Re: [Leica] Dark deeds done in a cold cold land.

["Dan Post" <dpost@triad.rr.com>]

Ted-
Maybe I am missing one of the "Milestone on the Road to a Fuller Life", but
I never saw anything that cold of which I would want a photograph! :o)
Dan ( Say, at what temperature will my single malt freeze?) Post
- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Ted" <tedgrant@home.com>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Sunday, December 10, 2000 10:57 PM
Subject: Re: [Leica] Dark deeds done in a cold cold land.


> John Collier wrote:
>
> > >>>>>>>I have been reading all the posts on the cold and decided to test
my
> > two
> > Leica M cameras in the fairly cold weather we are experiencing right
now. It
> > is not that cold, only about -23 degrees C (-10 degrees F) but cold
enough
> > to see how the cameras would perform in extreme situations. The cameras
are
> > a 1960's M2 (moderately recent CLA) and a new this spring M6-TTL with
fairly
> > fresh batteries. The cameras were placed outside and checked at 15
minute
> > intervals.<<<<<< snip early tests.........
> >
> > 90m:  cameras burn flesh on touch, lenses very stiff to turn, all
functions
> > fine and TTL's meter barely working but still accurate (diodes pulse on
and
> > off and go out quickly).
> >
> > Test suspended due to the feeling that the tester was beginning to look
like
> > a silly ass! Tough little cameras though.<<<<<<<
>
> Hey John,
>
> I could've saved you looking like a "silly ass" in the "chilly weather"
;-) if
> you'd asked me what happens when you spend 14 days, every day working at
minus
> 45 high to minus 55 low for the day time temps and using M4's in those
> conditions. ;-)
>
> You don't need to wait an hour before they hurt when you put them to your
eye!
> It's like real quick! ;-) But does it ever make you shoot quickly, not too
much
> time spent taking meter readings, man you are clicking like real fast!
And if
> you go inside for a coffee?  You leave the cameras outside, have your
coffee
> come back out, pick them up and get at it again.
>
> You dare not take them inside unless you're in for sometime and they can
> completely warm to room temperature. Because if you go in  and they start
to
> warm up, condensation begins and if you go back out side while they're in
that
> state... you are dead in the cold with frost all over the cameras.  There
is a
> little trick I used several times and that is to use very large freezer
type
> lock seal clear plastic bags. Put the cameras inside, seal it and then go
in
> side. Then there isn't as much chance of the condensation happening.  But
> generally I just left them out side providing I wasn't going to be an hour
in
> the cook shack.
>
> They can and do get a little "testy" sometimes and can give you a tad of
grief
> in focusing and just handling them the colder they become. But I've never
had an
> M camera of any kind fail to work no matter how cold it was.
>
> ted Grant
>
>