Cold weather and digital cameras

[Seapy]

Reading the 'Best Moon Images' tread I was interested to read Øivind's account of Alaska's extreme cold conditions.  nikongear.net/revival/index.php/topic,1867.msg113949.html#msg113949

Øivind commented the session lasted a couple of hours and that he had to set his D5100 in the snow to get around the lack of a second tripod.

I recently I visited Kielder on the Scottish borders taking star trails and stacked Milky Way photo's, it was pretty cold by UK standards at -5 to -7ºC.  I experienced very poor battery performance with my D3 which also locked up with an 'Err' message.  I managed to unlock the camera by using the 'Reset Menu' command.

I am  in the process of rebuilding one of my EN-EL4 battery with new 18650 2600mAH cells, my other two batteries are less than a year old, sourced from a German supplier, non original.

I wonder what those of us who live in the far Northern countries and regularly contend with really low temperatures do to mitigate the effects of cold on the batteries?

[Øivind Tøien]

Rebuilding Nikon batteries, that sounds like an interesting story by itself for the What the Nerds Do section. Regarding the main question, you might want to take a look at the the following topic : Nikon Cameras in the Cold, http://nikongear.net/revival/index.php/topic,494.0.html   

Short answer: While all is relative with respect to subjective perception of cold, for the camera -5°C to -7°C is not very cold with respect to mechanics and the battery performance. A slight decline in effective battery capacity is expected, especially at higher power drain (increase in internal resistance of the battery). At -20°C during the eclipse I was using the same EN-EL15 battery through about 150 exposures with live view active most of the time and plenty of previewing images. (Heat from the active live view might actually have helped; during astro-photography with repeated 1 minute exposures I can track for about 2 hours at similar temperatures before changing battery.) The D5100 needed a battery swap even with minimal use after 1 hour, but the initial battery was not fully charged as I recall.

Below -30°C and certainly when it goes down to -40°C, the battery looses apparent power when it cools down and may eventually appear to be empty. However most of that effect is reversed when the battery is rewarmed. So the solution is to have at minimum one spare battery that is kept warm inside the clothing and can be swapped in when the other one has cooled down too much. Thus one can keep going for quite a while with just two batteries. When going out, but not immediately using the camera it also helps to keep it in a closed bag or a holster, which will slow down cooling. It might then take a couple of hours before it is cooled all the way down to ambient temperature, depending on thermal mass of the camera and the battery. The thinner batteries tend to cool down a bit faster. But again, it needs to be quite cold before these measures are needed.

Edit: A thought is that an empty battery usually does not result in an ERR message, just a blinking battery symbol. It could have been caused by a poor electrical connection to the lens, and then with slightly lower battery voltage the lens did not receive enough power. (Keeping shutter open for extended periods tend to drain more power.) Or the temperature effect could have been direct on the lens contacts causing a bad connection.

Edit2: If the battery goes too low during long night sky exposures (typically 1 min) I have sometimes seen the ERR message, especially if the remote keeps trying to fire the shutter. I think in some instances it was caused by the mirror not returning and needed a new shutter activation with a fresh/warm battery to return.

Edit 3: I checked my D5100 batteries (EN-EL14) after warm up - unfortunately I got them a little confused. 2 were full, while one only showed one bar. I suspect that is the one that needed to be swapped out, but I am not sure. The EN-EL15 from the D7100 was 2/3 full after warm-up.

[Akira]

This Japanese explorer walked to the south pole, alone and unsupported:

https://www.ogita-exp.com/english/

He shot videos and stills using Panasonic GH5.  The temperature sometimes went all the way down to -40 Celsius, but the camera functioned flawlessly, according to the report:

https://www.panasonic.com/global/consumer/lumix/gh5/100th/yasunaga_ogita.html

This is surprising because everyone including me wouldn't expect a mirrorless camera, which is known to be more power-hungry than a DSLR, survived that cold.

I use GH5 now myself, and its body became a bit warm when I shot a two-hour live show.  So, Øivind's surmise makes sense to me.

I have no intention of advertising Panasonic product here.  I'm simply impressed by the fact.  I guess that the battery or Li-ion cells have been improved as well?

[Hugh_3170]

Some Nikon DSLRs have auxiliary AC power pack connection points (my now ancient D200 is one example  -  the Nikon AC to DC power pack for the D200 was the EH-6 AC adapter.  It cost an arm and a leg, IIRC).  I also recall that some of Nikon's film cameras had accessories to allow external metering batteries to be used in cold climates, where the battery was to be kept close to the photographers body.

Has anyone here rigged up an external power cord to external battery packs, which can be kept warm?

(I do recall that NG contributor Jan Anne wrote about alternative power supplies in a post he put on the old NG site, but like finding a policeman when you need one  , I can not find JA's post just now.)

[Seapy]

Thank you for the replies,  I am considering an external power supply.  Nikon sell a 'dummy' battery which fits the D3 and has an external socket which allows an external power supply to be plugged into it.  I don't really see the point of that, it costs the same as a standard battery and the D3 already has a socket to connect to an external power supply called 'DC in" under the large flap door.

My frustration stems from making a three hour trip on a good night (clear sky) with what I thought were fully charged batteries, to find they were apparently depleted while I was taking a few preliminary exposures while I was waiting for the moon to set.  I have one original Nikon EN-EL4 battery and two other batteries which I bought when I got my D3.  Until now they have performed well but seems to have drained rapidly in the cold.

A small motorcycle battery would be portable enough.  If need be I would buy a gel battery.  I more than resent paying £150 for a small plastic housing with three 18650 cells in it which cost at the most £7 each (retail!).  It would seem I need at the least six, good EN-EL4 batteries, which would cost £900 if genuine Nikon batteries were sourced.  While I do appreciate genuine batteries are desirable, I do not believe they are the only game in town.  The cells I extracted from the EN-EL4 were normal 18650 cells.  I am replacing them with Samsung 2600mAH cells, which should be as good if not better than the original cells.  However, the surgery is delicate, I need to be in the mood to do the delicate soldering and make the connections to the PCB.  Electronics are not my main skill!  Arthritis and involuntary muscle spasms can make the process even more difficult.

I am reading the links with interest, thank you for them and for your experiences and tips.

[Øivind Tøien]

My frustration stems from making a three hour trip on a good night (clear sky) with what I thought were fully charged batteries, to find they were apparently depleted while I was taking a few preliminary exposures while I was waiting for the moon to set.  I have one original Nikon EN-EL4 battery and two other batteries which I bought when I got my D3.  Until now they have performed well but seems to have drained rapidly in the cold.

I certainly can understand that frustration.  It does not sound right though that this should have been a problem at -5 to -7°C as indicated in your initial post after only a few test exposures unless they were extremely long. Perhaps the battery had gone bad (one of of these batteries normally provide exposures in the thousands?) or there was something else going on. A third possibility is a short in the body, but this should give problems under normal shooting too. What did it take to clear the Err message?

[fish_shooter]

Thank you for the replies,  I am considering an external power supply.  Nikon sell a 'dummy' battery which fits the D3 and has an external socket which allows an external power supply to be plugged into it.  I don't really see the point of that, it costs the same as a standard battery and the D3 already has a socket to connect to an external power supply called 'DC in" under the large flap door.

My frustration stems from making a three hour trip on a good night (clear sky) with what I thought were fully charged batteries, to find they were apparently depleted while I was taking a few preliminary exposures while I was waiting for the moon to set.  I have one original Nikon EN-EL4 battery and two other batteries which I bought when I got my D3.  Until now they have performed well but seems to have drained rapidly in the cold.

A small motorcycle battery would be portable enough.  If need be I would buy a gel battery.  I more than resent paying £150 for a small plastic housing with three 18650 cells in it which cost at the most £7 each (retail!).  It would seem I need at the least six, good EN-EL4 batteries, which would cost £900 if genuine Nikon batteries were sourced.  While I do appreciate genuine batteries are desirable, I do not believe they are the only game in town.  The cells I extracted from the EN-EL4 were normal 18650 cells.  I am replacing them with Samsung 2600mAH cells, which should be as good if not better than the original cells.  However, the surgery is delicate, I need to be in the mood to do the delicate soldering and make the connections to the PCB.  Electronics are not my main skill!  Arthritis and involuntary muscle spasms can make the process even more difficult.

I am reading the links with interest, thank you for them and for your experiences and tips.

The EN-EL4 battery was replaced by the EN-EL4a battery a number of years ago. The few non-a batteries that I have (D2 generation vintage) that still work are now down to one tick when I check their condition in the camera. How old are yours?

I can concur that LiON as well as NiMH batteries take a hit the cold. However most of my shooting is above freezing at it is done in liquid water ;->> The water temps are in the single digits degrees C year round where it is not frozen such as on the surface. Fresh waters are cold throughout the summer where I live as it is largely snow melt or groundwater, but can be warmer elsewhere in Alaska even north of me.

After a day of shooting battery levels will increase by 20-30% upon return to room temperature. Because of this I only use the big pro cameras that use the larger batteries for my underwater photography. To my knowledge, no one has built a production underwater housing to take the auxiliary grips for the smaller bodies (which can take the big batteries).