Cold hands...

[Ash]

Not quite LF but I was walking to the bus stop from MJ's this morning. It's a mile walk, practically a straight line until you reach the centre.

I'm walking along and looking for photo opportunities. I had my grandfather's brother's Zeiss Nettar 515 and the mist looked perfect if only the composition was right. The nuisance being that I walked the whole mile, took maybe one or two photo's. Nothing special.

Then guess what?

At the bus stop, there is a T junction. I'm stood facing down the road I've walked along. There is a roundabout on my left, but straight ahead is the T, with houses lining the back end. I look at it and try and work out why it's so striking. Above the line of houses was a huge old tree. The mist was just right to lay the outline, such low contrast against the houses.

The Zeiss has a low contrast lens, and I was way too far away to get the shot with a Normal lens. The same happened last night when I saw the crescent moon, too small in a 75mm frameline on 6x4.5cm.



It's got really cold and I'm feeling the weather, something that rarely happens. I bought myself a Buff (seamless tube of material, used as a scarf, etc), and I had a small thin and tight pair of gloves, knitted or at least woollen.


I've been bugged for so long about wearing gloves, I only like things that aren't going to make my fingers into chunky sausages. Not even Army Surplus could help me find what I'm looking for... I want some gloves that are the thinnest, smoothest possible, but keep the most heat in as possible. I can't really use a camera unless I'm wearing thin (or no) gloves. This weather's too cold to leave gloves off.


Who uses what kind of gloves here?

[eric black]

I have some fingerless gloves that have an attached mitten that pulls over the fingers to keep them warm. When the mitten part is not in use it velcro's out of the way. the nicest thing about the gloves are that the palm has a rubberized coating that helps in setting up tripods as I get a great grip on them. They were bought from a hunting store like Cabela's or Gander Mountain a while back and work great.

[Jiri Vasina]

I have some fingerless gloves that have an attached mitten that pulls over the fingers to keep them warm. When the mitten part is not in use it velcro's out of the way. the nicest thing about the gloves are that the palm has a rubberized coating that helps in setting up tripods as I get a great grip on them. They were bought from a hunting store like Cabela's or Gander Mountain a while back and work great.

I have similar gloves, I got them as a Christmas present from my wife. She always tries to give me something related to my photography passion . And they (the gloves) are wonderful, really handy, really good... You can have them on all the time, and yet not be hampered in the small precision movements...

[Vaughn]

Not at all what you are looking for, but I was using a LF camera in low 20'sF weather. I had lost one of my heavy wool knit mittens, so I would wear the one I had and kept the other in my pocket. Using the camera, I would use the gloveless hand until it got too cold, then switch the mitten to that hand, etc.

How about those rather bulky, but warm gloves that one can sneak one's fingers out of when needed?

Vaughn

[Mark Sawyer]

I'd try a back-packing-type store, and ask to try on a pair of gloves made from a patented material called "thinsulite", so named for being thin and light-weight, but still having good insulating properties.

[David A. Goldfarb]

In the cold weather, I usually use a pair of Patagonia fingerless fleece and Thinsulate gloves and try to keep my hands in my pockets when I can. For when it's really cold, I ought to get a pair like Eric Black describes above.

[Greg Miller]

Black Diamond glove liners

You can wear these inside regular gloves so your hands stay toasty when you are walking or waiting. Take off your regular gloves when handling the camera and the glove liners will still keep your hands warm in all but the most frigid conditions. These liners are stretchy and form fitting so you maintain quite a bit of finger dexterity.

[Capocheny]

Hi Ash,

If you go to a high-end sporting goods store... look for a brand called, "Icebreaker."

They manufacture a full line of clothing including gloves and glove liners that are very, very thin but exceedingly warm. Their products are made from New Zealand Merino wool and, as a result, are light and very breathable.

Not exactly inexpensive but they're really amongst the best you can buy.

Cheers

[Winger]

I have a pair of silk glove liners my mom got for me. They're quite thin, yet warm. I can probably operate a 4x5 with them (haven't tried, yet) and I can do everything except load 120 film with them on.

[otzi]

To this end when you've got nothing better to do, you may wish to look up this address

http://www.thewoolcompany.com/

Global posting.
They also have possum fur, wool blend for the most soft, light and warm wear.

Possums are a pesky, piddling vermin like thing whose sole purpose is to devour all plant life, especially home gardens. Never taking no for an answer and practically unmovable. Lead poisoning was the preferred inducement till for some strange and cruel twist of human social evolution they became a protected species?? Now they run to plague proportions in some of our built up areas. They were introduced to NZ to farm for fur but they are too argumentative to even be any use for that but at least NZ still sees them for what they are worth. - Clothing.