Or at the every least at a discount.

msmoto......

Using the back pack would also work, but there's just a bit more air in there, and it may have a bit of moisture in it; actually, all you're trying to do is to let the equipment warm up without being in contact with air, as air almost always has some moisture in it.

I guess no one has tried a Hoodman loupe; I noticed a used, "like new" one on eBay, that started out at $42; it took 4 days of waiting, but I scored it yesterday for $62 and free shipping; (better than paying $80 I guess!) I have noticed that my focus has been a little off in my night shots of Xmas lights, so I'm going to use this thing's 3X magnification to achieve more accurate manual focus.

Now I must run to the Court House.......just found out that you must give the county $20 for a license before you can get married !
Bummer, that ! ( I think 80 yr olds should be able to get married for free ! )

sometime, when working in the dark

Having set the Hyperfocal distance to the widest aperture I am going to use
I fix the focus to manual, then tape over the focus ring, so it cannot be accidentally moved

Don't forget to "zero out" when you get home

Thanks Charley. I actually place all the gear in my small Lowepro backpack and wait a while if it is extremely cold where I was shooting. Often, if traveling by car...I place the camera in a blanket when I get into the car. This is on the floor and apparently allows the body to warm up slowly.

Rx4Photo; (and anyone else)

One good tip for when you're going to be out in the cold with your camera; be sure to take a few gallon size zip-loc freezer bags with you ! (They'll fit in a shirt pocket) Before you come back inside where it's warm, stick your camera body in a bag, and zip it shut; ditto with each lens you have with you; when you come back in, don't remove anything from the bags until the contents have warmed up to the ambient indoor temp. You won't get any condensation externally or internally on your camera gear.

Charley

Friedmud has the right idea with the mitts. I have a thin glove on underneath these so you never expose your skin to the cold. I shoot in -20C. By then I'm wearing a balaclava to keep my face protected.

friedmud said:
If the core of your body starts to get cold your body will automatically react to save itself... and will start cutting circulation off to your hands and feet to keep your core warm. This means that one of the best things you can do to keep your hands warm is... wear a big ass coat.

msmoto said:
If one keeps the core temperature of the body very warm, even a bit on the "hot" side, the vasodilatation of the extremities will tend to keep the fingers and toes much warmer. So, bundle up the head, neck and torso in multiple layers and enjoy warm fingers.

Haha, now this is what I call a real pro tip! Not that it would be completely unknown fact, but keeping it in mind and being serious about it is.

This thread is becoming more and more relevant as I've read it in the last few days. I'll be going to Steamboat Springs, Colorado just after New Years and I know I'll want to get out and do some "lone wolf" photography. Most daytime shooting I'll likely bring (drag) my family with me but I would love to do a bit of late evening or nighttime shooting as well. Those times I'll likely be alone. I know it'll definitely be colder than anything I've grown accustomed to so all of this info is good stuff.

Thanks for all of your posts here. I've nothing to contribute but reading this give's me ideas of what I might needed for the trip.

Ironheart says;

Nothing beats a good beard however ;-)

Ohhhheee ! I "use" to wear a beard; (way back in the 50's or 60's when everyone going by turned around and STARED at you) !
I think every guy has to see what he looks like with a beard, at least one time in his life; well, I had my "one time", I now "know", and I'm no longer curious. But that's not saying that I'm always clean shaven; I always am, at least when there will be anyone seeing me;
I think I must be part "plant"; you know, this time of year, when there are a lot of dreary, sunless days, and the plants just kinda, "droop down"........it's kinda what I do, I tend to respond to warmth and sunlight. Today it was bright and sunny.......for several hours; so I perked right up, went to town, bought a few things, had a bite to eat, (so there would be no dishes to wash).

I actually did start the day off today with a nice close shave; I always feel so much better after brushing my teeth, shaving, showering, and getting into nice clean clothes.

While I'm thinking about it, can anyone tell me this..........after a few years of enjoying the best view finder ever made, (on my F-5), there are many times that I find the VF on my 300s "lacking"; so I tend to use "live view" quite a bit; just recently, I have determined that I need a really good loupe to "enhance" the view, and even magnify it slightly; I'm thinking very strongly of buying a Hoodman Loupe to use on the LCD; has anyone used the Hoodman, or does anyone know of any other options ? I see a bunch of $25 ones, but I'm sure they have inexpensive plastic lenses in them; at least I've heard that the Hoodman uses German made optical glass lenses, and they do have focusing; so has anyone used one, and if so, what are your thoughts ?

Thanks lamarfrancois thats the nearest anyone has come to identifying the fault.
R8R Does my other D700 and the 4 D200's I have count as back up?

sportsunday said:
I suppose what I mean is the camera is shooting but not recording anything and the mirropr is staying locked up after each shot.

This indicates something is faulty, and needs to be repaired. I don't think any suggestion here is going to fix it. Internet forums don't replace parts, repair technicians do. Just cause one guy on the phone was stumped doesn't mean it can't be fixed. Send it in.

And if you earn a living with this D700, why do you not have a back up for it? That's what backups are for.

I had to get my D300 recently serviced for something sounding like this - the mirror would return up after the shot and wouldn't return unless the dof preview was tapped (and a lot of the time the lens had to be removed entirely). When the mirror was up the shutter worked fine and an image would be recorded - the camera didn't give an ERR indication , so auto-exposure (and phase-detect AF) didn't work at all.

This kind of fault will get worse over time - first it was say 1 shot in 5 , then I could force it to stick the mirror up if I shot over f/8 or so nearly every time. Then it would do this nearly every time even at f/2.8 (and I'd have to take the lens off to get the mirror back up) at which point I had to get it serviced. The aperture lever module ("I base plate") and main charge capacitor base plate had to be replaced , set me back £350 or so over here.

From what I gather it's quite common amongst D300 and possibly D700 bodies to develop this fault with the aperture lever mechanism , so definitely worth looking into.

I suppose what I mean is the camera is shooting but not recording anything and the mirropr is staying locked up after each shot.
As for changing lenses with camera switched on or not switching off during transit come on, I've earned my living as a photographer for the past 25 years so leave out the lectures.

>>When mirror locked I can still take a pic so lond as I focus on manual or take of the lens. Of course I dont get an image as nothing is in focus because the mirror is up.
<<

You are not making sence at all here : you can only take pictures when the mirror is " up" , you cannot take a picture with the mirror down cause the mirror is in the lightpath then...

From what you write it seems to me that you do not switch off your camera when changing lenses or on transport so my advice :

Do not take your lenses off when the camera is switched on, this may cause electrical damage to your camera ( RTFM ..)

Always switch your camera off when on transport, this locks the VR in the lens as well as the mirror in down position , protecting your camera better

Furthermore I'd say : try seting the auto cleaning to off, because when autocleaning is busy, you cannot take a picture, and it looks like the mirror is "up"during that process, mirror cleaning is only neccesary when its dirty..

Nothing beats a good beard however ;-)

Glad you guys found it useful!

Gitzo: Good point about a cell-phone. One thing that's cool about iPhones is that if you setup "Find My Friends" with your wife... she can keep track of where you are when you're out doing photography.

Even if it isn't perfect, at least the search and rescue team has somewhere to start looking ;-)

Another thing I find useful when it's cold is a "buff" to keep the wind off my face. I really like these from Eddie Baur (they call them "Multiclavas" over there):

http://www.eddiebauer.com/catalog/product.jsp?ensembleId=40736&catPath=&viewAll=n&pg=1&cmPathInfo=T307

They are really small (you can wad them up and put them in your pocket if you have to. They won't make you hot... but they do keep the wind off your face for less windburn...

If one keeps the core temperature of the body very warm, even a bit on the "hot" side, the vasodilatation of the extremities will tend to keep the fingers and toes much warmer. So, bundle up the head, neck and torso in multiple layers and enjoy warm fingers. I use Gore-Tex gloves which allow control of the camera, yet avoid any wind/skin contact.

I was thinking about this thread today when I went out for a short hike (couple of hours). As this was unplanned and away from home I didn't have a hat or gloves with me fit for -8 C and a wind. Man, did the camera and my fingers get cold fast !

A big yes to down jackets, hand warmers and Friedmud's suggestion of using thin thermal gloves inside a thicker pair. They do keep your hands working a little longer when you take the outer gloves off.

Not sure about liveview working, next time it jams I will try.
R8R I have spoken with Nikon a few times and the guy said it would probably be a waste of time and money sending it in as the fault is so erratic the would not be able to reproduce it.
From what I've heard of Nikon repair centre they are not very good.

Friedmud;

Thank you, thank you, thank you !
The headlamp I have is a piece of junk; I've been needing a decent one forever........I spent 10 minutes checking out the black diamonds and ordered a "storm"; it's something I've always wanted to get, and just never got around to it;

Man, you sound like my oldest son.......he's a SERIOUS outdoor type; I'm gonna check at Gander Mountain the first time I'm in Terre Haute for a good pair of "finger mittens"; you know, I never realized about putting your hand warmers on the back rather than the palms; I'm going to try that. I have an "extra" problem, relative to keeping my hands warm; I lost the first joint of my right thumb, and the first two joints of the index finger to a power saw about 20 yrs ago; because both digits lack "out and back" circulation, they get cold FAST, and warm up SLOW, SLOW! I have to use my middle finger on my multi-selector button on my 300s;

I don't have any problems keeping my body warm, just my hands; something else I always carry in an inside pocket when I'm out tramping around in to snow, far from "civilization".......my fully charged cell phone; I seldom get outside of çellular reception.

I always go to great lengths to keep my old head warm too; when it's anything below the 20's, I wear a heavy wool cap down over my ears, and a down hood (with a draw string with those little spring loaded "thingies" to keep the breeze off of my neck; I may even use a mask if I'm sitting in a blind for very long.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say Nikon's technicians could probably diagnose the issue better than some amateur photographers through their keyboards on an internet forum.

Whatever it is, it should probably be repaired. To have it repaired, it should be sent in. If you send it in, they can clean, lube and adjust it too. Win/win.

Or you could hold the camera up to your monitor and let it read all of these posts and see if it self-corrects based on our suggestions...

Can you use LiveView during this time? What do you mean by "I don't get an image"? Is it totally black or just out of focus?

If it's totally black then it might be a shutter problem instead of a mirror issue...

Whoops - I missed the part where you said you couldn't find your headlamp ;-)

That can be a problem. My solution to that? I bought a few of them to keep around the house so I'm not tempted to get the one out of my camera bag to use for other purposes. When I used to do that it never seemed to find its way back into that camera bag ;-)

Oh - one more thing... get a headlamp. You can snag cheap LED headlamps all over the place... and they are great for keeping your hands free but putting light right where you need it.

Since I already linked to Black Diamond, I might as well do it again. Something like this:

http://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/en-us/shop/mountain/lighting/gizmo-headlamp/

I work in the dark and in the cold all the time. My main hobby is mountain landscape photography (see some examples here http://500px.com/friedmud ) and when you're out well before dawn trying to make it to the spot you want to photograph and you're in the mountains it can be _damn_ dark and cold! Some of my best photos have been taken around 0 degrees F!

Here's my advice:

1. Learn your gear. When I'm just sitting around the house watching TV, I'll just sit there with my camera in my hands and a couple of lenses handy. I'll go through all of my normal setup routine for any shot... over and over and over... until it's all muscle memory. This includes changing lenses. Everything must be second nature.

2. Warm gear! This is more than just gloves. If the core of your body starts to get cold your body will automatically react to save itself... and will start cutting circulation off to your hands and feet to keep your core warm. This means that one of the best things you can do to keep your hands warm is... wear a big ass coat. I have an enormous down filled Eddie Baur parka that is rated to below 0 degrees F that I pull out when it's really cold. This also goes for your head, if your head is cold your extremities are going to get that way soon... so wear a ski cap and hood!

3. Gloves. Have many different types of gloves for each type of weather. I have two part gloves (a liner and an outer shell) that work well because I can do everything on my camera and still leave the liner on (so my hands are never directly exposed). I also _highly_ recommend getting a pair of "fingerless" mittens/gloves that have the ability to either cover your fingers or pull back the finger cover so you can use your fingers. I personally use these and love them:

http://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/en-us/shop/ski/snow-gloves/windweight-mitt?gclid=CMjfms3ei7QCFUjZQgodZncACg

If it's really cold I'll also put a handwarmer in each glove. Put them on the "top" or "back" of your hand. That's where all of your blood vessels are that run down to your fingers... so it's the most efficient place to put heat into your hand.

Hope that helps!