It’s been such a hot summer. I’ve noticed that when I’m shooting in direct sunlight, my camera can get really hot. Recently, when I was recording some video for several minutes, my camera even cut me off at one point because it could no longer write to the SD card. (I assume this was because it had overheated, since it worked just fine again after cooling it off for several minutes.)
Ideally, I would just stand in the shade to keep my camera and myself cool, but sometimes it’s not possible. It seems like it’s too tricky to hold both an umbrella / parasol and a camera at the same time. I don’t see any existing products that would allow you to mount a camera to an umbrella. It looks like there are mounts that allow you to clamp an umbrella to a tripod, but I’m not sure if I want to haul that much gear around. It looks like there are lens shades that can be mounted to the cold / hot shoe, but the shade on most of these looks relatively small (not big enough to shade the entire camera).
Do any of you all have any tips or product recommendations to keep your camera cool in the sun?
Ive used my SLR camera in 100 degree heat in the desert and never had it shut down on me. Generally if it’s feeling way too hot for me it might be too hot for the camera and I retreat to a cooler spot. I’m careful with storing it in a vehicle in summer because of concern about possible damage.
I did overheat my smartphone on a car seat once but thankfully it recovered after it cooled down.
Sounds a bit out there, but I wonder if one of those battery-operated neck fans would help, assuming you could aim it at the camera? Hopefully, breeze generated would carry off some of the excess heat.
I tend to swing my camera around a lot as I’m walking with it in hand since I don’t like it hanging off my neck or shoulder the whole time (it weighs 5 pounds with the telephoto). Probably bad habit as one day I’ll drop it doing that. But maybe I’m unintentionally cooling it off in the process.
ugh… i would not want a weight like that around my neck or shoulders either. I can only manage an iPhone nowadays. It lacks in the photography quality, but wins in portability factor.
I’ve been noticing that mine gets really hot also–too hot to hold almost (it’s been over 100 since mid-May here in Texas). I can’t imagine doing field photography under an umbrella, though. But I had to Google, and got a laugh at this product–a hand’s free hiking umbrella!
My philosophy is…if it’s too hot to hold the camera, it’s too hot to be in the sun!
I suspect camo covers or any non-black rain covers would help, as you wish to prevent the dark camera body from absorbing heat from direct sunlight. I have used a bandana to shade the camera body in a pinch. But when my camera overheats and shuts off, I usually take it as a sign to get out of the sun.
You need to support larger cameras and I would choose bigger, my tele weights 4 kilos and it has little effect on neck because I have to hold it with hands nonstop, but smaller camera doesn’t need it and now I have problems with vertebrae because of it, while it’s pretty light.
I cover camera with hands, so it doesn’t get a lot of sunlight on it, but it’s not too hot here.
Yeah it’s getting close to 100 right now where I am and my camera and I are inside. Best for both of us. But at least it’s not 110 as in Nevada where I sometimes shoot, but I always get done and indoors before it gets anywhere close to that.
He talks quite a bit about humidity too. Where I am, that’s a big concern in high temps.
The best sounding tip from that piece was the simplest: cover the gear with a white towel when not in use. Also handy to have around for your own overheating, I imagine.
I try to religiously keep my camera inside a bag when I’m not shooting, usually for protection from rain, but also from direct sunlight. Even on cloudy days I can feel my zoom becoming warm on top, I don’t shoot with super high-end equipment that can tolerate a lot of abuse so I try to protect what I have as best as possible.
Heat is one great enemy of all electronics, excess heat during operation can really mess up a lot of sensitive electronics. I personally would advise against forcibly cooling any camera with ice, ect.
Since I live in southern New Mexico it’s a little surprising, now that I think of it, that I’ve never had issues with my DSLR overheating. It’s a frequent issue with my iPhone, but never the camera. It occurs to me that the camera is almost never in the sun. If I’m not using it, it’s in the bag. If I’m using it, it’s shaded by the brim of my hat. I also never set anything electronic on the ground, at least not at low elevations in the summer…
i think overheating was an issue in my case because:
it was >100F (>38C)
i was recording 4K video over many minutes from a fixed spot.
i was in direct afternoon sunlight, and the camera was angled in such a way that the black metal dials on top got a lot of the heat. (after i cooled down the camera, i changed the angle that i was shooting from to reduce the exposure to the sun. it was a less ideal shot, but better than no shot.)
i didn’t have a wide brim hat on that day. because it was so hot and sunny, i opted for full sun coverage for me in the form of a light windbreaker jacket with a hood, but then that meant that there was no wide brim protecting the camera.
so this might be an edge case, but i think it’s a common enough use case for me that i thought it might be worth looking for ways to keep the sun from melting my camera.
i like the idea of a light colored bandana for shade – simple, light. are you just loosely placing it over the camera or are you tying it up in a particular way to keep it secure?
would the umbrella cover you if you’re facing into the sun? (it seems like you would have to secure it on a should strap, which would angle it behind your back.) how does it do in the wind?
I use my smartphone for all my pictures, and it tends to overheat when taking lots of pictures in direct sun. But I realized that once I take the protective case off, the phone cools itself much more quickly. Simple, and definitely obvious in hindsight, but certainly something to keep in mind when shooting on a hot day with your phone.
I live a town near Death Valley, so I’m frequently out in 110-120F heat, and I’ve yet to have it overheat. I would imagine using something cold on it would cause incredible condensation, which is equally bad. I do tuck the camera under my arm as I’m walking, so it’s out of direct sunlight most of the time, and I have been known to carry an extra hat in my pocket to place over it if I sit down for a while. My biggest issue is sand!