Winter Shock Test - Nikon SP

marcr1230

marcr1230

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I have the SP with me today
The temp on the way to work was -2F with wind chill of around -30F

I'm going to try to use the SP outside either this morning or at noon

Other than not freezing my fingers to the bare metal, or my eyelid to the viewfinder - any helpful hints?

I'm thinking
1 advance film slowly
2 don't breathe on the optics
3 bracket due to possible slow shutter speeds in cold
(Titanium shutter curtain )
 
4 Be careful about condensation on returning to a heated building. Wrap it in material or seal it in a Ziploc bag until it returns to the ambient temperature.
5 Pack a flask of something hot. 😀
 
What Brian said...

It is -18F here in Minneapolis this morning with a windchill close to -40F. Looks like we have entered another "polar vortex". The older I get the more I dislike winter.
 
Keep it under your coat. Unless the camera has been very recently CLA'd with a view to winter conditions, gummy lubricants will cause you grief, most likely significantly slowing down the shutter. I just recently moved from the Minneapolis area, and miss it, although the recent weather there has made me feel a bit better about the whole moving thing.

Cheers,
Dez

Cheers,
Dez
 
I used to say that the older I get the more sense Florida makes. But the heat and humidity of last summer hit me more than usual, so I'm rethinking that.

dasuess said:
What Brian said...

It is -18F here in Minneapolis this morning with a windchill close to -40F. Looks like we have entered another "polar vortex". The older I get the more I dislike winter.
Click to expand...
 
jerrybro said:
I used to say that the older I get the more sense Florida makes. But the heat and humidity of last summer hit me more than usual, so I'm rethinking that.
Click to expand...

Well, after a slow warmup during the night, we are now on our way to another January thaw today. Then back into yet another "polar vortex" Sunday night.

Which reminds me of my first camera I bought back in 1971, a really cheap SLR. I had it out in the cold, nowhere near a polar vortex (we didn't have those back in the 1970's ;-) and the mirror froze in the up position after a few shots taken outside. After some time in a warm room, the mirror flopped back down.
 
dasuess said:
I had it out in the cold, nowhere near a polar vortex (we didn't have those back in the 1970's ;-) and the mirror froze in the up position after a few shots taken outside. After some time in a warm room, the mirror flopped back down.
Click to expand...

Exactly this happened to my Spotmatic F a couple of weeks ago, in about -15C (~5F) weather, about two-thirds of the way through the roll. Shooting the rest of it "blind" (i.e. blocked viewfinder) worked... not so well. 😀
 
Let us know how you make out using the SP in the extreme cold, I have the S3 and
it's been cold here in New York, so using it in the cold i'm interested in hearing.

Range
 
If it is a very dry cold weather - also rewind slowly. You can create static electricity when you do it too fast - and get "flashes" on the film! The Nikon Rf's have one advantage over the M in brutally cold weather - they used less lubricant in the mechanism - thus less chance of having it gum up or getting stiff. The focussing helical has really no or very little lubricant on it, so that should be fine.
Film gets brittle in extreme cold and any force applied to it - advancing, rewinding can crack it - either across the film or between sprocket perforations. Extreme cold also changes tolerances in the camera - metal shrinks slightly. Usually not enough to cause problems though.
Anything with batteries for meters etc - usually seizes to function after a while too.
The coldest I have been shooting in was -52C - northern Quebec in January. It was s job, shot with 120 film and Blad's.The body/back shrunk sufficiently to prevent the gear for the film advance from engaging properly - and the film was stiff enough that I could shoot 1 -2 shots at a time, change backs to one that had been placed in the hot air from the trucks heater - shoot another 1-2 shots and put on a fresh hot back! Shutters, particularly Copal type, in lens, shutters slowed down so I had to bracket by 1+/ 2+ just in case. At this temperature the speed of the film also slows down a bit!
The trick is not to shock the camera body by heating or cooling it too quickly - lenses can crack. I had a 250mm Super Achromat lens shrinking sufficiently to squeeze the lens retaining ring enough to turn the "chrystal" element into fine white dust suddenly!
 
It's supposed to be -20F (-29C) here Monday morning

the whole flaw with this winter stuff is that you have to be out there with the camera - It seems to get harder and harder the older we get
 
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