This week I managed to get out in the cold weather and snow and shoot a few time s. Considering that it was hovering around 2? Fahrenheit and with the occasional wind blowing I managed to do not too bad. Early during both sessions I managed to control my breathing under the dark cloth and had no problems with condensat ion/frost on either the lens or ground glass. But as chance would have it I beca me more engrossed with each shot and soon forgot to control my breathing cycles. As you would expect I eventually ended up breathing on the ground glass. Of cou rse the inevitable happened, an instant layer of frost occurred randomly over di fferent parts of the glass and this eventually brought my session to an end.
I have read different ideas such as using a snorkeling tube to prevent this but do not wish to add additional equipment to my shooting sessions. I already have enough in my hands and pockets trying to keep them at the proper temperature wit hout sucking on a tube whilst not knocking something over or stepping on my prec ious gear.
How do you clean the ground glass once you have created a layer of frost on it? I have tried using my warm hand and then a gentle wiping but the heat just cause s the glass to re-frost the minute I remove my hand. I also am now concerned wit h this problem should I accidentally breath on a lens and cause frost to occur. Would your idea also work for cleaning the lens?
As I conclude here I thought that it might also be appropriate in this thread to ask about carbon fiber tripods and the cold. I really do not need nor can affor d a nice Gitzo but recently my Manfrotto metal tripod is terribly cold to handle once it has been outdoors. Does a carbon fiber tripod seem much warmer to the h ands during these cold conditions?
Kind Regards,
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