Using the 8x10 2D in cold weather

[Robert Vigurs]

Got up 2 hours before dawn. Four film holders loaded with out of date Arista 125(UK). Drove from Panther Meadows to the end of the pavement, Mount Shasta, Monday morning. Set up the 2D. Once under the dark cloth, wiped off my breath condensation, focused, waited for the first light of dawn. It was cool at 8k feet. Hmmm, meter says(shooting at asa 64) 4 seconds at f45. Going to have to count this out. First light, beautiful morning, clouds about the peak. Shoot. Good. Light is changing, and I'm new to 8x10, so I'll make another exposure. Here is my problem. My hands were so cold, I could barely remove the film holder. Put my hands under my pits, and OK. Made two more shots as the light changed, wanting to experiment with N+, N- back in the darkroom. Seriously, my hands were so cold, I considered using my teeth to pull the holder out, after the 3rd exposure. So what's the deal. Do you pros wear neoprene gloves in the mountains? I want to shoot at Mt. Whitney soon, and I'm going to need some type of gloves. Any input appreciated. In my primitive darkroom today, it was hot. I had to go with 4.5 minutes with HC-110, instead of six. Nice exposures though. Learning is good. I thank you in advance for any input here. Robert

[BetterSense]

Cold? What is this "cold" sensation that you speak of? I think we had that in Texas once.

I sold my 2D due to lack of space and funds. I know that in the future I will want it back.

[Richard Rankin]

Try some HotSnapZ. Both my daughter and I use them and everyone I know who has tried one, orders some...

Cheers,
Richard

[Vaughn]

Photographing in 18 to 20F weather, I tend to use one mitten, and keep the other hand in my pocket of my wool overpants. As I need to, I switch which hand wears the mitten (which is why a mitten is better than a glove.

Vaughn

[ki6mf]

I live near Boston and in Winter at Dawn in January its cold 0-14 F is common! I use some flex polartec flex gloves which should be available from most camping gear stores. I found the flex gloves can be used with my camera controls with out taking them off most of the time! Sometimes you have to remove the gloves. I do carry a larger pair of gloves to ware over the flexible gloves as the wind does blow through the flex gloves. This is a link to what I bought http://www.ems.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3651714

[Tobias Key]

Fingerless woolen gloves are good as they don't impede your fingers. You could also be worn under heavier gloves when you are not using your camera.

[Michael Roberts]

Sporting goods stores that cater to the ski crowd carry "glove liners" that are thin gloves, sometimes made with Lycra, sometimes made of knitted material. I used to wear those under a thicker-insulated glove, but on extremely cold mornings my fingers would still get numb. So I recently found a down-insulated mitten. Wearing the mittens as an outer layer works well for the exposed hand when carrying the tripod to the location. I have to pull the mitten off to set up the camera. Then put it back on, and hands inside parka pockets, while waiting for the sun to come up.

One of the challenges of LF! Nothing is easy!

[Tim k]

Hey, you guys know too much about gloves. Let alone wearing two pair of gloves at the same time? Its going to be 100 today, you should come on down so you can thaw out a little.

[John Koehrer]

I use mittens where the "mitt" flips back & exposes my fingers. These with a glove liner work OK.

[DanK]

This may sound odd....but if you have a nice thin pair of gloves you can work in, simply adding a pair of latex medical gloves under them really helps....

Thanks,
Dan

[jp]

In cold weather, gloves or mittens are important. If you can easily get to your armpits you probably aren't dressed warm enough for real cold weather, as layers are the thing for real cold weather.

[eddie]

jp is right.

if you keep your core temp much higher then your fingers will stay warmer as well. so dress very very warm....do not forget your hat. you may find you do not need gloves.

[Vaughn]

Learning not to breathe on the GG is the toughest part of low temperature photography! Sometimes a snorkel seems to be the thing to have -- but I am not brave enough to do that where someone might see me! LOL!

[Alan Gales]

I'm a retired sheet metal worker. In the winter I always wore jersey gloves. I was easily able to pick up small screws out of my leather pouch while hanging duct work. They aren't the warmest gloves and they wear out fast but if you buy them by the bag they are dirt cheap and you can easily work in them.

[Drew Bedo]

Holding a hot cuppa seems to help some too.

[Ken Lee]

Keep your light meter warm too. It can hang on a string around your neck, but keep it inside your coat until you need to use it.

[Doremus Scudder]

Dakota seems to have all the answers for extreme conditions. I lived a long time in your area, where the conditions are a bit more moderate, and often just wore polypropylene liner gloves under heavier gloves (leather or Gore-Tex ski gloves depending on the weather). I keep the over gloves on as much as possible and take one off as needed to do adjustments. Often, I can insert/remove the film holder with the overgloves on. As the saying goes, "there is no bad weather, just bad clothes."

Best,

Doremus Scudder

[rguinter]

Sporting goods stores that cater to the ski crowd carry "glove liners" that are thin gloves, sometimes made with Lycra, sometimes made of knitted material. I used to wear those under a thicker-insulated glove, but on extremely cold mornings my fingers would still get numb. So I recently found a down-insulated mitten. Wearing the mittens as an outer layer works well for the exposed hand when carrying the tripod to the location. I have to pull the mitten off to set up the camera. Then put it back on, and hands inside parka pockets, while waiting for the sun to come up.

One of the challenges of LF! Nothing is easy!

Michael is correct about using glove liners. I use the ones made of polypropylene.

They are very thin and a heavier glove or mitten is worn over them. Then take off the outer one to make adjustments, pull darkslides, etc. And put the outer ones back on right away until some other task requiring dexterity is needed.

These were shot at -10 F and I stood around for several hours taking shots at different times as the light changed.

And of course the rest of your clothing needs to be commensurate with the temp.

Cheers. Bob G.

[joselsgil]

Try the Grabber Hand Warmers. They cost about a $1 and last several hours. You can find them at sporting goods stores. Their web site is warmers.com. You can get info on their products there. They also sell them for you feet.

As mentioned on some of the other replies. Keep your body core warm. This is your chest area. And wear a hat or beanie too. As the old mountain man saying goes. "If your feet are cold, wear a hat".

On another note. How far did you have to lug the 8X10 2D?

I move mine across the room and need to take a breather :-)

[Jason_1622]

There are a lot of military shooter's mittens available that either have the whole front flip open or just allow a couple fingers to come out. Try sportsmansguide.com and check their military surplus section for swede, swiss, german and other euro military gloves/mittens. Cheap and very warm! The euro countries know how to deal with cold.

[Dan Dozer]

I went down to someplace like K-Mart or Wall Mart and found in their sporting good section a pair of wool shooters gloves that work extremly well - they were very cheap. The "trigger finger" has a nylon type of fabric around the tip which helps in grasping hold of things like film holders.

[AnzaRunner]

When shooting in the cold, I can't stand having cold fingers. I wear some thin-ish gloves that give decent warmth, but good finger dexterity. Over those, I wear a finger-less glove setup that converts to mittens. When I'm not shooting, I use them as mittens to keep my fingers warm. When I'm shooting, I fold the mitten parts back, and I can use my fingers, but they still stay somewhat warm. This is especially important when working with light meters, cable releases, etc.