Protecting gear in Antarctica

[Stubaan]

Hello fundis!

I am going to Antarctica in Jan/Feb and am wondering what sagely advice some of you may have for securing your gear against the harsh environment. While the deep deep south is likely to be more cold than wet, I am also spending two weeks hopping around the Falklands/Islas Malvinas, which will entail greater risk of rain. Of course, getting from ship to shore on inflatables, irrespective of latitude, is also going to entail some serious splash but I will have a dry bag for that. My chief interest is in how to use my gear safely, and any weatherproofing tricks of the trade.

While down there I am planning to shoot footage for a documentary that explores how and why these wild places make such an impact on our human minds, and to help people understand the logical consequences of global change to the southern polar ecosystems (I have a PhD in environmental engineering). To that end I currently have a brand new D70 with 18-135 IS STM, a great Manfroto tripod and the H4N Zoom for audio. I may well have additional lenses by the time I leave - I am essentially a broke PhD graduate who got lucky with this trip, so I may try and buy then resell a decent used L lense or two (unless someone is crazy enough to lend a stranger in the San Fran area one of their most prized possession... *crickets chirping*... anyone?... worth a shot 😉 - but for now my focus is on figuring out how to be weather savvy in such a weather beaten part of the world. 

Many thanks! ANY advice welcome, of course 🙂

[cicopo]

see

http://forums.usa.canon.com/t5/EOS/How-do-I-prepare-my-7D-for-extreme-cold-temperatures-South-Pole/m...

And

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1257564

[TCampbell]

I assume you meant 70D (Nikon puts the "D" in front of the number... Canon puts the "D" after the number.  Although once upon a time, Canon did have models with a D preceding the model number.)

The 70D has some moderate weather sealing.  But your lens does NOT.  The weather seals protect it against rain (or splashes), dust and sand.  But do not protect it against being submerged.  

Since your lens does not have any weather sealing, you could either buy or rent a lens that does have weather seals (most -- but not all -- of Canon's L series lenses are weather sealed.  

You may want to order the Canon EW-73B lens hood for that lens, a clear or UV filter (67mm filter threads) and a rain-jacket to protect the lens.  The rain jacket usually has elastic to fit snugly around the lens hood (fortunately the 18-135mm  STM lens has internal focusing so it does not rotate as the camera focuses... but it does NOT have "internal zoom" which means the lens will extend when you zoom.     Hence the elastic of the rain jacket needs to be on the hood and not the lens body.

If the equipment is out in the cold for a while, and then suddenly brought into a warm room condesnation will want to form on (and in) it.  To protect against this, it needs to be sealed while it warms up.  There are a lot of camera bags which are highly water resistant and have weather-sealed zippers.  It'd be a good idea to put it in the bag, seal it, bring the camera in and do not open it until it's been indoors long enough to slowly warm up to room temperature.  If you want it to warm up faster, get a large zip-lock bag -- that way it's sealed, but has practically no insulation from temperature change.  Just remember to remove your memory cards before sealing it in the bag so that you can unload your images on to your computer.  Memory cards have practically no thermal mass so condesnation is unlikely to be a problem (or stick it in an inside pocket for a few minutes to let your body warm up the cards.)

A dry bag (you already mentioned) is a good idea.  Pelican makes a number of water-tight hard cases (but those are bulky) -- but they are waterproof (truely waterproof... not just water risistant.)

[Stubaan]

Thank you very much!! Both answers have been extremely enlightening.

TCampbell - yes, 70D of course. A little dyslexccident there 😉
cicopo - still working through some of the meat from those links but both a great stuff.

Does anyone have a preferred glove for photography in these conditions? In addition to being warm I need something waterproof for the zodiac trips, and preferably dextrous enough to allow me to handle the camera with gloves on.