Comparatively Heat-Resistant Camera

[Procrasticus]

Hi people, new guy here.

I've been thinking--I need to get a camera to keep in my car, but because high temperatures are definitely a problem in my part of the country, I figured I should get a camera that doesn't have any electronics on it that'll be prone to heat damage. The question is, though, what should I get? I know if I went with film, the film itself probably wouldn't like heat a great deal, but I'm not really worried about that too much. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

[freygr]

I'm afraid that you will not find a camera either film or digital that will not care about heat. Heat will fog film especially with the temperatures inside a closed up car in the sun. The heat will exceed the operational specs. for most digital cameras but the real problem will be the life of the batteries, they will be highly degraded.

If you take the camera with you these problems will go away. Leaving a camera in the car for a day should not cause any problems but for a week, it will cause problems.

[Procrasticus]

Hmm. Well, I'd like to get a camera that doesn't even have a battery in it. You think there's an entirely mechanical camera that will keep alright in a vehicle for a long period of time, provided there is no film in it? Seems reasonable to me, as long as it isn't getting so hot that components are warping.

[Wild Wassa]

You didn't mention how hot is hot.

I know 115-120+F air temperature hot, that was yesterday. It is predicted today that where I live in the Southern Uplands could be the hottest place on earth so the Bureau of Meteorology has warned. In SE Australia today all hospitals are on a state of emergency alert because of the heat.

I leave my Canon 40D in the car often and rarely have the luxury of shade when away from home. Left in a Lowepro bag on the floor with a white sheet thrown over the bag and with all the windows left down about 2 inches. Not ever left in a glove box or in direct sunlight or with the window wound right up.

Nothing seems to have gone wrong so far, and every day the air temp is above 106F in late summer, with the car a lot hotter. I suggest a 40D can handle heat and the car can get hot possibly 150+F hot. Some days the camera has been so hot I haven't been able to hold it near my face.

The weather is here, I wish I was cool. Yesterday it was only furnace hot ... but I'm not looking forward to today.

A $2 polystyrene esky normally for a six-pack could be a good way to take the sting out of the heat, if used as a part time camera box.

Warren.

[Procrasticus]

Well, that beats my place. I'm in northern Texas--it gets hot here, but usually not much more than about a hundred degrees in the peak of summer.

I've actually got a Canon already, but I was looking for something considerably cheaper (and older, because I like old cameras).

As it stands, I think I'm going to get myself a mechanical camera; I found Camerapedia last night, and I've been able to get lots of information on pretty much every old one I find on eBay with a ten dollar price tag.

I'm seriously considering a vintage Voigtländer.

[Wild Wassa]

Procrasticus, well I'm guessing that here today, on the Western Slopes of the Great Dividing Range at the Northern end of the Australian alps it will beat most every other place.

The Voightlander sounds good. I don't know if I'm telling you to suck eggs, so if I am, please ignore me. Otherwise, the old mechanical cameras should regularly have their shutter speeds run-through about a dozen times for each shutter speed setting ... to stop them from being sluggish. If the speeds are sluggish, you will hear changes in the sounds of the slower speeds, but normally doing this has the sluggish speeds coming good. Cameras in both cold climates and hot climates can suffer from this problem of being gunked-up when the old lubricants thicken up. If you are buying the Voightlander or any old mechanical camera, run through all the shutter speed at least several times before buying the camera ... if accurate and regularly consistent speeds are important to you.

I keep my film (I still shoot film) in the freezer. I allow about an hour and a half for the film to warm up before I take the 35mm cassette out of the canister, otherwise condensation can cause problems. That is even with our normally low relative humidity of only 12% and I have a little esky to protect my film from the heat, which I plug into the cigarette lighter in my car, normally to keep my drinks tepid.

Warren.

[Procrasticus]

Oh, no, don't worry about coming across as unpleasant. You're fine.

Exercising your camera seems like a good plan to me, so thanks for mentioning it. As for cold storage of film, does it really make much difference if you keep it room temperature or below freezing?

[Wild Wassa]

The term "Suck eggs" might not have translated. I meant it as; to tell you something that you already know ... because all Australians are unpleasant, that is our one trait that you can always rely on.

As far as keeping film cool in hot climates, there are several reasons for doing this. Kept in the freezer the film does not have an expiry date. The film is kept in the canister or for roll and sheet film hermetically sealed or if open in snaplock bags to keep all moisture away from film.

If you buy individual rolls of film and use them relatively quickly, it doesn't really matter. Shoot the film and have it processed quickly, keep the film away from heat and all will be fine. After shooting the film, if the latent image is processed soon after shooting, the latent image will not have deteriorated.

If you buy a batch of film or a couple of rolls of film it pays to keep it in the fridge, if you feel that it will take some time to use the film, freezing film is for long term storage.

Over time the film's speed will slowly deteriorate and unwanted colour shifts can happen. Exposure to heat speeds up the deterioration. Keeping film cold reduces the loss of film speed. If you buy a batch of film, every roll in the batch will have the same ISO, when you finally get to use the last roll, you want the ISO to be the same as your first calibrated roll from that batch. Photography is all about achieving accurate repeatable results. Inconsistant film speeds and colour shifts, do not allow this.

If I was to buy the last 16 rolls of Kodak High Speed Infrared film in my local Ted's Camera store, which I'm thinking of doing, I'd only shoot this film every now and again. This is a perfect example for keeping film as cold as possible ... infrared film records heat, it doesn't need the visible light to fog or expose film. All film types will heat fog.

If I shot film and knew that the 45 rolls of unprocessed film that I have were going to take months to process, and I didn't want the latent image to deteriorate, I would put the film back in the canisters and in the freezer. Where they have now been sitting for the last 20 years. The freezer allows me to be extremely lazy.

Keeping film cool in the fridge in hot climates is very smart ... keeping it in the freezer does it better.

I'll see if I can scan a roll from my freezer ... look at the expiry date. I bought the film well before the expiry date. If I want to use the film tomorrow I expect it to be the same colour quality and ISO as the last roll of film that I used from that batch (not that I think that I will).





Warren.

[Frog]

Put it in an ice chest.

[Procrasticus]

Wassa, thanks for scanning that box to show me what you were getting at, and thanks for explaining that bit of Australian slang, heh. Must be nice to buy film wholesale and not really worry about the expiration date.

I just purchased a ten pack of 35mm Kodak Tri-X on eBay a few days ago, actually, so I'll be putting that in the freezer when it comes in. If black and white film lasts longer than color like I've read, then perhaps it won't be so dire, but the film is a few months expired, so it's probably in my best interest to freeze it.

[freygr]

Professional films do not have all the stabilizers like the non-professional films. The non-professional films have to have a long shelf life of years. The professional films have to have the same color for each and every roll. You can't have it both ways with film.

With B&W film yes it has a shelf life of years if it is not exposed to heat. I've have shot many a rolls of WWII gun camera film when I was in the service. It was ISO 400 tri-X so it was a little grainy. The some of really old stuff gives very high contrasty images so test before trying to use the old film.

Film that has been refrigerated can be good for many years past it's expiration date both color and B&W.