the same time.

Martin.

[Mad Dave]

I would imagine that battery life will be your biggest problem - batteries dont tend to last long and low temperatures!

[_dobbo_]

You'll find the LCD screen(s) very sloooooow to change image....

I think it must be something to do with the low temperature effects the liquid.

[parrot of doom]

Absolutely under no circumstances take your extremely cold camera straight into a warm moist room. Allow it to acclimatise first, or you'll just end up with a soggy camera and foggy lenses (not much of an issue for film, but on digital hmmmmmm..)

Don't charge your batteries anywhere but in a warm environment. I'm not sure about nimh and lion, but nicads can physically explode when charged below freezing.

[pug406]

Keep little packets of silica gel in your camera bag aslo to stop /soak up any moisture. I keep 5 or 6 in my rucksack camera bag.

[Ed Winchester]

Thanks v.much for the advice. Is there a good place to buy filters online with fast delivery?
I'll be rooting through my old camera bags/boxes now looking for silica gel!

>> Edited by Ed Winchester on Tuesday 1st February 23:47

[D_Mike]

Don't think it will cause you problems - I spent a year in Finland and Russia last year and took photos in temperatures as low as -30... no problems caused. Have a nice time... I'd like to go somewhere cold again soon, its just a nice bracing feeling