RiceHigh's Pentax Blog: Extreme Low Temperature Test: Shooting at -30 Deg.C with K-5IIs and DA* Lens

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Extreme Low Temperature Test: Shooting at -30 Deg.C with K-5IIs and DA* Lens

with an industrial grade Apacer SD Card:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX15rE7a7SM
(Official test and promotional video carried out by Apacer.)

Really impressive! Finally, I can see some marketing effort by Pentax Ricoh and their collaboration with others! :-o :-)

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Ogun Caglayan Turkay · 641 weeks ago

Really impressive! Greetings dear Rice!!! :)

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Alexander · 641 weeks ago

What is impressive? Low temperatures are pretty normal in northern countries or mountains.. I was shooting at -25 with K5 last year -- no problems at all. I think most of cameras and lenses work ok at -30.

3 replies · active 641 weeks ago

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Ogun Caglayan Turkay · 641 weeks ago

OK but it's a really nice "experiment-like" video advertisement. Impressive is this one! :) Because this is not a common habit for PENTAX!? ;)

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RiceHigh 110p · 641 weeks ago

The official specs say that the camera is guaranteed to work as low as -10°C, only:-

http://www.pentaximaging.com/about/press/286

Also, the camera was exposed to that low temperature for quite a period of time, without any thermal protection.

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Airat · 641 weeks ago

No wonder

My old good Casio QV-5700 (no weather sealing at all) worked excellent at -24℃ in spite of the manufacturer says that operating temperature is above zero.

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ben · 641 weeks ago

I think what's uplifting to see is that they are doing marketing that strives to showcase a serious image of Pentax rather than how many colour versions they can offer for the same camera. Great also that it's not being showcased by a girl in a bikini for once.

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Alex · 641 weeks ago

Yes, its working temperature range starts from only -10°C, however even professional Canikon DSLRs are guaranteed from 0°C, and not a degree lower.
Of course, neither would break just below its temperature operating range; but there is a difference between "I tried and it didn't break" and "it officially supports shooting at this temperature".

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steeve · 641 weeks ago

Sure is fun to see Pentax making so advertisement of their DSLR in cold temperatures. I live in Canada and i've always taken my Pentax SLR (MX, Z1p) as low as -42C and DSLR (DS2 and K20D) as low as -25C for at least 2 hours or more.

2 replies · active 641 weeks ago

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VladimirYo · 641 weeks ago

I think you have extreamly low noise on HI ISO at that temperature!

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RiceHigh 110p · 641 weeks ago

It might be!

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frank · 641 weeks ago

Do you need to adjust white balance to cold colors at these temperatures? *g* - just kidding! sounds impressive, but it's not guarenteed that it will always work under these conditions. the critical stuff are the batteries i think and mechanical components. and you must consider condensation, if you put the camera back from cold to warm and camera was already cold inside, and now the air already heats up, the relativ humidity could reach a point where it condesnates at the surface inside. i never expierenced sth. like this and it's a theoretical approach. what do others think about?

1 reply · active 641 weeks ago

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RiceHigh 110p · 641 weeks ago

In practice, my MZ cameras exposed to cold weather at -10 deg. C and lower. Of course, I did only let my camera expose to the outside as short as possible for the shooting time, so as to minimise problems. And, it is important to have a roughly air-tight bag, when the camera came from cold to warm environments, let the gear warm up gradually. That's it.

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Lars Eric Fjellman · 641 weeks ago

MZ-1, -24 for hours on a tripod. Worked fine. No problems at -15 with K10 or K5 either but the cold limits me rather than the cameras ... But, as you say Rice, it´s important to warm up gradually!
Lars Eric in Dalsland, Sweden

1 reply · active 641 weeks ago

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RiceHigh 110p · 641 weeks ago

You had a MZ-1??

http://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/enzzo1972/2002/

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MrBig · 641 weeks ago

Having shot in -33 with a K-5 I'm not at all surprised by this.

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Toomas Kadarpik · 641 weeks ago

-10 need electronics component durability and puts some demands to mechanical components and screen. Very impressive video indeed.

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Jukka · 641 weeks ago

I think that cold is not the problem, but what happens when you bring the camera inside to normal room temperature, moisture condenses on the surface as you can see on the video. Does the camera withstand this repeatedly.

Of cause we can minimize moisturing risk by leaving camera in airtight bag for a while.

1 reply · active 641 weeks ago

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Victor · 641 weeks ago

Despite the video I've seen here, I wouldn't get my camera out of a bag if it was in a cold like that.

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Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Extreme Low Temperature Test: Shooting at -30 Deg.C with K-5IIs and DA* Lens

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