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Author Topic: 5D2 in the cold, cold south!  (Read 54114 times)

otbricki

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5D2 in the cold, cold south!
« Reply #20 on: February 03, 2009, 10:52:32 pm »

Quote from: NigelC
Thats logical. If you seal a wet camera in a bag and bring into (comparative) warmth, the water will evaporate and then potentially condense on the still cold surfaces inside the camera, e.g electrical contacts . Still, you would need to establish that it was only those with 5D2s were doing this to exonerate the camera. As it is my planned upgrading from 5D to 5D2 is definitely on hold.

Regardless of the camera type I can't imagine that sealing it cold and wet in a water tight plastic bag and then warming it up while sealed would be a good idea. Other than actually submersing the camera I can't imagine a more stringent exposure to moisture.

It would be very interesting to know if the cameras that failed were treated (abused) in this way.

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BernardLanguillier

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5D2 in the cold, cold south!
« Reply #21 on: February 04, 2009, 12:38:52 am »

Quote from: NigelC
Thats logical. If you seal a wet camera in a bag and bring into (comparative) warmth, the water will evaporate and then potentially condense on the still cold surfaces inside the camera, e.g electrical contacts . Still, you would need to establish that it was only those with 5D2s were doing this to exonerate the camera. As it is my planned upgrading from 5D to 5D2 is definitely on hold.

True indeed. One should for sure start by wiping the camera...

What I would adivse is:

- The camera is cold and dry -> it makes sense to keep it inside a zip lock when taking it back indoors since this will keep drier cold air in contact with the body longer and allow it to warm slowly until it comes in contact with damper hot air. There will always be some form of condensation if the temperature gap is high (I experieinced about 35-40 degrees C gap last week). Make sure to wipe the camera totally dry before going back outdoors... or else you'll have a nice layer of frost on your front lens element if it is freezing,

- The camera is cold and wet -> wipe it first to remove most of the humidity, and then put in a zip lock back slithgly open upwards to let humidity escape without letting warmer (and therefore lighter) air come in.

Cheers,
Bernard

mrenters

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5D2 in the cold, cold south!
« Reply #22 on: February 04, 2009, 09:30:04 am »

My wife and I were among the 6 5DmkII cameras that failed.  We had them in Kata rain jackets and they failed before we got back on the ship.
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Kagetsu

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5D2 in the cold, cold south!
« Reply #23 on: February 05, 2009, 11:19:29 pm »

Did it recover after some time, or did it remain dead?

Did your camera get wet or over exposed to the elements during that time even with the Kata rain jacket?
« Last Edit: February 05, 2009, 11:20:08 pm by Kagetsu »
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mrenters

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5D2 in the cold, cold south!
« Reply #24 on: February 06, 2009, 01:39:12 pm »

Quote from: Kagetsu
Did it recover after some time, or did it remain dead?

Did your camera get wet or over exposed to the elements during that time even with the Kata rain jacket?

I guess we pressed the shutter release with moist fingers.  They failed 1.5 hours into a 2 hour outing, not when we got back to the warm ship.

There were a lot of people on the trip that had their non 5D mk II cameras completely exposed and they didn't have any issues.

Martin
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Rickard Hansson

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5D2 in the cold, cold south!
« Reply #25 on: February 06, 2009, 03:25:38 pm »

Quote from: mrenters
My wife and I were among the 6 5DmkII cameras that failed.  We had them in Kata rain jackets and they failed before we got back on the ship.


Does that mean that you had two cameras and both failed? Damn, that is bad news for you. Did any of them recover again?

did you have ny more cameras with you?
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mrenters

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5D2 in the cold, cold south!
« Reply #26 on: February 06, 2009, 04:57:04 pm »

Quote from: Rickard Hansson
Does that mean that you had two cameras and both failed? Damn, that is bad news for you. Did any of them recover again?

did you have ny more cameras with you?

Yup - both failed within minutes of each other on the 3rd or 4th day of the 13 day trip.  They did recover once we got them back on the ship and dried them out, although the shutter release on my wife's remained flaky.  Sometimes it would fire, sometimes not.

We also had 2 of the original Canon 5Ds with us as well.  I've never had any problems with those.

Martin

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eleanorbrown

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5D2 in the cold, cold south!
« Reply #27 on: February 06, 2009, 05:08:50 pm »

I just returned from antarctica also (national geographic) and used my new 5D2 while kayaking through an ice littered cove.  While I kept it in my Simms dry bag off and on, it was out enough time to get splashed on and handled by my wet gloves.  when it went into the "dry" bag it was damp with splashed water.  At another time I used it in light rain, but I would not use it in heavy rain ever.  anyway my 5D2 preformed flawlessly so not all hope is lost.  I was very pleased with the camera, so much so I'm trading in my 1DsIII. Eleanor


Quote from: NigelC
Thats logical. If you seal a wet camera in a bag and bring into (comparative) warmth, the water will evaporate and then potentially condense on the still cold surfaces inside the camera, e.g electrical contacts . Still, you would need to establish that it was only those with 5D2s were doing this to exonerate the camera. As it is my planned upgrading from 5D to 5D2 is definitely on hold.
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Eleanor Brown
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Stunnaz

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5D2 in the cold, cold south!
« Reply #28 on: February 06, 2009, 11:18:44 pm »

I used my 5D2 in light rain with no rain cover a few weeks ago in Japan.  Didn't have any problems.
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Kagetsu

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5D2 in the cold, cold south!
« Reply #29 on: February 08, 2009, 07:50:01 pm »

Same for me. While in Japan, I was suffering in blizzards up North, though it was decidedly warmer this year then usual for January in Hokkaido.

I think I've written it before, but this is why the sealed bag is a good idea, not as bad an idea as some people would think... but there's points that should be remembered when doing so.

The first thing to understand is that the warmer the air is, the more moisture it is capable of holding... This is common knowledge for some people, but it's suprising how many people don't know this.
An example of this is: Air at 30*C at 80% humidity has more moisture content then air at 20*C at 80% humidity.

The next point is there are three very important temperatures that you should make the effort to know.
They are:  Average Air Temp, Dew Point, and Surface Temperature.
The average Air temp is the one we all know and judge by. Dew Point is the temperature at which condensation forms on any surface that hits or goes below that temperature... Of course the surface temperature is the temperature of your camera and lenses... if this temperature is < or = to dew point, you'll get condensation.

There are instruments that will give you such readings... These are primarily used in scientific industries, aviation, and painting industries. They're usually not cheap, and for accuracy calibration is recommended, which also comes at a price.
For most purposes a whirling hygrometer will suffice, and is significantly cheaper then anything digital, though not as convenient.

There are a few things in humidity you can do to protect your gear, which is as follows:

Keep it above the highest dew point. Hard to do if you're working outside in the cold & Place it in a sealed plastic bag prior to going to warmer locations. It's important that you remove as much excess air as possible from the bag though, and it doesn't hurt to have a dry cloth inside the bag to capture moisture should it form. Once inside, warm it up slowly... All pretty standard stuff. Once it's at an acceptable temp, you can remove it safely.

---

BTW. some people get confused about dew point, and thing that it will always be 0... but it isn't. For example, 30*C @ 80% humidity (a humid tropical day) will have a dew point of 26*C approximately.

Don't know how much of that's useful, but some people might be interested. ^_~
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JDClements

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5D2 in the cold, cold south!
« Reply #30 on: February 09, 2009, 07:16:09 pm »

How many 5DIIs experienced this "moisture/corrosion" failure (at the shutter button, I presume)? We know of two for sure, but the article is not entirely clear. Out of the six failures, one was a cracked top LCD, and one was a loose screw on the lens mount. That leaves two that are unknown. I'd be interested in knowing if they were similar failures to the two discussed here. As it stands, the failure rate for this disturbing problem is at least 8% and as high as 15% (assuming there were four related failures).
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