OT: Zoom controls and COLD

richard-courtney wrote on 1/14/2009, 6:27 AM
I have a Zoe zoom control and was shooting outside in the cold and snow.
After about 15 minutes during the shoot the camera zooms in without my
approval causing a retake after unplugging the controller.

Is this normal? After we went inside it worked just fine as usual.

Normally I don't use a pan handle controller outside because there is no
snow/rain boot like the camera has. But since it was so cold I had full gloves
with finger tips on.

Comments

blink3times wrote on 1/14/2009, 7:14 AM
Well... no... it's not normal for a cam to start zooming in/out on its own. :)

On the other hand I live in manitoba where the temp can go down as far as -40F or so (that's air temp... not the wind chill) and I will say that electronic devices start do do all sorts of funny things at these temps. Fully charged batteries lose at least half their capacity. The crystal flow inside LCD panels becomes so slow they no longer work. Switches and knobs become brittle and break off in your hand. The tolerance inside some of these pc board mounted switches is quite small so when they contract in the cold, they start making contact when they shouldn't

Funny... when I turn on the stereo in the car in the morning.... there's no bass at all.... the subwoofers are too stiff!
TheHappyFriar wrote on 1/14/2009, 8:13 AM
man, that's cold. :D

re:#1

could be moisture shorted a control out.
blink3times wrote on 1/14/2009, 8:27 AM
Moisture is only a problem when you come in. You get condensation forming inside the cam. Outdoors in the cold the air is pretty dry. We burn up a lot of lip chap stick up here!
TheHappyFriar wrote on 1/14/2009, 9:37 AM
I mean moisture that was inside already froze.
richard-courtney wrote on 1/14/2009, 12:46 PM
So is this a lens issue (Canon) or the Zoe controller?
Contacts looked clean (gold plated). No reply back from controller manufacturer.
Lens is part of the rental but worked fine.

BTW: It attaches to the lens, not the camera, under the grip strap.

Blink3times: recommend brand gloves for THAT cold a shooting day?
Hate to get frostbite on my finger tips by cutting glove tips off!
farss wrote on 1/14/2009, 1:07 PM
I've done some low temp testing on electronic gear.
Once it gets cold enough as Blink has said you enter a new world of problems. You really need to keep everything above 0deg C. Most stuff is good to -20deg C however mechanical things with oil and grease are another matter. Raincovers are helpful, then there's hot packs etc. Even tapes become brittle at low temp.

Bob.
blink3times wrote on 1/14/2009, 1:15 PM
There's a really popular glove/mitt we use up here for this kind of thing.

It's a glove with the tips cut off (except for the thumb) but it has a mitt end sewn onto it at the knuckles. Velcro holds the mitt end against the back of the hand when you need to use the fingers.... and when they get cold you just swing the mitt end over the finger ends effectively creating a mitten. They're GREAT. i shoot through 3 or 4 pair of those every Winter
farss wrote on 1/14/2009, 2:05 PM
I live in a place where low temps are not a problem however just thinking this through couldn't you use the mitten like things. By that I mean a fur lines tube open at both ends. You could slide it over the pan handle and zoom controller and use a Velcro cable tie to hold it to the handle. Then you can operate the zoom controller without needing a thick glove and you'd be keeping both your hand and the controller warm.

Bob.
richard-courtney wrote on 1/14/2009, 5:54 PM
Let me know of a supplier of that glove/mitt if you would!

I asked Portabrace if they had something and their response was most
operators don't use a pan handle controller. They do have the crystal heat
packs for their POL-3 polar bear glove.

http://portabrace.com/productA-POL-3

One could get a used coat and cut the sleeve off and slide it over the pan
handle, is that what you were thinking about farss?

$400 for the glove for a rental camera??? The blue case, supplied by rental
company, is not designed to hold the heat packs.

farss wrote on 1/14/2009, 5:59 PM
"One could get a used coat and cut the sleeve off and slide it over the pan

Yes, that's do it and it'd be longer than the thing I was thinking of.

Bob.
TheHappyFriar wrote on 1/14/2009, 6:17 PM
Let me know of a supplier of that glove/mitt if you would!

Most farm supply stores have TONS of those kinds of things. it's between 0-15f all this week & I'm going outside in sweat pants under my jeans, t-shirt under sweat shirt, old button jacket, old hat any heavy leather+thinsulate gloves. :)

I've never had problems with my equipment above 10f (never took it out when it's colder), but don't use it much outside in the winter. It's darn cold now, I should use it for a while & see what happens. :D