bcrawf

When bringing a camera back indoors from cold outdoors, condensation on and inside the camera and lens is a danger. I am not an expert on this matter, but my practice is to bag the camera tightly in a plastic bag before returning indoors, then letting it come to room temperature before unbagging it. I welcome other views on this.

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

Best protection is a waterproof hard case like those from Underwater Kinetics, Plasticase, or Pelican. A plastic bag will help if you press out all the excess air and seal it. Or you could just leave your gear out in the cold and only bring in your batteries and memory cards.

chrisg-optical Loc: New York, NY

Use silica gel packs liberally as this will absorb any moisture in the air surrounding the camera/lens with the bag closed. It's a good idea to use silica gel year round and change them every year or so. Prevents lens fungus especially.

rrkazman

Depending on how cold the equipment was, using the air tight case, bag or any such is correct. I recently read an article by a pro who also said to return the equipment to indoor temperature gradually. So from the outdoors to an attached garage or enclosed unheated porch. In the long passed with my film cameras, I would got out to my location with the Camera in the trunk of the cold car, I would have put it there the night before. I would use it all day and get my shots. On the return trip home I would put it in the cold car on the floor of the back seat, then drive 30 minutes or so as the car warmed so did the Camera and lenses, all slowly, they were always in a bag to slow the process. I now live in South Carolina where there is not enough cold weather to even bother with.
Does anyone recall the issue with dry cold air and film causing a lighting like effect from static electricity.

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

Take a plastic bag and put you pack with the camera in it as soon as you go from the cold to a worm place and colors the bag tight till the pack worms up.

You want to keep the humidity away till your equipment is at room temperature. If you only had a camera then a small plastic bag will do. I have a large garbage bag with n=me in the winter.

Raz Theo Loc: Music City

Silica gel is useless if you can't put it in an airtight container and a camera bag is not airtight. So, short of investing good $$$ in a proper case, I think you're on the right track already by using Ziplock plastic bags and silica gel packs either coming or going. By routine, I keep all my lenses and camera bodies like that, especially if they're "out of service" for an any period of time. There's all sorts of advice out there about: a) if you're in A/C, before you step into the hot/humid outdoors, warm the camera/lenses by placing in sunlight/window to help equalize; 2) vice versa.
Small dollops of common sense work too I think.

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

The pro was poorly informed.

I have been moving equipment from very cold to warm and moist on a professional basis for 50 years. This does include cameras and lenses, but it also includes far more expensive and more sensitive electronic equipment.

The ultimate was a pelican case pressurized with dry nitrogen gas. The problem is that if the case was cold soaked in a small aircraft at -40 degrees it will take 24 hours to warm up. If there are 3 or 4 field reps that cost $150 or more per hour waiting that is very expensive! But it may be unavoidable too.

Cameras should be warmed as fast as possible. There are no benefits to slow warming.

Use a kitchen sized plastic trash bag. Put the equipment in the bag while in the cold environment. Squeeze out all of the air and the take it inside. Put the bag in a warm location with good air circulation around the bag. The bag need not be sealed air tight, but make sure that no air is blown into the bag. It takes only a few minutes and needs only to warm to maybe 5 or 6 degrees above freezing.

Do not seal into a Ziploc bag! The trash bag allows a hand to be run down into the bag to retrieve batteries or memory cards without a problem. A Ziploc bag, if opened, will let in much moist air. A Ziploc is also more difficult to squeeze all the air out to begin with and therefore will take longer to warm up.

My experience has all been in Alaska. I typically get more experience in any couple of months than most people will see in a life time...

Drip Dry McFleye

After using my camera outdoors in winter weather I normally leave my camera in our attached garage for a while. The temperature there will be around 15 degrees F warmer than outdoors. After a while I move it to my basement for a time. The temperature there will be about 10 degrees less than the main part of the house but significantly warmer than in the garage. Finally I bring the camera to it's normal place on the main floor of the house. Works fine for me BUT PLEASE NOTE that I have never used this method for extremely cold temperatures, probably nothing below 20 deg. F.

DMGill Loc: Colorado

In the 35mm film days that was a potential problem in dry climates if you advanced the film too quickly or if you rewound the film too quickly. I never had that problem on the east coast, but I discovered it in Colorado (and we’re humid compared to parts of Arizona, Utah, and Nevada).

DMGill Loc: Colorado

Thanks for your idea. I read it in a previous post on a different thread and took some heavy plastic bags with me on a trip to the Colorado mountains where I was shooting night skies in sub-zero weather. Worked great! 👍

bcrawf

Thanks, Apaflo, for reporting your Alaskan experience. (In see Anchorage is 7 deg. F now and will warm up all the way to 11 deg. today, though that may not be where you are.)

Your preference for non-Ziplock bags is, I assume, one of practicality (letting you carefully access a battery or memory card, as you said, before the camera is ready to be brought out into the warm room). I think what it amounts to is that a non-Ziplock bag provides adequate protection (used properly), not that a Ziplock one would be less safe.

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

The Ziploc bag is less versatile. It is safe enough if not used the way a trash bag can be used.

The trash bag is both the easiest to use and the fastest way to warm a camera. I can't think of any way other than the physical protection a camera bag or hard case provides where the trash bag is inferior. Even then any camera placed in a hard or other case should first be put inside a plastic trash bag.

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

Bingo, works great here.

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

Any air-tight container zip-lock bags included) will work just fine, because the cold air inside is much drier than the warm air in the house. In reality, this is not too much of a problem because the warm air inside is generally pretty dry in the wintertime unless you have a whole-house humidifier and have it cranked up pretty high... The greatest hazard is if you are staying in a tropical climate and move your gear from an air-conditioned room out into the hot, humid air.

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

I have done that and I have kept my camera in the camera bag for about 15min. before removing it from the camera bag for use or to keep it indoors. Never an issue.
I keep my cameras with a desiccant while not in use.