Idle question about battery life at -30 deg C

[millband]

Hi, considering a week doing outdoorsy stuff in Finland over Christmas. Thing is, it could well be anything from -20 to -40 deg. C.

I'd be taking my Canon 400D - anyone got experience of how well the battery will survive in these temps? Should I buy a manual-wind 35mm Zenith as a backup

Cheers,

Steve

[leightonjames]

Never mind the camera battery, how long will you last at -40c!!!

[millband]

Well, apparently it's a "dry" cold and the clothes they give you are plenty warm enough

Just south of the Arctic circle, near the Russian border. Hopefully will be ski-touring, snow-shoeing, dog-sledding and the like. And, if I can possibly swing it a visit here, but that's not 100% certain!

Steve

Edited by millband on Saturday 2nd August 18:31

[Zad]

Keep spare batteries in a reasonably accessible non-outer layer garment pocket, and rotate them every hour or so?

From the 450D manual:

At 23C - 600 shots approx
At 0C - 500 shots approx

So maybe 300 shots for a 450D? Scale appropriately for your camera (or look in the manual).

[VxDuncan]

Have been down to about minus ten on the 300D doing astrophotography. Battery life was worse definately, and I found the batteries would fail very quickly, with little warning. (ie nearly full to won't power up very quickly). However this was with doing repeated 5 minute exposures, so hard to relate it to normal use.

Could of things I would do though, take a tripod for the relative lack of light, and lots of plastic bags. Even coming in from the garden after an hour on a winters night the cameras dripping wet when bought inside due to the condensation on the cold parts - pop it in a resealable bag before coming in and you should be okay.

[millband]

Zad - cheers, never even thought to look in the manual - I will now

VxDuncan - good practical advice, thanks

I have 3 batteries, so keeping a couple in an inside pocket sounds like a plan.

Steve

[Zad]

I had a good idea, but didn't quite think it through...

I know you can get fake battery adaptors that allow you to run the camera off the mains or a big power pack. I thought Ah! why not use one of those and run it to a battery in your inside pocket? I can't actually think of a good way of connecting it to the battery though, but I suppose you could use any 7.2-7.4v battery pack (but a bit faffy).

The manual lists working temperature range as 0 to 40C, so I hope the LCD works for you.

[r1ot]

I've got a 400D and have the battery grip which takes two batteries, I've used the camera in the summer and took about 1500 pictures before the batteries needed charging. Also used the camera in Norway in the winter when the temperature was about -10 to -15 deg c. The battery life shortened considerably to about 200 ish shots. I found they lasted longer if I kept the camera in my Lowe Pro Slingshot bag and only took the camera out to use it and then put it away again, a bit of a faff but could only take an extra 50 or so shots.

Condensation was the biggest problem never really found a good way to prevent it misting up when I got it inside, I just took the lens off and left it somewhere cool to acclimatise for an hour or so before taking it in the warm.

[VxDuncan]

r1ot said:

Condensation was the biggest problem never really found a good way to prevent it misting up when I got it inside, I just took the lens off and left it somewhere cool to acclimatise for an hour or so before taking it in the warm.

This is why the sealed plastic bag trick works so well. Failing that stick it between your legs or under your pits to get it a bit warmer before taking it in!

[zax]

You should manage just fine with multiple batteries kept in a warm place. But you'll need to practice for a while with your gloves on (both taking pictures and changing batteries) You don't want to be spending a long time with bare hands below -30 degrees.