Re: [Leica] tape for tripod legs

["Henning J. Wulff" <henningw@archiphoto.com>]

>Hi Dan,
>    
>
>
>>
>>  The thinner liner gloves are an excellent suggestion that I hadn't
>>  considered.
>
>
>Don't forget the hand warmers too.  For about $1 they can provide a few
>hours of relief.  If you get too cold your photography will suffer.
>
>steve

I have a pair of fingerless (with flap-over cover) gloves made from 
windstop fleece which are the best things I hve found for 
cold-weather photography. When I'm in really cold conditions I have a 
pair of overmitts I can wear in between shots. The overmitts I use 
are fleece lined goretex.

The windstop fleece is very tough, virtually waterproof, and they 
even have a separate flap cover for the thumbs.

I wear these when doing aerial photos in the winter from open 
aircraft, and any other severe conditions. I've tried a lot of 
different things to date, but most other methods are more clumsy, 
causing me to loose shots, or not warm enough.

I've used pipe insulation on my metal Gitzo's, but find the carbon 
ones fine without.

On the subject of cold; I've had various problems with metering with 
Nikons, and the motors have done bad things both to the cameras and 
the films, but my Leicas have generally been OK, although I had a 
IIIg that had uneven shutter travel when it got cold. Had it serviced 
a couple of times, but never got rid of the problem entirely. This 
was in the 60's; I forget who serviced it. My M's have never given me 
problems. My old Konica Autoreflex cameras also worked fine at -40.

Some 4x5 cameras gave me problems. Before I had Sinars I had various 
other things that were no fun in cold weather with poor controls, and 
also were slow to operate. I had one experience out in the cold 
(Edmonton) where I took a bit too long to insert the film holder, and 
enough blowing snow got into the camera to cause water spots on the 
film when it was brought back into warmer parts. I knew that snow had 
gotten into the camera, but I couldn't open it to blow it out as more 
would get in.

- -- 
    *            Henning J. Wulff
   /|\      Wulff Photography & Design
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