Winterizing the GH1

S

shzr

Member
The GH1's first winter is approaching, and since she's not "weather proof," does anyone know if its safe to operate under freezing temperatures?

Are there precautions that we should take such as not turning it on once indoor after being exposed in the code due to condensation and etc...? Any other scenarios that may pose dangers to our GH1's? How about Humidity?

Thought this might be good topic and might save the lives of some GH1's.
 
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Good questions. I'm interested in this topic too.

The manual says this:
Operating temperature: 0 degrees C to 40 degrees C (32 degrees F to 104 degrees F)
Operating humidity: 10% to 80%

I'm wondering how much latitude there may be with the temp. My guess is the cold wouldn't do any harm to the camera, but may start interfering with proper operation.

One thing you can do to prevent condensation is carry an air-tight bag and put the GH1 in it before bringing it indoors. A one gallon Ziplock heavy duty freezer bag is large enough for the cam with the kit lens and sturdy enough to be reused. Obviously, you leave the camera in the bag until it warms to room temperature.
 
I've been shooting for nearly 30 min outdoors past weekend. It was just a little bit below -10°C.
I can't say anything about kit lens - was using some old manual lens. But the body itself acted well. No lag on LCD/EVF, no sudden charge drops, no bugs with electronics, no problems with shooting indoors just 10 min after coming back.
 
I tested the camera out on snow last week for the first time. Not as cold as slonick, maybe around -2 tops, but didn't notice any problems due to the cold. Pictures on snow looked great too.

I'm not sure the camera itself can't take a bit of a splash or snow shower, it's weak point could be the mount though. I have a four thirds adapter, which like the kit lens doesn't have a super snug fit. So I'm a little nervous about water/snow on this area of the camera.
 
Most electronics are rated for that 0*C - +40*C range. Most electronics work just fine either side of that range too.

I've used (tape based) cameras rated for that range in the past in -15*C, -20*C without any problems. Battery life starts to drop off pretty quick as it get cold though.


My general rule of thumb (no pun intended) is that I treat the camera like my hands. Once it's cold enough that I need to put gloves on, then it's perhaps time to get a little insulation on the camera too. In the TV world, where cameras often have "camera gloves" around them, it's a common trick to slide an instant hand-warmer inside the glove to keep the camera (particularly the tape mechanism) a little warmer.

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- Mikko
 
I am planning to shoot in -20c for a quick while and just wanted to check and update this thread to see if anyone has had any problems shooting in this type of temp?

Thanks in advance...
 
So far I've shot for one night down to -20 and another this week down to -11. The camera has performed pretty well and I've had to eat humble pie on the stock battery, which has worked really well. I've only used around half of one battery shooting for around 3 hours in these temps.
The LCD can display some weirdness, although the picture records fine, so it's probably best to stick with EVF and just use the LCD if you really need to.
 
AdrianF said:
So far I've shot for one night down to -20 and another this week down to -11. The camera has performed pretty well and I've had to eat humble pie on the stock battery, which has worked really well. I've only used around half of one battery shooting for around 3 hours in these temps.
The LCD can display some weirdness, although the picture records fine, so it's probably best to stick with EVF and just use the LCD if you really need to.
Click to expand...


I can confirm this. I've shot these two at -10°C (more than 2 hours outside). The LCD eventually starts to show ghosting (which made me worry that the shots are bad), but the footage was good:

http://www.vimeo.com/8341515
http://www.vimeo.com/8657791

What I did do when I brought the cam inside was to leave it in the closed camera bag for at least 45mins before taking it out. Still, I had some condensation so a longer period of time might be better.

best regards, Gunther
 
GMC said:
What I did do when I brought the cam inside was to leave it in the closed camera bag for at least 45mins before taking it out. Still, I had some condensation so a longer period of time might be better.
Click to expand...

You might try using something more airtight than your camera bag. A one gallon Ziplock freezer bag works for me and holds up well.
 
I shot with the GH1 and Pancake 20mm 1.7 at -20 Celsius and the Autofocus did not work. Seemingly too cold.
 
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