Camera has stopped working in Doha, Qatar

Hi there,

We went on a trip to Doha in Qatar, brought my new D5300 with its original, fully recharged MH-24 battery. (I forgot to carry a backup battery unfortunately.)

The camera has stopped working after 2 hours of walking around the city shore. The battery indicator showed full, than the next time I tried to turn on the camera, it didn't respond at all anymore.

I guessed it was about the weather, it was unbelievably high humidity in addition to the 38 degree Celsius temperature there. We felt like if we breathe hot water on our whole trip, sweating heavily, not a single inch on our clothes survived dry.

After the trip, I realized that the battery was strangely depleted (from full to zero in around 15 minutes while the camera was turned off), we leaved Doha, I recharged it and it worked fine again.

On our next stop Da Nang, Vietnam (same temperature but less humidity) the problem repeated similarly, but this time I wasn't able to turn on the camera after recharging the battery, even if the charger indicated it's fully recharged. I left the camera on the apartment's table for a few hours and when I tried to turn it on again the camera is miraculously went live (with the battery indicator that showed it full).

From the symptoms, what do you think? Due to the hot wet weather, the battery broke down, or the camera itself malfunctioned? Is it possible anyway that the camera circuits go haywire because getting wet from air humidity? I don't believe it's normal, and a company like Nikon makes cameras that can't be use in cities like Doha. Should I require an inquiry for investigation under the product's warranty?

Nikon says the following about their cameras and obviously their batteries.

So, as you can see your temp of 38 deg C is pushing the limit. If the camera is carried in such a way that it is further exposed to intense sunlight, then it is conceivable that the temperature limit would be exceeded, perhaps significantly. I remember years ago, the great and unfortunately late Chuck Westfall suggested to put a white piece of cloth, something like a towel over the camera when in such high heat extremes.

Also of concern would be condensation when moving from a relatively cold climate like a hotel into the outdoors. That can cause moisture in the camera/lens leading to fungus on components, especially lens elements.

Strange...

Does that mean billions of denizens in Doha, Da Nang, and every cities that usually have that kind of hot & wet summers (for now, some EU countries face this temperature too thanks to global warming) have to face this problem and change their cameras from Nikon to other brands to be able to make photos during summer?

In addition, most people living in these warm cities use air conditioners at their homes so the moisture also seems to be an unavoidable problem that leads them to change from Nikon to whatever other brands for the summer?

Seems, this is a growing problem for Nikon so they can make cameras only for regions like Canada and Sweden where the global warming did not push the temp too high yet. But the numbers of places where Nikon cameras can be (officially) used are waning..

Anyway, I just want to identify what went wrong.. the battery or the machine.

Vox wrote in post #18902279
Strange...

Does that mean billions of denizens in Doha, Da Nang, and every cities that usually have that kind of hot & wet summers (for now, some EU countries face this temperature too thanks to global warming) have to face this problem and change their cameras from Nikon to other brands to be able to make photos during summer?

In addition, most people living in these warm cities use air conditioners at their homes so the moisture also seems to be an unavoidable problem that leads them to change from Nikon to whatever other brands for the summer?

Seems, this is a growing problem for Nikon so they can make cameras only for regions like Canada and Sweden where the global warming did not push the temp too high yet. But the numbers of places where Nikon cameras can be (officially) used are waning..

Anyway, I just want to identify what went wrong.. the battery or the machine.

I don't know what this may mean real world since we are referring to a specification and we don't know the conditions on that specification. Wheel bearings on a car for instance are specified under certain load and speed to last "X" number of hours. That means that statistically 90% of the bearings will work properly for "X" hours and 10% will fail. We don't know what Canon and/or Nikon use as a temperature rating. On another note we do know "rated" shutter life but we don't know if 90% are expected to meet that life or perhaps 75%. If Canon uses 90% and Nikon 75% one could speculate that this lowers the Nikon cost and raises the reliability of the Canon.

Canon for instance rates the 80D for use with a "Max Operating Temperature 113°F (45° C)". Whether that refers to the camera, the battery, or both is open to speculation. But note that it does exceed the Nikon spec of 38° C (100 °F). We also don't know what battery was used; Nikon, STK, Wasabi, or other 3rd party. Since batteries by design get warm while charging, my suspicion is that these temperature specs refer to the camera body, not the battery.

Also, it should be noted that Doha is about 10° F warmer than Da Nang for the month of July.

Vox wrote in post #18902279
Strange...

Does that mean billions of denizens in Doha, Da Nang, and every cities that usually have that kind of hot & wet summers (for now, some EU countries face this temperature too thanks to global warming) have to face this problem and change their cameras from Nikon to other brands to be able to make photos during summer?

It's not strange and no, billions of people don't face this problem. Your camera or battery malfunctioned. It happens. That doesn't mean that all cameras will or even that all Nikon cameras will. The reality of mass production is that not all products are identical and some last longer/work better than others and some outliers are downright faulty.

You will need to test them. That means getting hold of another battery to use in that camera and/or another camera to test with the battery.

Having said that it is almost certainly the battery. Even in constant use with wifi etc enabled a DSLR battery will last for several hours. While camera faults have been known to drain batteries it still takes time. Your battery on the other hand is showing the classic signs of a battery that is failing to hold a charge. Could be that it is just faulty or it may be counterfeit (and faulty).

The performance of 1 camera with 1 battery does not allow a conclusion to be made about a brands range of cameras.

You mentioned the battery went from full to zero in 15 minutes. If a non faulty battery did that, there had to be some heat.
Energy (that's what a battery is, stored energy) will be converted to heat. Normally over the period of many hours, the energy in the battery slightly warms the camera.
So for the energy to be converted to heat in 15 minutes, rather than many hours, the camera would have to be very hot.
Even if it took 1 hour, the camera would be noticeably hot.
Work a laptop hard while it's sitting on your lap to simulate this.
If your laptop's batteries were good and depleted in 15 minutes, you would burn your legs.

The obvious conclusion is that the battery did not go from full to zero in 15 minutes.
By far the most likely scenario is that the battery is faulty.

Thank you for the replies!

I know one camera cannot be used as a representation for a brand's mass production but I went farther in thinking based on the statement Nikon made "We make cameras that guaranteed to be working 0 to 40 deg C" as it's still shocking me. 40 deg C is a pretty common summer temperature for many countries on the world for now and the numbers are growing...

On the other hand I believe my battery (or camera) malfunctioned not (or not only) because the high temperature but the incredibly high humidity of Doha.

Here in the southeast US the heat problem we have is leaving cameras in parked cars. This is even a problem leaving it in trunks. Leaving it exposed to the sun can be just as bad. Just stating that because in many cases that problem may be the cause of problems like yours.

If this is a possibility, your camera probably shut down by design.

Vox wrote in post #18903423
Thank you for the replies!

I know one camera cannot be used as a representation for a brand's mass production but I went farther in thinking based on the statement Nikon made "We make cameras that guaranteed to be working 0 to 40 deg C" as it's still shocking me. 40 deg C is a pretty common summer temperature for many countries on the world for now and the numbers are growing...

On the other hand I believe my battery (or camera) malfunctioned not (or not only) because the high temperature but the incredibly high humidity of Doha.

40°C is the same max temp rating for Canon cameras except the 1 series which are 45°C.
They also have a minimum 0°C but many users know cameras work fine in much colder temps.

As someone mentioned, exposure to the sun should be considered. temperatures are taken in the shade.
On a 38°C day, exposure to direct sun, particularly on the middle of the day, means a camera rated for 40°C would be fast beyond the claimed operating specs.

Choderboy wrote in post #18903599
They also have a minimum 0°C but many users know cameras work fine in much colder temps.

Right !! I can’t imagine how we would shoot our Snowy Owls at 0°C. I have been out shooting them at -25°C and I am sure others have been at even more extreme temps.

I know about cold, middle of Winter here and it's predicted to get to as low as 8°C tonight. Brrrrr
Cold in the day tomorrow too, 19°C.

Choderboy wrote in post #18904299
I know about cold, middle of Winter here and it's predicted to get to as low as 8°C tonight. Brrrrr
Cold in the day tomorrow too, 19°C.

I grew up in a part of the Southern Hemisphere where they had those temps, so I know about them.

Choderboy wrote in post #18904299
I know about cold, middle of Winter here and it's predicted to get to as low as 8°C tonight. Brrrrr
Cold in the day tomorrow too, 19°C.

I speak to several Aussies online and one of them had snow last night. OK they are in New South Wales, not the Northern Territories, but it shocked me to find out just how cold it actually get in the land down under.

Alan