orchidalan Loc: Arroyo Grande, CA

Thank you everyone. So much good information. I appreciate it all.

Jwshelton Loc: Denver,CO

Was there last November.
Fantastic adventure.
As others have commented, cold to warm is the issue.
Allow the camera/lenses to warm up gradually to
avoid both fogging and condensation on electronics.

If you have any other specific questions, feel free to PM me.
We were on the boat for 23 days - Falklands, South Georgia Islands, and Antarctica.
Enjoy!

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

Warming up "gradually" does not help in avoiding fog and condensation. The speed of warming as zero effect.

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

It actually does help to warm up gradually. It ensures that the entire assembly is all at about the same temperature.

After all, you are talking about a lot of plastic parts that are not good heat conductors like metal parts would be. Plastics work better as insulators.

When you warm up too fast you may mistakenly think that everything is warm when only the surface is warm and the internal parts are still cold. If you remove the lens you might be surprised by condensation forming on the back of the lens, the mirror, the surface of the prism and or the sensor.

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

If you make a mistake, it is your mistake. That is probably not a surprise in your case.

The speed of warming is totally irrelevant.

JeffDavidson Loc: Originally Detroit Now Los Angeles

He said "when he photographed the Northern lights." Good luck shooting Australis Borealis.

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

I'll add heat transfer the list of topics about which you know nothing.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

Said the guy from Florida to the guy from Utqiagvik, Alaska about how to care for a camera in cold weather.

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

I have not lived in Florida all of my life. I was born in West Virginia and our son was born in Ontario where we lived through 20 below for weeks.

As for knowing about heat exchange, as a mechanical engineer I worked in plant engineering both in Canada and at Kodak in Rochester.

Apaflo's list of things about which he know nothing (that he did not learn from the internet) continues to grow.

hollyhock

We visited Antarctica last January....
Our trip leader suggested a baggie system that really worked. However, it was not for transition from outside to inside (which didn't seem to be a problem for anyone -- maybe because the temperature was usually between 20-30 degrees). Her method was to protect our camera during the zodiac rides to land.

Take a large baggie. Make little holes at the bottom to put your straps through. Then you are able to slide the baggie up and down to cover your camera as needed. My photos show how I used it. It was wonderfully easy.

Always keep it covered while on or near the water.....of course this won't work if you fall in. :)

Have a wonderful trip !!!!

msbernie

Was there in February with no problems except for being VERY sure to take a dry bag and being careful your jaw doesn't lock from the big smiles. Also, Drakes Passage is VERY rough so dramamine if you're susceptible and crystalized ginger makes it easier to endure.

terpfan Loc: central coast, California

We went to Antarctica last January. It was an absolutely amazing trip. Have a FF Canon. Used mostly 24-105 and 70-300 on land and Tamron 150-600 on ship for whales. Got some great shots of penguins while sitting on muddy brown snow. With a lot of penguins around, it was NOT mud. Previous poster was correct, Drake can be rough. Southbound Drake was no problem, return had 30 ft waves and high winds. Neither my wife nor I get motion sickness, but the ships doctor gave my wife phenergan and she slept 20 hours. I chose no meds, but couldn't make it to bridge to get shots of water over the bow. I would try patches before you go so make sure no side effects. Any questions PM me. Have a fabulous time, it truly is the trip of a lifetime.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

Jealousy is not an attractive characteristic.

You putting up "weeks" of -20 experience against decades is sort of, well, sad.

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

An astute comment, which correctly characterizes not just this exchange but also virtually all comments that selmslie makes about my posts to UHH.

I've little doubt he did live for some short time in southern Ontario and probably did see below freezing temperatures for "weeks". He certainly never experienced a single stretch of -20 that lasted for longer than a week or maybe two at the most.

Claiming his experience is equal to mine, or that I am the one repeating what was found on the Internet is hilarious.

I lived for 20 years in the coldest place (Salcha) in the Fairbanks AK area and since then have lived in Barrow for an even longer period of time.

Which is to say I lived, for 4 decades, in the two coldest places in the USA. Salcha gets the absolute lowest temperatures (coldest I saw was -70), while Barrow's average is the lowest in the entire US.

My cold weather experience in 50 plus years of living in Alaska has in each of those years exceeded, by at least two times, his ENTIRE lifetime exposure to cold.

Given that condensation is something I have to deal with in all twelve months of the year, it might seem reasonable if I see this as just one more of a very long series of ridiculous rants of foolish nonsense.

Everyone can trust that slowly warming a camera has no benefit at all. The faster the better. Note that a Ziploc bag is not the best because with a plastic trash bag it is easy to safely remove a battery or memory card during the process without danger of condensation on the camera.

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

Do you suppose that anyone here envies Apaflo because he chooses to live in Barrow? Get real!

There are certainly people who have spent more time above the Arctic Circle with more experience and less understanding than either of us. You can't learn much science from experience. There is no comparison between my scientific education and background and Apaflo's experience from which he has learned very little

And you can't learn to take decent photographs just by reading about it on the internet and talking to other photographers. It takes creativity and talent to produce something other than snapshots. He struggles to produce a single "street" image - just portraits, festivals and parked trucks.