In fact windchill absolutely is a factor!

Windchill is basically a measure of how fast a warm object will cool to ambient temperature, or conversely how much heat has to be applied to prevent that. For a camera the operative concern is how fast the battery in the camera will cool until it can no longer provide enough charge to operate the camera.

If the temperature is 15F degrees with no wind the batteries will last for some given time. If the wind is blowing 15 MPH you can rest assured the amount of time you have before the camera is too cold to work is much shorter (because the Windchill Factor is -11F degrees). Even though it is 15F the effect is going to be something closer to how short it would be if the actual temperature were below zero.

I searched UHH unsuccessfully for "freeze" or "freezing" before posting this question.

I consider myself to be a street photographer and never leave home without a camera. Camera portability and image quality are most important to me. In the days of film, I had multiple bodies and lenses and even a Rolleiflex, but moved past that decades ago. My largest body is the T2i and I use that only to photograph high school reunions. Otherwise, my daily carries are either the Canon S95 and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX100.

Although I'm very cavalier about using medicines or food way beyond their expiration dates (unless they fail the nose test), I'm reluctant to carry a camera when the mercury tumbles below the manufacturers' recommendations about minimum ambient usage temperatures. I don't know what damage or failure-to-operate situations would/could happen and whether any resulting damage might be permanent.

I've considered buying a "tough" camera that might be useful down to 14°F, but think that those pictures might be less than satisfactory. Furthermore, it gets colder than 14°F in Philadelphia, although some of you might laugh at such relatively mild conditions.

So, my question is how do others take pictures in frigid conditions and are my fears of camera damage valid?

Thank you.
--

I searched UHH unsuccessfully for "freeze" or "freezing" before posting this question.

I consider myself to be a street photographer and never leave home without a camera. Camera portability and image quality are most important to me. In the days of film, I had multiple bodies and lenses and even a Rolleiflex, but moved past that decades ago. My largest body is the T2i and I use that only to photograph high school reunions. Otherwise, my daily carries are either the Canon S95 and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX100.

Although I'm very cavalier about using medicines or food way beyond their expiration dates (unless they fail the nose test), I'm reluctant to carry a camera when the mercury tumbles below the manufacturers' recommendations about minimum ambient usage temperatures. I don't know what damage or failure-to-operate situations would/could happen and whether any resulting damage might be permanent.

I've considered buying a "tough" camera that might be useful down to 14°F, but think that those pictures might be less than satisfactory. Furthermore, it gets colder than 14°F in Philadelphia, although some of you might laugh at such relatively mild conditions.

So, my question is how do others take pictures in frigid conditions and are my fears of camera damage valid?

Thank you.
--

It is going to cool quicker if the WCF is lower. Ambient temperature is rarely significant either! The battery ceases to work well before it gets as cold as ambient temperature. All that counts is how fast the battery cools. (The idea that the battery is not actually affected by windchill because it is inside the camera is silly word games! You are affected, even though wrapped in a parka.)

In typical cold weather operation WCF is very important. Batteries and/or cameras are typically moved between a warm place inside a coat, where heat from your body warms it up, to an outside location for actual use. The timing for how long the inside/outside intervals have to be depends very much on windchill as opposed to just ambient temperature. Time the switch wrong, and you'll miss the important shots...

This entire topic of how windchill affects inanimate objects is commonly misunderstood. Windchill is the right way to determine the heat requirements for a building, not ambient temperature. People seem to find that hard to grasp because of the way windchill is defined.

Didn't say the battery isn't affected by windchill. I said it is not subject to windchill. A minor distinction but still a fact when it is in the camera. I did state that the camera and it's internals will cool quicker when subject to windchill. Essentially the same thing you are saying. Ambient temperature is very significant, BTW, and you certainly know that. WCF is based on wind speed and ambient temp., not just wind speed. Would you prefer to stand in a 20 mph wind in 20 degree temps or in minus 30 degree temps? Which do you think will affect your camera quicker?

Silly word games. The battery is affected and is therefore "subject" to windchill.

Nobody is saying ambient temperature is not part of calculating WCF. Have you ever seen how it actually is calculated? I wrote a program years ago, just after NOAA switched from Wind Chill Index to the current Wind Chill Factor, that does exactly that.

Keep in mind that for most people wind speed and WCF are of slight interest; but where I live it is significant all year round on a daily basis. (True that most of us sort of ignore WCF because temperature and wind speed actual effects don't translate well to WCF. It's mostly useful to tell the tourists or talk about on the Internet.)