How to Photograph Them · Part iii
Edition
Keep your camera alive in the cold.
The cold doesn't hit the body — it hits two critical parts: the battery and the lens.
Cold drains a battery's energy fast. Carry spares in your pocket, somewhere warm close to your skin. Don't keep switching the camera on and off — in the cold it can misread the charge; a battery shown as dead can work again once it warms.
The lens and condensation.
In extreme cold a lens's moving parts can freeze; keep it in the bag when not in use. The most dangerous moment is coming indoors: taking a cold camera straight into a warm room causes condensation — and serious damage.
Slow thawing.
Once inside, put the camera in the coolest corner of the house — the bathroom, the hallway, an unheated room. Never change the lens while it's thawing. After a while your camera is ready to use again.
+Added · 2024·The USB-C eraMost new bodies now charge over USB-C — which means hours of work in the field from a small 20,000 mAh power bank. Keep carrying spare batteries warm in your pocket, but as an emergency fix, keep the power bank in your waist bag at body temperature: pull out the cable, plug into the body, keep shooting.+Added · February 2025·Lens warmerAt −25 °C a thin film of moisture builds on the front element; through the night it shows up as blur in the frame. The fix: a USB heater strip wrapped around the lens (Kendrick, Cobra USB Dew Heater). For under 20 lira it saves your frames.This page's history
- +USB lens warmer
- +USB-C charging + power bank
- ○Original · book edition