Otis Grapsas
Carbonite Member
The operating specs are not an absolute. Many camcorders are operated outside their normal range. I have tried an embedded prototype outside specs and down to -18C without problems (only available inside a professional deepfreezer in Greece!). Some monitor technologies will not work at low temperatures though. Technically, you might freeze something or get it to fail, but most electronics will work because they end up many degrees over ambient. The real problem is high temperatures and sunlight, because the cooling systems are designed with a spec over the evironmental range. If that is 10 degrees over ambient, the camera will probably fail eventually or even immediately at 45C when it reaches 55 degrees in internal temperature which could be 70 degrees in a given component. If a camera is black and you have it in the sun, the casing will not dissipate heat but heat the components instead which could make it fail at 20 or 25 degrees C ambient.
Low temperature use is very important. Not only ambient temperature, but also a user interface that is usable with thick gloves and a camera casing/handles that do not stick to your hards from condensation in low temperatures (pretty common in metals).
We have software these days that can calculate and model heat transfer of your casing and components and check component spec conformance, but many uses require getting outside this range. You never know until you test.
