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Cold Performance of Leica M8


gdbale

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Will be heading to Sweden in a couple weeks where I am expecting the weather to be anywhere from -5 to -20... ouch.

 

Besides battery life anyone have any experience/advice on using the m8 in the cold?

 

Wouldn't expect any problems but a bit curious to hear from those who have done it.

 

Thanks

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I've been shooting an M8 in the cold of Ukraine for 2 winters, and here's what I've seen: First, the battery life is horrible. You need 2-3 batteries, keeping them in your interior pockets to keep them useful, and then also keeping the camera from fully freezing out by keeping it inside your coat. And second is keeping condensation problems from forming, mostly by easing the transition from cold to warm by keeping the camera insulated at all times. But otherwise, I've had no trouble shooting in weather up to -30 C. Best of luck!

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Most people seem to have good luck with M8. My copy on the other hand performed very poorly in cold weather.

1) Even in not extreme weather, battery goes down fast (I guess expected)

2) When I was in extreme weather (-25C), I simply could not take a single shot. When I set it up, I see the power, press the shutter, power dead. Two batteries, both behaved same. I did not try further though.

 

When I posted my info, it turns out from what I got, it just me who was having the issue. So, I am pretty sure, you will be fine except shorter battery power than usual.

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Battery capacity reduces with temperature so expect poor performance from any battery.

Remote battery packs is the solution, I did think of making something, it would not be difficult but I have never bothered because I do not shoot in the cold that often.

My M8 did spend two days in a Yellowstone blizzard and worked fine with only three batteries, two in my pocket keeping warm and swap when the one in the camera gets cold and tired, it will recover a lot as it warms up.

Be kind to the camera, keep it cold. If you take it into a nice warm room at the end of the day it will fill with condensation in an instant. Change cards etc out in the cold. Then put camera gear in ziplock bags and keep it in a cool room ready for tomorrow. You only need to take cards and batteries in to the warm.

When you have done with the cold, let the gear warm up slowly while still sealed in the ziplocks. Remember the inside of the camera will take a long time to warm up so leave it as long as you can, the unseen condensation can do a lot of unseen damage.

Modern lubricants are amazing and will keep the camera running at silly temperatures, not so many years ago we needed to get F2s specially prepared for the cold and I remember them still giving up on really cold days.

If it’s snowing I keep the camera in a ziplock with the hood poking out through a hole and the bag held tight to the hood with an elastic band. It is still possible to match the two squares even when looking through a plastic bag in a snow storm. Turning the focus ring through the bag while wearing gloves is not so slick but I am never rushing to grab a shot so it’s OK.

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