Dealing with the cold

[Jehu]

I had my first experience with LF in the cold last week. There were some marks on the film that appear to have been caused by frost. Also, I couldn't focus too well at one point because the glass kept frosting up. I keep the film in the camera box which is in the tool box in the back of my pickup. I leave it there all the time unless I'm planning on indoor use. I thought I was following all the rules but I'm still having problems. The shutter was failing as I mentioned in another thread. I'm going to have that serviced.

I know I'm not the first one to have to figure this out. Any suggestions from the more experienced would be appreciated.

[Scott Kathe]

If you pull the dark slide too quickly you could get static electricity and this would show up on the film but I've never seen this.

As far as frosting up the ground glass, I've learned to breath down or hold my breath, some have suggested snorkels or those dust filter masks but after some practice you can learn how to not frost up the ground glass. At least you haven't frosted up the lens which I still do occasionally.

You should definitely get your shutter serviced if it is hanging up due to the cold or stop down and do exposures of greater than 1 sec.

Scott

[John Kasaian]

As far as breath condensing on the gg goes, you might try breathing through a snorkel. It looks wierd, but any photographer using a view camera these days looks wierd anyway

[mrladewig]

#1 On the shutter, when the lubricants get old, the cold really affects them. I had this happening on one of my compur #0 shutters causing slowwwww times on the slow times. A trip to Flutots for CLA and it is right on time at -10F or 100F now.

#2 The film can be affect by changes in temp causing condensation. I would recommend that you keep the film (and other gear) inside a ziploc bag even if it is in the back of the truck and especially if you bring it inside and give it time to come up to temperature before opening the bag. Condensation is caused when your gear goes from a cold environment to a warm and humid environment and this can happen in a tropical environment (AC hotel room to outside) or a winter environment (-10F outside to a 68F house).

[Scott Kathe]

#2 The film can be affect by changes in temp causing condensation. I would recommend that you keep the film (and other gear) inside a ziploc bag even if it is in the back of the truck and especially if you bring it inside and give it time to come up to temperature before opening the bag. Condensation is caused when your gear goes from a cold environment to a warm and humid environment and this can happen in a tropical environment (AC hotel room to outside) or a winter environment (-10F outside to a 68F house).

I like this explanation a lot more than mine. “If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, it must be a duck”. If it looks like frost it probably is frost.

I've seen static discharge on x-ray film that I use at my job, if the air is dry and I wear gloves I get little static dots where I handle the film. I've also seen static charges in the darkroom if I peel off the tape at the end of 120 film too quickly. Never seen it with large format though.

Scott

[Peter De Smidt]

If you have a glass "ground glass", would treating the outside with fog-x/rain-x help with the condensation?

[Brian Ellis]

For gg fogging, I take a deep breath and then hold it while composing and focusing. I keep the bottom of my BTZS hood partially open and when I have to exhale/inhale again I do it through the opening.

[Drew Wiley]

Peter - I tried some of that anti-fog stuff like they use on skier's glasses on my gg
and it didn't do much good. The snorkel idea sounds better to me; but there can be
times when this problem is inherently tricky. DRY cold weather is a different kind of
situation, and when I used a metal camera (Sinar) I sometimes actually had to ground the camera back with a piece of wire and a nail into the dirt to prevent static discharge on film in the desert, plus some antistatic fuid on the holders themselves.

[Preston]

"For gg fogging, I take a deep breath and then hold it while composing and focusing."

So, if we see a passed-out frozen lump under a dark cloth do we call the medics, or feed it a good single malt?

-Preston

[mdd99]

For gg fogging, I wrap my scarf around the lower half of my face and breathe through my nose to narrow the breadth of the exhaled air.