D610 cold weather shooting

Deezey

Senior Member
Alright Nikonites. Quick question. I was shooting today outside and I noticed within 6 shots my D610 started acting up.

Now with wind chill it was roughly... -16*f. But still...the focus point would become unresponsive, taking several moments to show any change in placement I made. Made shooting in the weather fairly frustrating.

Anyone else having this problem? Camera was only out of the bad maybe 5 minutes at best.
 

Scott Murray

Senior Member
Alright Nikonites. Quick question. I was shooting today outside and I noticed within 6 shots my D610 started acting up.

Now with wind chill it was roughly... -16*f. But still...the focus point would become unresponsive, taking several moments to show any change in placement I made. Made shooting in the weather fairly frustrating.

Anyone else having this problem? Camera was only out of the bad maybe 5 minutes at best.
Hang on let me hop into the freezer and I will see how my D600 goes :p
 

Whiskeyman

Senior Member
The Nikon site shows the rated operating environment of the D610 to be 0 - 40 C/32 - 104 F. You're nearly 50 F below the low end of that range, so I'm not surprised by the cameras struggles. You my get try dry warming it and then wrapping it in some type of insulation to use it in those temperatures.

I do have to say I'm surprised that this is the lower limit for the D610. I'm going to have to look at the specs for others, although I don't expect to experience your temperatures any time soon.

Bundle up and stay warm.

WM
 

AC016

Senior Member
That is -26 Celsius.... that is cold. I think there is a thread on here where we spoke about operating limits. -16 Fahrenheit is beyond normal operating temperature. On most Nikon cameras, the coldest (minimum) limit is 0. My D5100 did the same thing to me when i took it out -20 something Celsius once.
 

Deezey

Senior Member
Well apart from my fingers not working my camera seems to be fine ;) (Sorry Doug just mucking around) :)


No worries mate. 😁

My fingers were quickly not working either.

It was just that in a very short amount of time, the camera seemed to be affected. So made me wonder when these people display beautiful snow scenes if their camera was also went through the same thing.
 

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
I,ve shot a few pictures at -25 C and the camera was fine. It's a fact that focus motors could run slower though. The thing is the battery usually gets weaker slower than your fingers will freeze. :) When I know I'm going to be outside in the cold for a longer period, I carry an extra battery that I keep inside my jacket and then swap them when the first one becomes unresponsive.
 

AC016

Senior Member
The Nikon site shows the rated operating environment of the D610 to be 0 - 40 C/32 - 104 F. You're nearly 50 F below the low end of that range, so I'm not surprised by the cameras struggles. You my get try dry warming it and then wrapping it in some type of insulation to use it in those temperatures.

I do have to say I'm surprised that this is the lower limit for the D610. I'm going to have to look at the specs for others, although I don't expect to experience your temperatures any time soon.

Bundle up and stay warm.

WM

I believe it is the same for every Nikon DSLR, even the D4S. Nothing special about any of them when it comes to fighting off the cold.
 

Whiskeyman

Senior Member
Back in my pre-digital photo days I had issues in the cold with my film cameras. Shutters slowed, and batteries stopped working very quickly when the temperature went below freezing.

WM
 

Whiskeyman

Senior Member
I,ve shot a few pictures at -25 C and the camera was fine. It's a fact that focus motors could run slower though. The thing is the battery usually gets weaker slower than your fingers will freeze. :) When I know I'm going to be outside in the cold for a longer period, I carry an extra battery that I keep inside my jacket and then swap them when the first one becomes unresponsive.


Yeah, but your Canada Nikon is used to the cold!!!! ;)

WM
 

AC016

Senior Member
Yeah, but your Canada Nikon is used to the cold!!!! ;)

WM

Well, actually, Marcel has a little secret.... his camera is insulated:

images.jpg

New imaging setup for Canon 600mm f/4 II Lens - Beginning and Intermediate Imaging - Cloudy Nights
 

Eyelight

Senior Member
Wind chill affects people and other living things but has no impact on non-living things. The operating minimum temp of 0°C (32°F) is air temp. So you could have an air temp of 1°C and a 40KMH wind producing a negative wind chill and you would still be operating 1°C above the minimum.

What wind can do is cool an object faster and move the object temp below freezing faster if the air temp is below freezing, but wind cannot cool anything below the actual air temperature.

I'm guessing the reason the minimum is the freezing point of water is that moisture freezing inside the camera and lens will reduce the performance. Assuming this is why, if you happen to be in drier air, the colder temps will have less impact on performance.
 

zutty

Senior Member
I went out this AM here in Maine with the wind chill at -20 using my D610 and 24-70 2.8 with no issues. Although I had to duck into the car every 10 minutes the images were OK. Here's an example...

D610#2 Ft Wms Wn_053.jpg
 

J-see

Senior Member
Not a D610 but I noticed that when cold, mine becomes less responsive button wise. The multi-selector in specific can become annoying when you have to push it several times before it responds. My other had it too so it's probably normal.
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
In either January or February 2014, I was out in the bitter cold (below freezing) taking lots of shots of ice forming on the river. My D610 (which at the time was only a couple of months old) eventually wouldn't display the photos after I pressed the shutter. It wound up being fine with no lingering problems once the camera warmed up.
 
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