COLD weather help/ideas?

E. von Hoegh · Dec 16, 2013

Hatchetman said:
Eric is THE MAN in the Pentax community. He's done some good work for me before. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on this one.

And so you should, he certainly seems willing to set things right.
But, a freshly CLA'd camera certainly should function correctly at 15F. I CLA'd the Nikon I mentioned above about 15 years ago, using modern synthetic lubricants. So far, so good - and in a temperature 30+ degrees colder.

adelorenzo · Dec 16, 2013

Eric is the gold standard when it comes to servicing Pentax cameras.

E. von Hoegh · Dec 16, 2013

adelorenzo said:
Eric is the gold standard when it comes to servicing Pentax cameras.

So why doesn't the camera work as it should?

Pioneer · Dec 16, 2013

Hey guys. Even gold standards (which Eric most certainly is) makes a mistake once in awhile. I am pretty sure that if you talked to any of the good camera repair techs they will be able to tell you the same. That is why the good ones always tell you to return it if it doesn't work right.

E. von Hoegh · Dec 16, 2013

Pioneer said:
Hey guys. Even gold standards (which Eric most certainly is) makes a mistake once in awhile. I am pretty sure that if you talked to any of the good camera repair techs they will be able to tell you the same. That is why the good ones always tell you to return it if it doesn't work right.

Which I pointed out above. When I repair something, the only guarantee I give is that if I make a mistake, or miss something, I will cheerfully set it right.
In my opinion, the OP should have taken it up with the repair tech before making a thread here - and naming the tech. My posts regarding what may or may not be wrong with the camera were intended to make it clear that a properly CLA'd camera will work properly in cold weather, and that not all CLA's are equal.

Hatchetman · Dec 16, 2013

E. von Hoegh said:
In my opinion, the OP should have taken it up with the repair tech before making a thread here. .

I said I was contacting him before you even posted!

Regardless, I'm glad I posted the question and got some useful advice.

DREW WILEY · Dec 16, 2013

Hard to say with an old camera. When I was a kid I had a very early Honeywell Pentax that survived thousands of miles of mtn travel and wild weather without an issue, until I had to have it de-fogged once after a particularly miserable dunking trying to cross an icy river. I have a friend
who is one of the world's most accomplished Himalayan climbers, who routinely used an all mechanical FM2 Nikon. Then he made a terrible mistake by switching to an electronic Contax right when he made the world's first alpine-style ascent of Kanchenjunga. So back to the ole reliable mechanical Nikon, which is what I also use for 35mm nowadays.

lightwisps · Dec 16, 2013

I use my F5s all the time outdoors and I live near Ottawa, the coldest national capitol in the world. Not often, but we do get to -30 once in a while and they both work fine. I do keep them under my coat however. Don

DREW WILEY · Dec 16, 2013

When my nephew needed a small camera for his expedition use, I simply bought him a basic Pentax MX - no winterization. He carried it in the
arctic three months straight of climbing on Baffin Island, then in Patagonia in extreme cold for the first ascent of Escudo, considered by some
as the most technically difficult climb in the Andes. The only thing that went wrong is that the battery operating the light meter got too cold
and he got a few underexposures because of that. I warned him about keep a spare warm battery in his pocket. But when you're hanging on
a six-thousand foot overhanging wall in sub-zero temperatures for twenty days straight, you might have other priorities in mind.

adelorenzo · Dec 16, 2013

E. von Hoegh said:
Which I pointed out above. When I repair something, the only guarantee I give is that if I make a mistake, or miss something, I will cheerfully set it right.
In my opinion, the OP should have taken it up with the repair tech before making a thread here - and naming the tech. My posts regarding what may or may not be wrong with the camera were intended to make it clear that a properly CLA'd camera will work properly in cold weather, and that not all CLA's are equal.

IMHO you were pretty quick to dismiss somebody else's work with the Ronsonol remark. That is why I mentioned that Eric's name is the most highly regarded in Pentax circles.

VaryaV · Dec 16, 2013

Hi Hatchet -

Did you check the mirror lock button beneath the shutter release? It's very easy to bump.
I was fooling around with my Spotmatic F when I first got mine and it did the same thing. Took a while to find the button as it's not in an obvious spot (and I don't have a manual).

E. von Hoegh · Dec 16, 2013

adelorenzo said:
IMHO you were pretty quick to dismiss somebody else's work with the Ronsonol remark. That is why I mentioned that Eric's name is the most highly regarded in Pentax circles.

Not at all. I've made a lot of money redoing other peoples botched jobs and 'can't be fixed' items. When it comes to clocks and watches it amounts to about two-thirds of the items I see having butchered work that needs to be redone.

Sirius Glass · Dec 16, 2013

I learned from the National Geographic photographers to have camera and lenses CLAed for low temperature operation if I am going to be in very cold weather for long periods of time. Then when I am back to more normal temperatures I have the cameras and lenses CLAed for normal temperatures.

Yes it can be expensive, but I have never had any problems when I have done that.

benjiboy · Dec 16, 2013

Sirius Glass said:
I learned from the National Geographic photographers to have camera and lenses CLAed for low temperature operation if I am going to be in very cold weather for long periods of time. Then when I am back to more normal temperatures I have the cameras and lenses CLAed for normal temperatures.

Yes it can be expensive, but I have never had any problems when I have done that.

As I wrote Steve, it's having the correct viscosity of the lubricants in the camera, so they don't freeze.

Pioneer · Dec 16, 2013

Sometimes it is an interesting thing with old cameras. I have a Pentax Honeywell H1a, the US version of the Pentax S1a. Back in its time it was a budget version of the SV, no timer and shutter stops at 1/500 instead of going to 1/1000 second. As far as I know my H1a has never been opened up, I know it hasn't since I have owned it. Although my SV looks absolutely pristine, the innards will reliably come to a stop whenever the temperature drops around 0F, refusing to take another picture until I take it somewhere warm. It must have grown up in Southern California.

On the other hand, my H1a looks like a refuge from a war zone, but it will just keep merrily clicking away, no matter what the temperature, at least as far as I have found. I suspect it is a Montana camera.

Basically both cameras have the same mechanisms, but they certainly react quite differently to temperature drops.

Just goes to show, you never can tell.

Tom1956 · Dec 16, 2013

Pioneer said:
Sometimes it is an interesting thing with old cameras. I have a Pentax Honeywell H1a, the US version of the Pentax S1a. Back in its time it was a budget version of the SV, no timer and shutter stops at 1/500 instead of going to 1/1000 second. As far as I know my H1a has never been opened up, I know it hasn't since I have owned it. Although my SV looks absolutely pristine, the innards will reliably come to a stop whenever the temperature drops around 0F, refusing to take another picture until I take it somewhere warm. It must have grown up in Southern California.

On the other hand, my H1a looks like a refuge from a war zone, but it will just keep merrily clicking away, no matter what the temperature, at least as far as I have found. I suspect it is a Montana camera.

Basically both cameras have the same mechanisms, but they certainly react quite differently to temperature drops.

Just goes to show, you never can tell.

Best assessment of the state of affairs yet.

PhotoJim · Dec 17, 2013

I've shot in temperatures into the upper -30s (Celsius of course ) and not had any major problems. In dry conditions in the severe cold (-20s C or colder) you have to rewind very slowly if it's dry or else you can get static marks along the margins of the film.

Of course, battery life is a big problem too if you use a camera that depends on them. Luckily, anti-cold battery packs are fairly cheap for film cameras now, given the drop in demand for film cameras. Battery on a cord... put it in your pocket and it stays nice and toasty. Just don't forget that your camera is now attached to your pocket!

Sirius Glass · Dec 18, 2013

PhotoJim said:
I've shot in temperatures into the upper -30s (Celsius of course ) and not had any major problems. In dry conditions in the severe cold (-20s C or colder) you have to rewind very slowly if it's dry or else you can get static marks along the margins of the film.

Also advance the film slowly. The first time I had cold weather static discharge marks from advancing the film too quickly, I had marks all over the frame!

Jim Jones · Dec 19, 2013

40 years ago ago I used fairly new Leica rangefinder and Nikon F gear in northern Greenland in temperatures down to about -50C (-56F) with no winterization and no camera problems. While outside the gear was kept at ambient temperature to avoid warming and cooling cycles, and protected from condensation when brought indoors. We had to be careful when winding or rewinding the film as noted above, and to avoid breathing on the lens or viewfinder.

COLD weather help/ideas?

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