Cold (very) weather photography
 

I suddenly find that I am off to Mongolia for three days. Projected conditions are minus 22 during the day falling to minus 32 overnight. I guess those of you in Europe are getting used to those conditions. :) I’ve never encountered anything like them; we consider ten degrees to be freezing.

My first question, should I even consider taking an expensive camera with me, or should I just take a point and shoot?

What sort of things should I be concerned about? I know that battery life will be short and to keep camera and lenses in sealed plastic bags until they adjust to temperature changes, but what else should I be worrying about?

Keep your batteries warm. Keep spares in pockets close to your body, inside your layers of clothing. Rechargeable batteries really don't like cold and even a freshly charged set will die very quickly in the cold. You'll need more spares than you would otherwise. This applies regardless of point and shoot or "expensive camera".

I keep the batteries warm as Duncan suggests, but let the camera stay cool/cold in the camera bag. The main worry is condensation forming inside the body and then freezing. I have had this happen to an old praktica body and destroy the shutter curtain.
The best way to avoid the moisture problems is to avoid rapid temperature change. So, when moving from hot to cold or visa versa, let the kit acclimatise slowly before getting it out.
Mind you Mongolia is cold and dry rather than cold and wet, so it may be less of a problem than in the North of England!

If your camera takes AAs, try Energizer Ultimate Lithium. They are rated by the manufacturer as being pretty much perfect down to -20 celsius.

You can buy sachets of silica gel off ebay for very little, keep three or four in the bag with the camera to absorb any moisture.

Thanks everyone for the advice.

I'm off tomorrow, I've decided to take my video with still capability - if anything happens to it a good excuse to buy a new one.

I'm not sure how much time, if any, I'll have for photography, but I'll try and post a few when I get back - next Thursday.

Again my thanks for the advice. I have just posted four photos of Ulaanbaatar, nothing very exciting except that they were all taken at temperatures below -30.

I didn't have any problem with condensation, the humidity was around 52% and I kept the camera inside my jacket until I was ready to use it. The biggest problem was that I had around 10 seconds from when I took off my gloves until I pushed the shutter, any longer and my fingers were no longer working. I think an inner pair of silk gloves would have helped.

I hope to get back in the summer for some contrast and also to get out into the Gobi.