andit Posted April 2, 2009 Share #21 Posted April 2, 2009 Advertisement (gone after registration) just gaffer tape one of those handwarmers to the baseplate of the camera, solves 2 problems in one go...keeps your hand warm while holding the camera, and keeps the camera warm enough to keep going. I think this idea is actually quite brilliant. Those hand warmers are inexpensive and you just place in the microwave to warm them. This will keep the battery warm, stop the shutter and the LCD from freezing. Simple low tech solution that should solve this problem. Thanks for sharing. Andreas PS: You get those combined socks/foot warmers here. These may work even better since they have a much larger surface area. You could wrap one of these around pretty much the whole bottom and back of the camera. I hear a lot of you laughing about winters in Africa. Temperatures can drop really low here in winter (-10 C quite common). We do live in the desert here in Namibia - so we have no snow, just dry cold (usually under 10% relative humidity). Best of all, we have -10 at night and up to +20 during the day (no wonder we sick so easily). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted April 2, 2009 Posted April 2, 2009 Hi andit, Take a look here M8: @ -20F, not so happy. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
Barrie Posted April 2, 2009 Share #22 Posted April 2, 2009 Just returned from - 35 c in arctic Canada. By keeping my 8.2 warm inside my down jacket I never had a problem apart from my fingers . Some days it was - 40c plus wind chill and the just kept camera working. Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/81145-m8-20f-not-so-happy/?do=findComment&comment=860534'>More sharing options...
tashley Posted April 2, 2009 Share #23 Posted April 2, 2009 I used mine in ball-snapping cold and wind recently in Iceland and took many hundreds of shots, even when snowing heavily. It never missed a trick.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie Roberts Posted April 2, 2009 Share #24 Posted April 2, 2009 Just returned from - 35 c in arctic Canada. By keeping my 8.2 warm inside my down jacket I never had a problem apart from my fingers . Some days it was - 40c plus wind chill and the just kept camera working. Nice shot! -40c is cold. Really cold. That's also -40 F, for our US friends Like I said, I'm wondering what firmware level the OP has on his M8... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Ash Posted April 2, 2009 Share #25 Posted April 2, 2009 I always use the leather halfcase which provides besides better ergonomics some protection against cooling down. Regards Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trs Posted April 2, 2009 Author Share #26 Posted April 2, 2009 Nice shot! -40c is cold. Really cold. That's also -40 F, for our US friends Like I said, I'm wondering what firmware level the OP has on his M8... Jamie, I had 2.0.4 firmware. Looking pix @ -40F, I was difinitely was not prepared for such cold weather. I had layers of fleece and wind breaker outside. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
grduprey Posted April 2, 2009 Share #27 Posted April 2, 2009 Advertisement (gone after registration) I know what you mean by film breaking. Since we were at hot spring, we jumped in. Everybody in pool had interesting hair (frozen and snow covered, each individual hair). One lady was telling me that I should not touch my hair because hair will break. Got the white hair I wanted while in the pool grduprey, did you operate M8 while it was in low temp like that? I think the key was operating while that cold. I heard shutter opening, but did not hear closing. I am just glad Seattle weather is not extreme like that, well coldness wise anyway. Yes, I did operate it during -20F temperatures after the camera had been soaking at that temperature for over 8 hours. This was the norm last year and for part of this years winter. Now the battery, as all batteries do run down faster, but the camera worked just fine. I on the other hand did not work fine at those temps, as wind chill/factors were at -32F for a large part of the time. This year we had fewer days at -20F, but regular temps at -10 to -15F were quite normal. Gene Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trs Posted April 2, 2009 Author Share #28 Posted April 2, 2009 Thanks for the confirmation Gene. I did not work well in such extreme weather either. thanks. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boxer 53 Posted April 3, 2009 Share #29 Posted April 3, 2009 Try taping a chemical or lighter fluid type handwarmer to the bottom of the camera. This used to work very well for me when I shot alot of photos in Alpine Regions at high elevations. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
xrogers Posted April 3, 2009 Share #30 Posted April 3, 2009 I'm another one who's shot in similar conditions without issues. My sympathies to those whose cameras fail, what a pain. Also, if you're shooting film in this kind of cold, don't wind (or rewind) quickly. Static electricity running the film through the canister felts can cause tiny sparks, exposing streaks on the film. Really bad news. Later, Clyde Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnalex141r Posted January 7, 2010 Share #31 Posted January 7, 2010 A while ago I wrote: Hi TRS; The only time I have used my M8 since late fall was when I was in California; I no longer bother to try during the cold of winter. Even around 0F the battery gets drained very quickly. Too bad - I really enjoy my M8, but my Canon G9 and Fujica medium format rangefinders get more use during the winter. JohnS. Ok - so, longish story; my M8 was getting worse; 3 batteries all from 2007/2008 and all appear ok in good weather. emailing my dealer in Montreal with a sound clip of the M8 in "failure mode" he mentioned that this problem seemed to be cured all the time with new batteries; so I have one on order. So, fingers crossed that the new battery will help; if so, then more will be ordered. IF this is the case, then I think better labelling of new/old batteries is required by me, which is a small price to pay for being able to do the happy dance at getting my M8 going reliably in cold weather! JohnS. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
markowich Posted January 7, 2010 Share #32 Posted January 7, 2010 my m9 gave up and came back and gave up and came back....at 0 centigrades.severe amateur performance at super professional price levels. they need some more research to catch up. i gave up trusting them in anything but optics. peter Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
perb Posted January 8, 2010 Share #33 Posted January 8, 2010 I was out a few days ago in about -8C for several hours. I swapped batteries (2 of them) ever so often, but after some long exposures (30 -60 s) I had to give up. When the camera itself is cold enough it will chill down a warm battery quickly. Coming home, the next day both batteries were warm and full without recharge and would run my camera for ages Anyway, I believe the camera itself with electronics is probably OK with low temp; in fact the sensor will have less thermal noise. However, from previous posts it is clear that the electronics require supply voltage to stay above some minimum level to function properly, and the M8/9 batteries are simply too weak in cold weather. Instead, I suggest a "wired battery" like the ones we saw in the videos from Solms, or like the one Mark Norton used to test power consumption. Imagine carrying a gel-lead battery inside your coat/jacket/whatever, some simple electronics to control voltage, and then a very flexible wire to the outside and into the battery socket of your M8/9. Cold is OK. Just keep it dry and keep supply voltage up Regards Per Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
melissah Posted January 9, 2010 Share #34 Posted January 9, 2010 beautiful image... whos happy at -27? yikes! best,melissa Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.