cold temperture and the EX-3

[Clint Fleckenstein]

I’ve shot subzero (hey, I’m in North Dakota) and had no problems, other than my headphone cord getting as stiff as a coat hanger. I literally propped them up against the tripod. The LCD performed just fine, I didn’t have any mechanical hangups with the lens, and battery life didn’t appear to suffer. I’ve only been out as long as an hour, but that’s plenty at those temps.

Cf

[Ronnie Martin]

Thanks Clint for your reply. We are just not accustomed to such cold weather in the deep south. More than likely what we are experiencing is a nice day for you. A friend of mine who used to live up there told me one time that the only thing that separated North Dakota from the North Pole was a bob wire fence. Would it be possible to use the charger for a source of 12 volts and leave the battery on the camera? That way i could unplug and jump down on the track to shoot the interview of the race winner.

Thanks

Ronnie

Ronnie Martin
Kato Video Productions
http://www.dirtracingvideo.com

[Michael Pruitt-bruun]

i have been on shoots in the 20’s where the ex3 did just fine. but to be safe, if you aren’t burning the battery i would keep it in an inside pocket, one that gets a little body heat or is otherwise protected from the worst of the cold.

[Clint Fleckenstein]

That’s not a bad idea to run DC power until you have to go untethered. In my case that hasn’t been an easy option.

North Dakota, being at the geographic center of North America, is prone to lots of wild swings. I’ve flown into Vegas for shoots and found that it was ONLY 105 degrees, cooler than at home! 🙂 I’ve always lived in the snow and/or the mountains, so I kinda dig the whole blizzard thing. Until last night, when my snowblower froze up. I always tell new reporters at the TV stations here, “you know it’s North Dakota cold when you go outside and your coat breaks.”

Cf

[Clint Fleckenstein]

By the way, I spent way too long shooting in a jetway tonight at -16F wearing a Steadicam vest rig and no jacket. Camera worked great, even though it was too cold for the flourescent lights in the jetway to work completely. I had to tell the talent to hold their breath while they walked past me because it’s not supposed to be a winter shot!

Cf

[Alister Chapman]

I have used EX1’s and EX3’s at -36c (-32f) in northern Norway. Below about -20 the viewfinders get very sluggish but do warm up after a while. The BP-U60 sill lasted for almost 2 hours. I did start the shoot with rain covers for the cameras but these shattered like glass when it got to -30. The tripod heads froze solid!’
I’m going back to the same spot to shoot the Northern Lights again in 3 weeks time.

[Clint Fleckenstein]

We don’t get the Northern Lights as frequently here in North Dakota during a solar minimum like this. Therefore my attempts have been pretty weak. Still photos turn out great tho.

Clint

[Ronnie Martin]

Update on my cold weather shoot with the Ex-3. Well it was 17 degrees and lower on each of the two day shoot. The printer for the race scorer froze, My LCD TV with built in DVD player would not take a disk,the plastic head band on my ear muffs broke, my extension cord would not unroll, but the Ex-3 performed like a champ. The LCD screen got a little slow or warbled some but other than that, it performed as usual. I have one of those Pelican cases with the preformed inserts for my EX-3 and I found out that the hand warmers that you can buy at WalMart fit in the inserts. So I put one of those in each battery slot and then put the batteries on top of them. The batteries lasted both days. I know for you cold weather folks that a chill factor of just above zero is normal, but here in the deep south we are just not used to or prepared for such cold weather. This has been the coldest winter in over 25 years for us. At one time it stayed below 32 degrees for three days. Usually in the winter it will at times get to 32 but it warms up to above 50-60 each day.

To sum it up, the advice I got from you folks was accurate. The Ex series performs super in cold weather. The camera operator (me) was the only thing that really had a hard time with the cold.

Thanks

Ronnie Martin

Ronnie Martin
Kato Video Productions
http://www.dirtracingvideo.com

[Alister Chapman]

Just don’t store a cold camera in your Pelicase. You will get condensation on the inside of the camera that can lead to long term issues. When using Pelicases (or similar) always make sure you have fresh desiccant (silica Gel) inside at all times. As well as keeping moisture out pelicases will keep it in and prevent equipment from drying out correctly.

Alister Chapman
http://www.xdcam-user.com

[Ronnie Martin]

Both me and the camera were dirty. I left the camera out of the case in my edit suite until the next day. After cleaning everything up I checked it out and it worked perfect. This has been my second EX camera. I bought the Ex-1 shortly after it was available. In about 8 months I put over 100 hours on it shooting Late Model Dirt Racing.
The Ex-3 came out just as the ink dried on my warranty card and I traded the Ex-1 for the EX-3. It was much easier to hold on long shoots. Now I am thinking about getting another EX-1R for a backup camera.

Thanks again

Ronnie Martin

Ronnie Martin
Kato Video Productions
http://www.dirtracingvideo.com