Striking Cold Lights in Sub Zero

[Roberto Lequeux]

Is there any known issues of cold bugs regarding Tungsten and HMI lights when they have been allowed to cool down all the way (say a couple of hours) in sub zero temperatures?

 

[David Mullen ASC]

I have had problems with Kinoflos taking forever to get up to full intensity in freezing weather, the gases in the tube are just too cold. Otherwise, I used tungsten and HMI in Russia in the middle of winter at night while filming on an ice lake... that was pretty darn cold and the lights worked fine, except for the Kinos. And those worked, they just took 15 minutes to get up to speed.

Your main problem in that temp will be battery-life.

 

[Roberto Lequeux]

Yes, I am concerned with battery life, condensation on the optics and solarization on the EVF or LCD. Aside from cold bugging the camera to chit and not being able to boot up to begin with. I think we are going to have an electric blanket for that.

Good to know. It makes a lot of sense about the Kinos which I actually never had mentioned to me before. Thanks for sharing that David.

 

[Dave Cox]

Watch your back focus as well, especially if you're shifting from cold to warm environments. The lens mount will change in size and cause.. issues for the focus puller.

We had a focus chart on standby the last time I was on a winter shoot for this reason.

Dave Cox
edit: still waiting on namechange, apparently.