COOLED DSLR

[Horwig]

I was bored today, and tried this little experiment with my eos 30d, a 10 minute dark frame at room temperature, iso1000, measured at 23 degrees on a thermocouple on the body, and another dark frame, this time in the freezer... (Thermocouple indicated 0 degrees C) here's a split screen of a centre cutout, 100% size... now if that's not a reason to cool, I don't know what is


Huw

[Nomis Elfactem]

Ha - nice test Huw, well shown.

S.

[beekeg]

It certainly makes a difference.  I think there is a thread in the projects section where one of our members added pelteir cooling to a Canon DSLR.

[Horwig]

Thanks Greg, found it. Trouble is, I'm a bit squeemish about going the whole hog and cutting up a camera, but building a cool-box might work

Huw

[beekeg]

Agreed,  condensation is always a worry inside cameras.  Better to apply moderate cooling outside to simulate winter temperatures 0-5 degs.  There's still a lot tho think about as you need to be able to operate/connect to the camera in the dark.  Worth experimenting with based on your freezer results

[swashy]

Thats quite a massive difference, I was looking at a 12v cooled 'cool-box' in Lidl the other week and it crossed my mind about how you could pipe it up to a polystyrene camera container, looks like it may be worth the effort judging by those results

Access to the camera wouldnt be too much of a problem, with a external power supply for the cam and control/focus via APT, you wont need to touch it

[Horwig]

This experiment has got me started, my brother has a 7D, I wonder if I could persuade him to do the same experiment on his? Let you know if it happens

[Horwig]

For some reason, my brother could not be persuaded to put his new eos 7D in the freezer!!! But he did take a 10 minute dark, as per mine on my 30D at 23 degrees C.

Here's a split, center cutout, again at 100% pixel size, you guess which is which.
Yet more food for thought.


Huw

[MickyWay]

If you're serious about DSLR cooling, and want more information,
then have a look at the Yahoo! Group http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/DSLRmodifications/
I think you'll find all the info you want.
Some of the mods are really extreme (using CO2 cylinders!)
I have not been tempted to have a go myself, yet.