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I'm going to be climbing Shasta this may and am looking to get a camera for some awesome pics...

The question I have is do i really need the "tough" cameras? For the price of the Olympus tough serious I can get a really nice canon point and shoot. However, the tough series is rated for temps down to 14 degrees.

is that necessary? Do other cameras work correctly at that altitude/Temp?

I climbed Shasta in May with a regular point and shoot digital (Panasonic Lumix). It worked just fine and has worked at temperatures considerably colder including Rainier in winter. I did have an old Minolta SLR that froze on Mt. Hunter years ago and stopped working. We thought it was about -20.

I used to shoot with a Canon Elan 7E SLR for film and have worked with pretty cold to really cold temperatures, including Peru and the Himalayas. I now shoot digital (since I am having a harder and harder time getting slide film developed) and shoot Canon. In temperatures below 0F (-18C) I've never had problems. The main problem is the battery which you have to watch. The other problem would probably be the LCD screen which I can minimize, with only data and not images going to it. With a point and shoot you don't have that option.

On the D-SLR since its so battery intensive, I also shoot with an extended battery pack.

Sad Story: I just climbed Kilimanjaro. We were on the summit by 5:30 a.m. and it was dark, very windy and probably well below zero. I had my old Cannon A series which has been all over the world and it decided at that moment to stop giving a flash...period. Not one single summit pic! Not that this has anything to do with camera selection but it is kinda sad I just bought a Nikon S9100 for a point and shoot. We'll see how that goes. By the way, the old wood signs at the top of Kili have been replaced with metal green ones. You'll have to believe me I don't have a pic.

I keep my small point and shoot (Lumix) in an interior jacket/parka pocket on really cold days and have not had a problem.

CClaude wrote:...The main problem is the battery which you have to watch...

Yep. If you're carrying a rechargeable digital camera, carry a spare battery and keep where it's warm so you can swap them out when needed (an inside coat pocket is perfect). I've had freshly recharged batteries fail after only a few dozen shots when shooting in temp's in the teens and twenties and not much better in the thirties. This is one of the weakenesses of rechargeable Li-ion batteries. If you choose a camera that uses standard batteries (AA, AAA, etc), then a set of Lithium batteries will work well below 0°F.

Mark Doiron wrote:This is one of the weakenesses of rechargeable Li-ion batteries. If you choose a camera that uses standard batteries (AA, AAA, etc), then a set of Lithium batteries will work well below 0°F.

Any clue why rechargable Li-ion batteries do so much poorer in cold weather than regular?