Is It Safe to Use My Camera in Extreme Cold?

by | Jan 24, 2025 | Recommendations, Stories & Expeditions | 0 comments

I tramped through the blowing snow, camera dangling around my neck, hands dug deep into my pockets to protect them from the extreme cold.

The clouds were thick and puffy above me. Every once in a while a flurry of snow would come swirling through the valley. But it would pass as quickly as it came, leaving my surroundings as grim and bare as they were before it started.

The wind whipped across my face. I was dressed in layers and prepared for real-feel temperatures in the teens. But I was still chilly, and I knew the best way to keep warm was to keep moving.

Starting at the parking lot, where Julianna & Mordecai were hanging out in the warm van, I made a wide loop along the edge of the windswept field, stopping at random intervals to frame up a shot in my mind, but never making the effort to raise the camera to my face. There was no point in taking a photo . . . yet.

Everything was gray and colorless as evening golden hour approached. But by the time I made it back to the parking lot, I sensed that something was changing.

Every once in a while, during my journey around the field, I had observed small, transitory patches of blue through the drifting clouds, and having studied the forecast earlier, there was a high chance that something photogenic might happen.

As the clouds started to turn pale orange, I made my way to the one corner of the field that I had determined offered the best view of Prickett’s Fort. I set down my camera bag, pulled out my wide angle lens, laid belly-down in the snow, and got to work!

As with most landscape excursions, I started with a horizontal composition.

The foreground felt empty, so I scrambled up to the large rock between me and the corner tower. This element lent itself to a more vertical composition.

I tried going horizontal with the rock, didn’t like the powerlines on the left, so decided to place it on the right instead.

The color was persisting, so I made my way to secondary vantage points.

I think my favorite angle was stepping back and incorporating the decorative split-log fence!

By the time the color had vanished, I was ready to go. Freezing, wet, and generally feeling miserable, I was grateful for the warmth of car and company!

But what about my camera? Was it alright? How was it affected by the freezing temperatures?

This is a question I’m asked fairly often. Just the other day, someone was asking if it was fine that my camera equipment was left out in the car for a while with temperatures in the single digits.

As stewards of God’s things, it is good for us to ask ourselves this question. We wisely take account for other things that are affected by freezing temperatures like water, food, and our own body. So, what about our cameras? Are they negatively affected by the cold? Will anything in them freeze, shrink, expand, get brittle, or break in extreme cold?

Defining extreme cold

And this is where I think we have to define what “extreme” means.

Are you from Florida where 39 degrees F is “extreme”?

Or are you from West Virginia, where “extreme” is when it goes below freezing into the single digits, or perhaps all the way down to 0 degrees F?

Or, perhaps you live in Fairbanks, Alaska, where it regularly plunges to -40 on January nights!

So, how do we define “extreme”? First, take a look at your User Manuel to see if it offers any insight.

Looking at the manual for my Canon R6, there are plenty of warnings about high temperatures, but there is nothing that indicates permanent damage below any certain minimum temperature. Here are the only statements I could find in my manual that related to this topic:

  • “The date, time, and time zone settings may be reset when the camera . . . is exposed to freezing temperatures for an extended period.”
  • “The screen display may seem slightly slow in low temperatures . . . but it will return to normal at room temperature.”
  • “Do not leave the product in places exposed to extremely high or low temperatures. The product may become extremely hot/cold and cause burns or injury when touched.”
  • Under “Operating environment”, it states that the minimum operating temperature is 32 degrees F.

Going by the book, one might conclude that the camera simply wouldn’t operate when used in temperatures below freezing. But what do we gather from personal experience?

I have photographed in temperatures below freezing all the time with many different cameras, and for me, they have all worked just fine. I’ve even photographed in -19 degrees F and didn’t run into any issues!

So, for the sake of this article, let’s go based on my experience and define “extreme” as temperatures as low as -19 degrees F. With this benchmark in place, my conclusion to the question “is it safe to use my camera in extreme cold?” would be yes! Your camera should not be negatively effected when used in extreme cold.

Of course, if you live someplace where it get’s down to -19 or lower regularly, and if you have the gumption to actually go and take photos in that weather, then you might want to do some research of your own to make sure everything will be fine in your specific situation.

While the cold itself may not negatively affect your equipment, there are two things that you should be aware of when shooting in temperatures below freezing:

  • Battery life is shortened in freezing temperatures. Keep extra batteries in pockets close to your body.
  • Condensation can form inside the camera when it is moved quickly from cold areas to warm ones. This is not healthy for any photographic equipment, so if your bag is the same temperature as your camera, you can place it in the bag and bring them both inside to warm up together slowly.

So, in conclusion, from both experience and online research over the years, for the vast majority of us, I have not found anything that would make me concerned about going out and using my camera in the extreme cold of the great outdoors!

Related Post: 4 Keys to Enjoying Shooting in Cold Weather

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