Winter gloves

Darryl Roberts

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Jul 1, 2017
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Atlanta, GA
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Hi,

Can you recommend winter gloves to use outdoors with my large format camera, specifically the lenses?

Advanced gratitude.
 

Vaughn

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I have a pair of similar design. The only info on them is that they have Insulite (sp?) in them. I wear them over my finger-tip-less bicycle gloves for winter biking, too.

A minimist way is to have one wool mitten, the kind with a separate thumb, but the rest of the fingers together. Keep your bare hand in your pocket when you are not using it and the mitten on the other. When the bare hand gets too cold while working with the camera, put the mitten on it, and use the warm hand for awhile. I use to do it at 18F to 20F with the 4x5, but then, I'm an idiot.
 

Chuck1

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The nitrile dipped nylon work gloves from home depot are pretty good.
Atlas therma fit (showa) are warmer but not quite as thin.
There are many similar option of varying quality and cost.
 

Doremus Scudder

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Sep 10, 2002
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Eugene, Oregon
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I used to use fingerless gloves, but they just felt too weird... Strange sensation having most of your hand warm while the fingertips are freezing.

Now I like to wear silk or polyester liner gloves with good quality ski gloves over them. Most of the rough set-up can be done with the outer gloves on. Then, for the finer adjustments and focusing, the liner gloves work great and there's no need for bare skin to touch metal parts on the camera.

If you're in the cold just for a while, e.g., unloading from the car and setting up and then packing back up after the shot, watch out for condensation on your gear, especially the filmholders.

Best,

Doremus
 

Xylo

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Dec 6, 2008
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South of Montreal, Canada
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Like Trail Images, I can vouch for glove-mittens.
Living in Canada, I haven't found anything better. Mine are wool with a Thinsulate insert in them and are warm enough for our cold weather. Not boiling hot, but just good enough.
What I like with them is that I just sneak my index finger out of them without freezing the other fingers.

Over the years I tried various kinds including some expensive ones by LowePro but they simply just don't cut it.
 

Tim Stapp

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Dec 21, 2012
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Big Rapids, MI
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Having shot marathon runners in 10F weather (using d@g@t@l, I can relate. Even though I had hand warmer packets inside my hunter's mittens, my shutter finger was so stone cold that I couldn't feel the shutter. I'm watching and learning. Hoping that someone can show me the way!

Having used Trail Images gloves https://www.cabelas.com/shop/en/cabelas-gore-tex-infinium-windstopper-glomitts-for-men I can say that even with handwarmer packets inside the palm, over a 6 hour day that my shutter finger was with out any feeling. Auto focus lenses (quality lenses) failed to autofocus sometimes. We would have to alternate lenses to be able to shoot each runner as they passed. This was for a Boston Marathon qualifying race in Northern Indiana in November (Columbia City Veterans Day Race).
 
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MurrayMinchin

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The pile fingerless glove with flip over mitten combo works in regular cold weather, and wool/thinsulate ones work when the hairs in your nose start freezing and your eyebrows start building globs of ice.

Read an article about Mongolia winter photography (sorry, can't remember who wrote it) where the author swore by multi layered winter sniper gloves.
 

DREW WILEY

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I liked the double method. Nice thick mitt outers (not gloves per se). Silk inner gloves, or else climber's gloves with fingertips exposed. My nephew did extreme big wall climbs in the Arctic, Andes, and Himalaya for sometimes months on end, where finger sensation was critical. But everything would have been lost to frostbite if he didn't have a means to tuck his fingers back into a thick good-grip mitten when it was his turn to belay someone else or simply rest. Likewise, it's fairly easy to set up a tripod and the camera itself even with mitts on; and you only need to expose fingers for doing the tilts and swings etc, focussing, lens settings, etc. Gosh, I was just sorting through prints of icy scenes half an hour ago, trying to prioritize which to drymount first. Some of those shots go back 40 years or more, when I often necessarily carried an ice. But at least the drymount press itself makes the room nice and warm, as our own daily temps start to chill.
 
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eli griggs

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Nov 15, 2005
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NC
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If cold is really a problem, I suggest you buy a pair of Moose hide leather mittens, the kind designed to allow a wool mitten glove to sit inside it until ringers are used.

You'll want two pairs of wool gloves, that have fold over mitten style hoods, and partly exposed finger openings, so you can slip off the leather mittens, and pull back the finger hoods to operate the camera, etc.

In between needing to expose your fingers to the cold, rehood the fingers and slip the wool gloves back into the strong Moose hide mittens, to keep thin warm and dry.

The leather mittens should have a strong cord that allows full use of your arms, strung across the back of your neck, so they won't fall into the snow, and the two pairs of gloves us so, if you do get the wool gloves wet, you have a dry pair ready

By the way, wool can be very saturated by water (.70% of the wool garment's weight) and still keep you warm.

IIRC.
 
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