Extreme Temp's

[sharkman53]

According to Fuji the coldest temp's that their weather sealed lens and work in is 14 degree's F, I am assuming the same could be said for the XT-1.  I live in an environment that experiences a lot colder weather, plus I travel to areas that have minus degree weather.  Has anyone used their gear in extreme cold and hot areas without problems.  I am looking to purchase Fuji gear, I am a nature photographer so I am out in a lot of different types of weather.  I am currently shooting with FF Nikon gear, I have never experienced any failures in extreme hot or cold.

Thanks

[Aswald]

I don't think there's any worries at all for, Pro1, Pro 2, X-T1, X100 series.....

 

http://www.fuji-x-forum.com/topic/2803-x-pro2-does-antartica/

[aceflibble]

Basic answer to just get to the point:

 

It's a bit of a gamble, with Fuji. Some people have taken Fuji cameras to the frozen tops of mountain ranges and to the middle of the hottest deserts and their gear has worked perfectly; other people have taken their camera out in a very slight drizzle and had everything totally break beyond repair within 5 minutes.

 

If you're going to that extreme a place and you're photographing nature, I'd say don't go with Fuji. I like my Fuji cameras, but I still stick with Canon for nature & wildlife because mirrorless is still years behind in that department, and I'm not even talking about particularly harsh environments. Canon & Nikon are tougher, more reliable, and have features and lenses more suited to that kind of photography. The new Pentax K1 is also supposed to be really tough, though it doesn't have as good a lens selection as Nikon/Canon, and the image quality is no different.
 

Extended answer for people who really don't understand or want further reasoning:

Off the top of my head I can't remember the Fahrenheit figures, and I'm no good at converting, but in Celius, Fuji's X-T1 does -10˚C to 40˚C and humidty ranging from 10%-80%. I wouldn't push them much past that and expect them to work reliably. If you use them in more extreme conditions and they manage to work, good for you, you got lucky. It's not unheard of. But it's not reliable. Fuji products are weather resistant, not weather proof. I'm reluctant to use my Fujis when it's cold, and I never take them out in rain; the conditions you're talking about are well beyond what I would ever feel comfortable subjecting a Fuji camera to.

But the bigger issue than just wether or not they will technically work, and why I'd steer you away from Fuji for this kind of thing, is the performance. Indoors, in a studio, I get about 325-350 shots out of one Fuji battery, compared to so many out of a Canon or Nikon that I've never actually had a battery fully drain. Outdoors, in standard English weather, I get around 250 shots out of one Fuji battery, compared to 800-1000 out of a Canon/Nikon battery. On colder days I've had <200 shots from a Fuji battery, where a Canon/Nikon battery will still be good for 500 or so. Those Fuji batteries die fast. All mirrorless systems eat up battery life 3x-4x faster than SLRs do.

Additionally, focus also slows down, read/write times slow, and the screens can start to stutter at very high or low temperatures. The camera is still technically working, but it's nowhere near the performance it usually gives. In low temperatures you can stick it in High Performance mode and that will keep things ticking over more smoothly, but that eats up the battery even faster again. If you take it to a place with very high temperatures then High Performance mode will actually just burn out and damage the camera quicker.

 

On top of that, Fuji's system simply isn't all that great for nature & wildlife. Not only does it lack many useful lens focal lengths, but the actual image files and colour profiles are geared toward portraits, primarily, with landscape as a bit of an afterthought, and they've not spent a single second thinking about much else. The entire sensor design is made for rendering smoother skin tones—specifically, Asian skin tones—and so it's not really the best choice for high frequency detail. That's not to say that they outright can't do things other than portraits, just that skin is what their #1 concern is. It's why, out of all the colour profiles in the cameras, five are advertised as being good for various styles of portrait, one is advertised as being good for landscape, and the rest are left as generic 'anything' profiles. There's also still no raw convertor which can get the same high frequency detail out of Fuji files as you could expect from a Canon or Nikon file, and the camera's own in-body processing has mandatory noise reduction which can't be fully turned off, so you're going to get smeared detail no matter what. I love the Fuji cameras for some jobs, and they do okay for nature, but why accept "okay"?

 

There's no perfect trade upgrade here. If you want to ditch the Nikon gear and switch to Fuji—or any other mirrorless camera, really—you'll be saving some size and weight, but you'll be giving up a lot of reliability, speed, battery life, and, arguably, some image quality. For people shooting street, portrait, weddings, events, and travel, that's great. For people who want to take their gear into a sub-freezing tundra, it's just not a smart choice.

If you feel the Nikon gear you already have is reliable, stick with it. If you don't think it is and you're looking to upgrade to something tougher, Fuji isn't the answer. The toughest commercially available cameras on the planet right now are the Canon 1D X mkII and the Nikon D5. From there you only move downwards in durability and operating temperature. Mirrorless is still a good 2-3 hardware generations away from being able to compete with SLR performance in harsh conditions, and Fuji specifically is probably the last brand I'd choose for nature, even if the durability, battery life, etc, was not an issue.

Can they survive it? Maybe. It's not guaranteed. Are they a good choice even if they do survive? Probably not.

[eibr]

I have used the X-T10 this winter on the Spitsbergen Archipelago at 78 degrees North. Even if we did not reach extreme temperatures this winter I got to use it over long periods of time in temperatures -20 degrees C. along with the 50-140 and the 100-400 lenses. I expreienced no problems at all. Of course you get issues with battery capacity if you store them in low temperatures and you have to be aware of lens fogging, but that applies to all brands of cameras.

[Aswald]

I have used the X-T10 this winter on the Spitsbergen Archipelago at 78 degrees North. Even if we did not reach extreme temperatures this winter I got to use it over long periods of time in temperatures -20 degrees C. along with the 50-140 and the 100-400 lenses. I expreienced no problems at all. Of course you get issues with battery capacity if you store them in low temperatures and you have to be aware of lens fogging, but that applies to all brands of cameras.

 

Ay caramba! -20 deg C is pretty cold for me, thank you.

 

Like you mention, the most annoying for me is lens fogging.....

[eibr]

Specially one trip this winter the temperature peaked to -25°C one evening when I was just outside the cabin taking pictures of Svalbard Reindeers (Rangier tarandus platyrhynchus). When I was done I brought the camera into the cabin where the temperature was above +30°C. That is a sudden 60 degree rise in temperature. The camera was inside its waterproof bag when i went Inside, but it must still be considered rough treatment.

 

I love my little X-T10, It is everything I hoped it would be. 

 

Fujifilm X-T10, XF100-400 f/4,5-5,6 R LM OIS WR @ 400mm, 1/210 sec, f/5,6, ISO 320

[Aswald]

Specially one trip this winter the temperature peaked to -25°C one evening when I was just outside the cabin taking pictures of Svalbard Reindeers (Rangier tarandus platyrhynchus). When I was done I brought the camera into the cabin where the temperature was above +30°C. That is a sudden 60 degree rise in temperature. The camera was inside its waterproof bag when i went Inside, but it must still be considered rough treatment.

 

I love my little X-T10, It is everything I hoped it would be. 

 

Fujifilm X-T10, XF100-400 f/4,5-5,6 R LM OIS WR @ 400mm, 1/210 sec, f/5,6, ISO 320

Nice deer! Wow....I don't think I've ever seen one before. What a nice looking animal.

 

60 deg C would've been like a heat stroke to the X-T10!

[jlmphotos]

According to Fuji the coldest temp's that their weather sealed lens and work in is 14 degree's F, I am assuming the same could be said for the XT-1.  I live in an environment that experiences a lot colder weather, plus I travel to areas that have minus degree weather.  Has anyone used their gear in extreme cold and hot areas without problems.  I am looking to purchase Fuji gear, I am a nature photographer so I am out in a lot of different types of weather.  I am currently shooting with FF Nikon gear, I have never experienced any failures in extreme hot or cold.

Thanks

 

I think we worry too much about this crap.  From 1976-1980 I photographed Alaska, from pump station 6, just north of the Yukon river, all the way down to the terminus of the Alaska Pipeline in Valdez.  In all kinds of weather.  Summer, Rain, heat (yes, 100 degree heat) snow, sleet, ice you name it. I also photographed everything in between.  This was with film Minolta cameras.  My biggest worry:  batteries.  That's it.  Stop fussing over the gear.  Go read Dan Bailey's blog.  He lives in Anchorage and shoots out there.  He shoots Fuji.  Seriously, we need to get over this stuff and JUST GO SHOOT.  

[aceflibble]

Tell that to the dude on the FR front page the other week who got one photo with his X-T1 in regular city rain before the camera totally bricked  

Seriously, though. I've got gear made in the 50s which does still work, and it's not been treated well. I've also had super-tough cameras like a Canon 1D X break down after one unlucky bump or twenty minutes shooting in too-hot direct sun. You can't tell when these things are going to happen.

So I'll reiterate what I said before: if this is a hobby for you, you might be okay risking taking a Fuji to some extreme conditions. If this is your profession and you have to get that shot—no excuses and no chance to reshoot—then don't invite any more risk than you need to, and don't use Fuji.

[Yvesdrop]

I have used the X-T10 this winter on the Spitsbergen Archipelago at 78 degrees North. Even if we did not reach extreme temperatures this winter I got to use it over long periods of time in temperatures -20 degrees C. along with the 50-140 and the 100-400 lenses. I expreienced no problems at all. Of course you get issues with battery capacity if you store them in low temperatures and you have to be aware of lens fogging, but that applies to all brands of cameras.

[Yvesdrop]

Hi, Im also using XT10 and im worried if it will function well in a negative temperature in Finland / Iceland this winter.

 

Any tips you can share? Is your XT10 fully functioning in a -20 temp? Thank you.

[Aswald]

Hi, Im also using XT10 and im worried if it will function well in a negative temperature in Finland / Iceland this winter.

 

Any tips you can share? Is your XT10 fully functioning in a -20 temp? Thank you.

 

 

 

 

Keep spare batteries close to your body.