Any advice on taping in cold weather...saw a hunting show on tv and it was like - degrees!!!

How do you keep cameras going when its at least below freezing??

All these experts on this site and no one wants to answer....mmmm

If the camera is moved from a cold place to a warm place you may experience condensation internally as well as externally, fogging of the lens and your LCD display. So try to avoid sudden temperature changes. If you get a "Dew" warning indication your camera may shut down. Make sure you read your manual so you know what the "Dew" warning is. It is bad for the video heads. Normally the only solution is to let the camera come to room temperature and perhaps open the tape compartment to let it air out and dry. Battery performance definitely is related to temperature, you will probably notice reduced battery capacity. Don't put a frozen cassette in your camcorder, they can become brittle and they don't like that. You might want to consider a wool cover to wrap the camera in, I always carry a terrycloth hand towel in my camera bag to wipe down or cover my camera. Going from a warm humid location to a very cold area quickly can cause freezing, which is an extreme. Camcorders are typically rated to about freezing but I have operated to about -20 degrees F briefly 20 minutes or less. They do tend to stay warm while in operation.

I've had more problems with "Dew" in very warm humid locations or sudden elevation changes.

Rich

Stop and think for a moment! How would we know? You might as well ask how high can I jump if I were on the moon? This is not something that any of us have done. It would be pure speculation on our part. Those that have experience in this area are down at the south pole right now, filming penguins with film.

Every consumer camcorder I have seen was rated at 32F and above. So if you are going to spend a lot of time outside in below freezing temperatures I suspect you should have at least a pro-sumer grade camcorder with a heated housing? I know you can go a little below freezing with a consumer grade camcorder but for short periods of time and then stick it back inside your jacket. But that is not going to work for a TV show. Go to B&H and ask them. They sell that kind of equipment or at least know how to answer your questions.

When you don't get an answer here, it is not because "no one wants to answer". It is most likely "no one here knows". If I answered every post that I did not know the answer to with "I don't know", you would get very bored seeing that reply in 99% of the posts here. But being accused of "not wanting to answer" really turns my crank.

Dave

Thanks for the reply...poncho....yea...the dew warning has happened...I learned how to deal with that one....

I was just wondering if anyone had any tips for cold weather videoin...wonder if hand warmers would work

As for you DaveC...chill dude Wrong choice of words on my part...but you did still answer me ...even if you didn't know

If I can be so bold as to interject my opinion here, HuntnCutters, I think some people were also put off by your first reply since it came so close to the original post. Lots of folks don't read this site every day. Sometimes it can take a week or more until good replies come in. In the future I would advise you to be a little more patient and wait a few days before *tactfully* asking if anyone has any ideas.

The quick reply asking why there were no answers is one faux pas we all need to keep in mind. The other big one is the post asking for a urgent reply because a project is due tomorrow and held is needed ASAP. Again, not everyone reads the site daily and no one should expect immediate replies.

If we all understand and practice good etiquette things will go smoothly.

Just my opinion.

Good luck.

Dennis