Snow trip

[clarkage]

So i will be heading up to Mammoth for some snowboarding in this next upcoming month i think and i have a few questions. I will be shooting outdoors most of the trip. First off, I have heard that taking your camera from warm to cold can mess it up. How can i "prepare" my camera for cold outdoor weather? (It will probably be about 20 degres or so) Also, should i worry about covering my camera if it snows while i am filming?

[clarkage]

bump

Hello???

[Scott W. Smith]

Barry can help you better than I can with all the technical aspects of what happens to a camera in cold weather. But here's my take from a practical perspective. My DVX shoots fine when it's 20 degrees outside. (20 is a warm winter day in Iowa.) Recently, I shot with my HVX in single digit weather when and I was outside for about an hour, though that was shooting on the P2 cards. But I've never had either camera not work with the temps you are talking about. (Though I haven't shot for hours outside either, like you may be doing.)

The main problem that has occured is going back and forth between cold outside and warm inside. The lens fogs up but adjusts after a few minutes. (This also happened to me on a shoot in Brazil when I went from air-conditioning to a very hot, humid climate outside. Though that time the camera wouldn't work for half an hour.)

Kata and others make raingear for the camera that would be a good investment if you are going to be shooting as it snows. Also, snow flakes have a way of landing on the lens so you need to clean the lens often unless you want blurred spots on your picture. A filter is a must. Having two or three allows you to simply put on a clean one instead of fighting the condensation.

I've also found that snow is hard to shoot unless the flakes are big and fluffy. If you can have something dark in the background (trees, building) it helps give some contrast and helps sell the shot. Also, using a fast shutter is also a nice effect for that "Gladiator"/"Saving Private Ryan" effect as the snow comes down.

If you are on auto exposure the camera with read the pure white snow and want to stop down. I'd go manual and meter off a grey card or do some testing where you open up a half -stop or so to avoid underexposure.

If you get a blue sky that offers the best contrast to the white snow try some shots where you are as low as you can get and shoot up at the snowboards.

[clarkage]

Thanks a ton Scott! This is really helpful! I will definetely try some of this stuff out.

[DM_rider]

just a tip, if it's going to be fairly cold, get some foot warming heat packs with the adhesive on them to put on the back of your batteries to keep them fairly warm. Or throw a couple heat packs in your pockets with your batteries. I do it all the time and it really helps.