Cameras usually aren’t specced to shoot in very cold conditions. A small handful have a negative operating temperature (in Celsius at least), like the Nikon Z9 at -10° C / 14° F. Most others are rated for a pretty pedestrian 0° C / 32° F. But if you’re aware of the issues, you can work in temperatures colder than that.
As someone who does a lot of landscape photography in winter, I’ve run into almost every common problem associated with working in the cold. It’s a rewarding time to take photos, and many subjects look amazing in the snow (see my guide to winter photography for more). But it does come with some challenges.
Even if you’re shooting within the manufacturer’s operating temperature limits, some of the problems below can still apply. But especially as the temperature drops below freezing, then drops further into the negatives – Celsius or Fahrenheit – the issues pile up. Here are the problems and solutions you need to be aware of before shooting in the extreme cold.
Table of Contents
1. Camera Operation in Gloves
In many cases, the biggest issue in the cold isn’t that the camera stops working. It’s that it becomes difficult to operate the camera while wearing gloves in the first place!
Some photographers recommend wearing fingerless gloves to help fix the issue – or if not completely fingerless, at least gloves or mittens where the fingertips can be flipped open when necessary. But this solution only works in moderate cold. As the temperatures dip below freezing, fingerless gloves become an increasingly bad idea. After all, it’s our fingertips that are most susceptible to the cold and frostbite in the first place.
My recommendation is to wear the warmest pair of gloves with fingers that still lets you operate the camera reasonably well. (Gloves with a bit of grip on the fingers are a good way to go.) Over top of them, add a pair of flip-top mittens. Keep the mittens flipped closed as much as possible, but when you need to operate the camera, you can open them for a minute without freezing your fingers underneath.
I find this the best compromise between warmth and dexterity. Your fingertips are never actually exposed to the sub-zero air, but you’re still able to adjust your camera pretty well. Finding the optimal gloves may take some trial and error, though. And in particularly cold situations, you may find it helpful to have a heat pack stored inside an accessible pocket so that you can warm up your fingertips quickly if they start to get numb.
In terms of the camera itself, one thing that helps is to adjust the button layout to be navigable in the cold. For example, half-pressing the shutter button to autofocus is tricky with gloves on, so now’s a good time to finally start using back button focus instead! Likewise, if your camera has a joystick, use that instead of the direction pad to change your focus point and scroll through your camera menu. Look at your particular camera, and I’m sure you’ll find some ways to improve its operation in the cold. Maybe all you need to do is move some commonly-used features from the menu to a dedicated button.
Lastly, I should note that it’s much easier to drop a camera or lens while you’re wearing gloves. If you can find a pair of gloves or mittens with grip, it helps. So does putting your camera on a tripod before changing lenses rather than trying to do everything handheld.
2. Rapid Battery Loss
Batteries just don’t work very well in the cold. They drain more quickly and sometimes die before they’re even put in the camera.
The fix for this is nothing special: Just bring more batteries, and keep them warm while you’re shooting. Personally, I leave my backup batteries in the pocket of one of my base layer jackets. They stay warmer thanks to my body heat and don’t lose any substantial charge while they’re there.
After you’re done shooting for the day, charge all your batteries overnight, not just the ones you’ve been shooting with. This may require you to buy an extra charger or two, but there are plenty of cheap battery chargers available these days, sometimes with dual slots. (I recommend searching “Dual USB charger for [your camera name]” on Amazon, and I guarantee you’ll find something reasonable.)
In the past on multi-day hikes in the cold, I had good luck with carrying a separate battery pack and recharging my batteries daily from that. I made it through a nine day hike in Iceland with seven batteries that way and actually had a lot of charge to spare by the end. If you keep your batteries warm and topped off, you won’t have issues using them in the cold.
3. Temperature Swings and Condensation
When you quickly move from cold areas to warm ones – like going indoors after taking pictures in sub-zero temperatures – it’s very common for your camera gear to fog up. And if you see condensation on the lens or viewfinder, it’s almost certainly inside the camera as well. This condensation can potentially damage your camera, especially if you subject your gear to it often.
If you notice it happening, quickly remove your camera battery, then memory card, and then lens. Keep all your lens caps and body caps removed, and also leave the battery and memory card doors open. Once the camera and lens reach room temperature, the fog should be gone, and you can close everything and put the camera away.
But the better alternative is to prevent this situation in the first place. Usually, if your bag is just as cold as your camera, all you need to do is zip the camera away in the bag and bring them both inside to warm up slowly. The bag insulates all the equipment inside well enough that condensation is unlikely to form. You can take them out of the bag once everything reaches room temperature.
However, in particularly cold conditions (or a particularly warm/humid indoor area), you may need to go with an even more extreme solution. Put your camera, lenses, and all other sensitive electronics into plastic freezer bags before going inside. Open the bags once the gear warms up to room temperature. This prevents condensation every time. That said, the idea of bringing a bunch of plastic bags into the field is a bit much for me. The backpack method is good enough that I don’t tend to use the freezer bag method these days.
4. Fog from Breathing Out
I always enjoy watching my breath fog up in the cold. Maybe because it lets me pretend I’m braving the elements more than I really am. But a drawback is that the ice crystals from your foggy breath can land on your camera and lens, potentially causing some problems.
The more common issue is that the icy fog starts accumulating on your rear LCD or viewfinder glass, making it harder to see your composition. That’s easy to fix when it becomes a problem simply by wiping them away.
The more subtle and concerning problem is when the fog lands on the front of your lens. In many cases, this can happen without you realizing it, unless you check the front of your lens more than most of us. But when the fog starts appearing on your LCD or viewfinder, you can usually bet that a bit is landing on your lens, too. That’s what happened here:
I took the photo above on one of the clearest nights I’ve ever seen, with no clouds or fog in the air at all. The picture looks how it does because ice crystals from my breath had gradually accumulated on the front of my lens. I didn’t realize this for the longest time – only once it got as bad as you see in the image above. The earlier photos I took that night also have hints of unwanted fog in them.
The solution here is to be aware of how much condensation is landing on your camera and to periodically inspect your lens. Otherwise, you may not realize until you’re back at your computer that all your photos accidentally have an Orton Effect filter.
5. Ice Collecting on the Camera
Sometimes, the source of ice collecting on your lens or camera isn’t your breath but instead the outside world. If you’re taking pictures in freezing rain or windy, icy conditions, it’s crucial that you check your lens – and lens hoods especially – for accumulating ice.
I ran into this problem once at Rocky Mountain National Park on a cold winter morning. It was so windy that eventually my tripod blew over and cracked the top of my Nikon D800e (though the camera kept working just fine otherwise). But before any of that happened, the wind blew so much ice onto my lens that it formed a ring around the front element:
The Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 I was using that day isn’t entirely an internal zoom. As you zoom out, the front element moves more and more forward within the built-in lens hood. But in this case, the ice ring blocked the front element from moving out, sticking me with the 18mm focal length and longer! It wasn’t a problem in this case, with 14mm being a bit too wide for the scene anyway, but it was an important lesson.
I can easily imagine similar situations where freezing rain clogs up a camera button, tripod legs, polarizing filter, or any other part of your gear. The more aware you are of what’s happening, the more likely it is that you can stop it before you lose a critical function of the camera.
6. Slowdown or Failure of Moving Parts
The final issue I’d like to note is that cold temperatures slow everything down, including moving parts of the camera. Your shutter curtains may get a bit stuck, reducing your maximum FPS or leading to slightly inconsistent exposures at faster shutter speeds. Your tripod’s leg locks may require more force than usual. Or, in the worst cases, something might break completely.
The worst case I saw is when my friend’s Nikon D810 mirror simply stopped working in sub-zero temperatures. I don’t know exactly what broke, but he had to send it to Nikon for an expensive repair afterward. Anything below about -18° Celsius or 0° Fahrenheit is cold enough that a lot of mechanical systems just don’t quite work right.
Still, you can shoot in those conditions with some precautions. One helpful tip is to use as few moving parts as possible. This means changing your camera from mechanical to electronic shutter (AKA silent shooting mode) if you shoot mirrorless, or doing something similar with a DSLR in live view if yours has the option. You should also consider bringing a backup camera as temperatures get lower and lower.
Thankfully, my friend whose D810 broke had a backup Micro Four Thirds camera that kept chugging away in the cold. But it goes to show that the operating temperatures of these cameras aren’t just there for show. You are risking your gear to some degree when you shoot much colder than recommended.
Conclusion
If you’re planning a photoshoot in the cold any time soon, the tips in this article should give you a good place to start. The biggest key is just to always be aware of what’s happening, because there are probably many other things that can go wrong that I haven’t specifically covered yet. Review your photos a bit more often than usual, and take a few backup shots of each important composition to maximize your odds.
Finally, I hope it goes without saying, but the top priority in extreme conditions like this is keeping yourself safe. Everything seems to go wrong twice as often when it’s so cold out. Your satellite phone’s battery dies, your car skids off the road, your water supply freezes, and so on. Only worry about how your camera functions in the cold after you’ve made sure that you’ll function fine!
Once you’ve done that, go out and enjoy it. The cold keeps a lot of photographers away from some places even when they’re at their most beautiful. Make the most of the lighter crowds and more atmospheric conditions to take some amazing photos.
I am living in Québec and winters always were difficult for me because my hands hurt with the cold. I did buy liners and shell gloves with the heat company. Really good stuff. Now i enjoy taking picture outside (coldest i went so far was -25C near a lake).
One tip for eliminating ice from surfaces (i didn’t try on camera gear but i would assume that is safe) : put some rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle and have a tissue close.
After reading your article and remembering the ads I’d seen for battery-powered heated vests and jackets, I got to wondering, and so did a little Web searching. And, voila, I found quite a few batter-powered heated throws. I’m wondering if anyone has every tried using one as a ‘camera blanket’ when shooting in the cold.
I use D500 with 200-500mm lens in extreme cold (-30 to -40C). I set my zoom to 500mm and leave it there because it gets very stiff at those temperatures. I always place both attached inside a sealed bag before bringing them into a warmer environment and then wait at least 2-3 hours (or longer) before unbagging them.
I recommend putting some water pipe insulation material around the monopod’s / tripod’s legs to prevent the transfer of cold to one’s hands.
I froze the end of my nose while taking pics as it pushed up against the rear LCD and body of the camera. Next time I will put bandages on it for protection. Wearing a balaclava or face mask doesn’t work for me. If it is windy at -30 t -40 I don’t go outside anyway.
I have a pair of Dakine ski gloves with a warm rating of 5 (maximum). They came with another pair of light gloves that are to be warn inside the main gloves. There is also a pocket for chemical heat/warm pads. The outer gloves have lanyards that wrap around your wrists to prevent them from falling in case you need to use the thin gloves to make camera adjustments, replace batteries, etc.
If anyone knows of a guaranteed way to keep fog and ice from building up on ones glasses, I would like to know. I think the only answer is to get contact lenses.
Nice overview, but there are a couple of items to note. I’m out in the cold on a daily basis in Minnesota and -10° C / 14° F is a fairly common temp here in January.
There are some excellent thin gloves on the market that will keep finger tips warm for at least 15 minutes or so in the -32 C / 0 F range AND allow you to operate the controls on your camera. When you’re not shooting, put warm mittens on (not gloves). The other item to mention is the tripod. The legs get very cold and if you’re holding the tripod this can accelerate the speed at which your hands get cold. Try to avoid holding the tripod with thin gloves on. MOST IMPORTANTLY THOUGH… Keep your camera in an insulated bag before you bring it into a warmer setting and let it warm up slowly. This will help avoid condensation building up on the electronics.
Hi Spencer, and thanks for this informative article. Being in Ukraine, I have had my share of cold winters, and I would like to add a few tips from experience:
– DSLRs are more useful in such conditions than mirrorless because of battery life. Yes you can bring spare batteries, but I find changing parts in outside winter weather to be inconvenient.
– For the same reason, although I tend to prefer prime lenses, I use a zoom because changing lenses with gloves and your fingers numb is not such a good idea.
– I also shoot film, but not in very cold weather as the film tends to get rigid.
Hi Spencer,
I’ve visited Sax-Zim Bog many times in winter to photograph the owl, finches, etc. In 2021, it was at least -40C/F as that was the lowest temperature my car could record! My camera gear worked well except for the LCD display in my viewfinder (Canon models). It would slowly disappear, much like it did in my car (Mazda) as well. I did a fair amount of shooting from the car and it was critical to make sure the inside was as cold as the outside otherwise you get air distortion. I always use large “seal-a-meal” type bags when returning to the hotel after removing the memory cards & batteries.
Any recommendations on the inner gloves that offer some warm but allow for dexterity? I have a drawer full of different types of gloves but have yet to find a combo that works. The suggestion about hand warmers is a good option, having multiple ones in the gloves,
Hi Spencer
Thanks for posting this, will use your solution on my upcoming trip to the north.
On the gloves issue, I always use “sailing” gloves, these leave the tip of your thumb an indexfinger free and have non slip surface. After using the camera in very cold weather i put thicker gloves over them as they are not very thick but warm enough to use the camera controls.
Also very good to use in non freezing cold weather and in the rain.
I used my Nikon D5600 overwinter at the south pole. The coldest temperature I used it in was around -102 F.
The biggest issue I ran into was the screen freezing so I needed to make sure I could remember how to adjust any settings without needing the screen.
As far as fingerless gloves, I recommend having glove liners and then putting hand warmers on the back of your hands between the liners and the fingerless gloves. I brought my mittens that the tops can swing off and this method worked well for me even at -98 F.
If you’re going to be shooting in cold weather, definitely spend the money on OEM batteries. My Nikon battery lasted more than 30 minutes while I was taking a time lapse of the auroras at about -95 F while my ProMaster after market batteries wouldn’t make it to 20 minutes. Having a dummy battery that connects to a larger USB battery pack or extension cord can work but you have to keep in mind that the cable will get brittle and potentially snap, especially with the temperatures I was shooting in.
Wow! I think you take the cake. -102 F is incredible.
I’ve never shot in conditions that were cold enough to freeze my camera’s LCD. I’m curious what it looked like. Did it simply not turn on, or was there an image frozen in place?
Regardless, that’s very cool. I’m sure you got some great photos and had quite an experience there.
So, in my case since the D5600’s screen flips out from the camera body, initially the screen will just be sluggish to update, then the edges will start to dim and you’ll get some over lap between screens that it’s trying to render. Finally, it will just go completely dark.
It was definitely an amazing experience. If you’re interested, you can find some of my photos on my blog site at www.thesnowbutcher.com/photos. I still need to edit and upload the last half of my season there but there’s still some good ones I’ve already got up.
I’ve been using a nikon d780 in negative temps , down to 2.5 hours in negative 18f, with no issues be tween battery and machanical function.
That’s good to hear. It’s a very sturdy camera, and if you’re actively using it even in those temperatures, the battery will stay warm enough not to die too quickly.
I ran into #4 when photographing the aurora borealis in Norway (actually Finland, a few km from the border). I had been careful before that: allowing the camera to become cold slowly, keeping a spare battery in my pocket, using a remote release on a tripod, etc. But then I stupidly breathed out while checking the focus setting and fogged the lens. As it was below 0 F I could do very little about it with what I had with me at the time. I did get a couple of fair shots but nothing to publish.
That’s got to be very frustrating as I’m sure it was beautiful to see the Northern Lights! It’s surprisingly easy to get a bit of fog on the front of your lens in such cold temperatures. A microfiber towel (maybe even kept a bit warm by storing it in an inside pocket) can be better than a basic lens cloth at removing some of the ice if it’s not too thick.