Using 40D on mountains in winter?

I'm planing to go on mountains this winter little more then last years but mostly i'm planing to take my Canon 40D + lens with me so I'm interested to know what I must do to save them from low temperatures outside and from high humidity when entering into mountain houses. How to use, how to store them, some extra bags to keep them inside etc.

Thnx for answer

Good question! Planning to bring mine to sking this year too.

I will be awaiting for the answers

I give my parents my old Oly 5050 I think to use them for skiing whitout doing anything else and 2 years they use it whitout problem.

But 40D is my main atm so I don't wanna see him not working + it's more expensive then my old compact

I travel to Colorado and go hiking in the back country with my XTi + lenses quite often (I'm leaving for there in four days, actually ) and have gone during the dead of winter before. I don't generally do anything special -- if it's really cold or snowing, I try to protect my kit by keeping it my camera bag except when shooting. I carry a little dish towel with me to wipe it off if it gets snow on it or if fog/mist dampens it.

When I get back to my cabin or go in somewhere that's warm and humid, I just leave the camera in its bag for a while -- the foam padding is a natural insulator, and it will allow it to warm up slowly and hopefully prevent the worst of the fogging/condensation.

One thing I have noticed is that in real cold (below freezing) the capacity of the batteries is noticeably reduced. I keep my spares in a chest pocket of my fleece so they stay warm against my body, that seems to help them hang on to a charge if I intend to be out shooting for a while.

Buy a camera clear bag and shoot with it on.

Also use Sandisk Ultra 3 and 4 cards which are rated for -10 degrees.

Bringing the stuff out into the cold is no problem. Bringing your gear back in is more difficult. Keeping condensation out of your camera gear is all important. Put your gear in a sealed environment such as a ziploc bag and throw a silica gel packet or two in there. Then, let your stuff warm up as gradually as possible. If you have a garage or porch area that is not as warm as the house, let it sit there for a good while first before bringing it into the house. If your silica gel packets are saturated, replace them asap. A great place to get them is in a shoe store. Every shoe box usually has a packet in them so the store usually has tons of them and will be happy to give you a handful of them for free.

nqjudo wrote in post #4169251
Bringing the stuff out into the cold is no problem. Bringing your gear back in is more difficult. Keeping condensation out of your camera gear is all important. Put your gear in a sealed environment suchs a ziploc bag and throw a silica gel packet or two in there. Then, let your stuff warm up as gradually as possible. If you have a garage or porch area that is not as warm as the house, let it sit there for a good while first before bringing it into the house. If your silica gel packets are saturated, replace them asap. A great place to get them is in a shoe store. Every shoe box usually has a packet in them so the store usually has tons of them and will be happy to give you a handful of them for free.

Yea I know that. Lucky my wife work in shoping center where are some shoe stores so she will get me some silica gels I hope. I hope to find some good ziploc bag for my equipment here in Croatia

I have other question. What you think is best beltpack solution to carry lens and cameras and other equipment in it? I Have 40D, 10-22 or 17-40 + one of telefoto lenses atm I have 70-200 but when it comes I will take 100-400mm lens. I only can use beltpack since I have 85liter bag on by back with other hiking items in it like sleeping bag and so

When you put the Camera into the ziploc bag make sure to squeeze out as much air as possible before closing the bag. When I shoot in extreme cold ( 20 below ) here in Wisconsin I warm the camera in stages. I will leave it in the garage for an hour or so before I bring it in the house. I'm not sure if this really helps but I have never had any problems with condensation.

nqjudo wrote in post #4169251
.... Keeping condensation out of your camera gear is all important. Put your gear in a sealed environment such as a ziploc bag and throw a silica gel packet or two in there. Then, let your stuff warm up as gradually as possible. If you have a garage or porch area that is not as warm as the house, let it sit there for a good while first before bringing it into the house. If your silica gel packets are saturated, replace them asap. A great place to get them is in a shoe store. Every shoe box usually has a packet in them so the store usually has tons of them and will be happy to give you a handful of them for free.

Silica gel packs are pretty useless as they have a limited capacity to absorb moisture. If you bake them dry the night before, it may be able to suck up the moisture originally in the bag but open a few times and they will saturate. Also, they absorb moisture very slowly, great for shipping but not dehumidification. Also gradually letting the camera warm up does nothing as well. The best advice is to keep the warm moist air away from the equipment in the first place. This is where plastic bags like Ziploc comes in real handy. Seal up the bags outside and don’t open them until the temp has come up. If you have been out for a long time, give it a little more time for the innards to warm up as well.
Another thing you can do is pickup these hand warmer packs. You can get them at your local sporting goods store or here in Chicago I have seen them at drug and grocery stores as well. They are pretty cheap and last for about 6~8 hours. Keep them in with the lenses in the Ziplocs and the lenses stay nice and toasty thus greatly reducing the time it takes to get the lens above the dew point temperature. I tried this last January while at the zoo. Going into the tropical house from the sub-freezing outdoors and the lenses were ready to use and condensation free within only minutes instead of the normal ½ hour I usually had to wait.

gjl711 wrote in post #4175743
Silica gel packs are pretty useless as they have a limited capacity to absorb moisture. If you bake them dry the night before, it may be able to suck up the moisture originally in the bag but open a few times and they will saturate. Also, they absorb moisture very slowly, great for shipping but not dehumidification. Also gradually letting the camera warm up does nothing as well. The best advice is to keep the warm moist air away from the equipment in the first place. This is where plastic bags like Ziploc comes in real handy. Seal up the bags outside and don’t open them until the temp has come up. If you have been out for a long time, give it a little more time for the innards to warm up as well.
Another thing you can do is pickup these hand warmer packs. You can get them at your local sporting goods store or here in Chicago I have seen them at drug and grocery stores as well. They are pretty cheap and last for about 6~8 hours. Keep them in with the lenses in the Ziplocs and the lenses stay nice and toasty thus greatly reducing the time it takes to get the lens above the dew point temperature. I tried this last January while at the zoo. Going into the tropical house from the sub-freezing outdoors and the lenses were ready to use and condensation free within only minutes instead of the normal ½ hour I usually had to wait.

Silica gel packets are fine. If your gear is in a bag where most of the air has been squeezed out, the potential amount of condensation is more than enough for a silica gel packet or two to handle. As for silica gel packets only being good for dehumidification, that's where letting your gear warm up gradually comes in. Obviously you want to minimize the chance of moisture building up in the bag and the silica gel packets are there as a safeguard. Used in this fashion, the system works perfectly.

As for gradually letting the gear warm up doing nothing, every six grade science book would disagree with you. Condensation forms when warm air touches a cold surface and the water molecules condense on the surface. The reason why your hand warmer technique works is because they keep your gear above the dew-point temperature relative to the place where you unpack your gear. I'm glad that it works for you but not every outing is a trip to the zoo and Chicago winters are tropical compared to some places. The number of hand warmers that you could potentially go through on a extended trip is bad enough not to mention the fact that one could easily run into a situation where the hand warmers are not capable of keeping their gear above the critical dew point temperature. If that happens, pray that you have some silica gel packets on hand. Lastly, silica gel packets are very compact and light compared to hand warmers. I don't know if you have ever done any mountaineering but every single ounce of gear counts, especially when you start getting above 5000 meters. I don't disagree that your method may work for you but it does not make every other method 'useless'. I've been using using silica gel packets for travel to my last 30 or so destinations and it has protected my gear perfectly. I'll keep the hand warmers for my hands.

nqjudo wrote in post #4176661
Lastly, silica gel packets are very compact and light compared to hand warmers. I don't know if you have ever done any mountaineering but every single ounce of gear counts, especially when you start getting above 5000 meters. I don't disagree that your method may work for you but it does not make every other method 'useless'. I've been using using silica gel packets for travel to my last 30 or so destinations and it has protected my gear perfectly. I'll keep the hand warmers for my hands.

I decide to buy Lowepro Orion AW belt/backpack since it's large and I can take 3-4 lenses what I plan to use (my 100-400 will come in 2 weeks cca).. for drybag I will buy seattle sport lacier drybag (http://www.rei.com/pro​duct/684388) together with some silica gels in it.

Yea I go on mountains but not that higher I come up to 3000 meter but in that time every KG counts so I know how is to have 20+kg in your backpack + camera in beltpack