Ready for winter?

[Formerly presspass]

Specifically, how do you get your gear ready for winter and do you have some gear that works well and others that do not?
In my case, working with 35mm black and white film photography, I tend to use older mechanical Nikon SLR cameras - F and F2 - because they function easily when I'm wearing gloves. I do put the AR-1 raised shutter releases on them. On the other side of the issue, my Barnack rangefinders are pretty much restricted to indoor use. They work well in the cold, but I'm not coordinated enough to keep my gloved fingers away from the spinning shutter speed dial and setting the f stop on some lenses - 35mm f3.5 Elmar specifically - is almost impossible with gloved fingers. If I'm shooting in the snow, I also make sure to take an incident meter. Do any of you choose your gear specifically for outdoor winter use?

 

[Glenn2]

Hunters in this situation use a glove with the tips of the index/trigger finger and thumb cut off. The rest of the glove is intact and keeps the hand warm. I had a diving glove made from wet suit material that I did this to, warm, waterproof and not very thick.

Thankfully I now live in a warmer area and no longer have this problem.
🙂

Google “winter shooting gloves” there are some on Amazon with finger tips that fold back. This also allows use of touch screens.

 

[BillBingham2]

I found several pairs of shooting mittens that could flip back to expose your four fingers. They were from when the USSR dissolved. Another option is ice fishing gloves. They kept my hands warm better than most.

 

[JohnWolf]

My output slows considerably in winter, despite me saying every year that I’m going to embrace the cold and snow this year.

I don't change gear in winter. Basically the usual GR of some sort, batteries warm in a pocket, and convertible mittens.

I tend to look for indoor venues. The many Chicago museums have ample free days in winter, which I always enjoy. Street photography takes a hit in winter, with everyone hidden under layers of clothes.

 

[Formerly presspass]

I have tried all kinds of fingerless gloves, including those with flaps that fold back, and have not been able to work comfortably with them. A stupid decision more than 25 years ago - taking photos at a schoolhouse arson fire in the snow without gloves - left me with a case of frostbite and overly sensitive fingers. So it's using cameras that can function with gloves; that's one reason I abandoned a switch to film OM cameras when Canon changed lens mounts. I don't buy cameras just for winter, but I do concentrate on those that have larger control surfaces for outdoor use in cold weather. Obviously, the other winter choices are those made by anyone spending time outdoors - good boots or shoes, a comfortable and weather-resistant coat, a hat, etc.

 

[JeffS7444]

I'm no expert at extended exposure to cold weather, were the camera itself becomes very cold. Although not as convenient as keeping the camera in my hand, when the weather turns cold, I'll mostly keep the camera in my bag, and my hands in my jacket pockets. Warm optics are less likely to fog, though it can get messy when falling snow melts on contact. In the Denver metro area, we used to see -8F/-22C once or twice in the colder months, with wind chill occasionally bringing effective temperatures down as low as -25F/-30C, but this sort of cold has become increasingly rare. And so far, winter 2025 has been freakishly warm and dry.

FWIW, some late-production Zenit cameras sport oversized shutter speed and ISO controls.