1166 - Cold II

2009-12-24

It’s a lie. It was not cold yesterday, but it was cold three days ago, and that’s what I want to talk about.

Today there was a discussion on Photo.net (in this thread) about problems with a Nikon D80 camera sometimes not recognizing a mounted Tamron 17-50/2.8 VC. The original poster mentioned having had the problem in cold weather, and that immediately reminded me of my own experience during the last few cold days.

What happens is, that the Nikon D300 suddenly displays an aperture of 1.2, just like with unrecognized, unchipped lenses. I suppose that it really is the cold that makes the metal on lens and mount shrink slightly. This could possibly lead to bad contact. Or is it just the cold affecting the lens’ internal electronics? I don’t know. What I do know is, that I have already seen this with a Tokina 16-50/2.8, with my Sigma 10-20 and also with my Nikon 18-200 VR. I can only remember the circumstances with the Sigma: it was on a mountain in winter, and it was extremely cold.

I can’t look into this issue at the moment. Out temperatures have risen considerably during the last two days. Does anybody of you have similar experiences?

The Song of the Day is “Cold” from the 2009 Maxwell album “BLACKsummers’night”. I have added the numeral II to the title, because we had it once in “859 – Cold”, although with a completely different song then. YouTube has a video.

There are 5 comments

Esther Emma   (2009-12-24)

have all the streets in vienna such beautiful streetlights and even more beautiful frontages? it seems to be the same street as yesterday [1165-feeling blue] what a privilege to live in such a beautiful city most of the days. in particularly i love the shadow of the woman (?) walking down the stairway and that in combination with the warm colored light reflected on the even more beautiful frontages of one of vienna's streets. good days for you and all who are dear to you, andreas 🙂

💬 Reply 💬

andreas   (2009-12-24)

Emma, no, it's a completely different place, but yes, Vienna can be quite beautiful. At least for those who are welcome to our borderline-fascist, populist caste of so-called politicians. On the other hand, that's not only our problem 😉 Thanks, all the best to you as well!

💬 Reply 💬

Paul   (2009-12-24)

I had a similar problem with my D300 and Tamron 18-270 when I first got it. It had nothing to do with the cold, in fact, it was quite warm. However, intermittently, the camera wouldn't recognize the lens. I'd have to torque it a little bit to make sure that it was in place. Eventually, I cleaned the contacts on the lens and the camera. That seemed to make the problems go away. I've kept my camera in the car when it has been 25 degrees F outside (-4 C) and then picked it up and used it outside for an hour or two with no problems, though.

💬 Reply 💬

andreas   (2009-12-24)

Thanks Paul. I'll try it. The problem is of course, that it does not happen now. And as regards cold, I can only say that very low temperatures tend to be a problem and cause all sorts of weird behavior, but the incident on the mountain was at around -15 C, and then the whole electronics freaked out, lens and camera 🙂

💬 Reply 💬

Flo   (2009-12-24)

Andreas, my D300 has been in a warm house for days. But the Tamron 90mm macro lens will not work with its autofocus! So I've had to switch to manual focus to get any results.

💬 Reply 💬