Effect of heat on equipment

[irfan.in.tx]

Greetings.

With temperatures getting high, I was wondering how leaving your equipment in the trunk of the car for an hour or two would affect a digital camera and lenses.

Regards.

[tc95]

Irfan...I try not to leave my equipment in the trunk unless the car is shaded...or in a garage...it's electronics...if you do leave it in the trunk...don't move it from the bag until it has had time to acclimate to the new temperature....the bodies should be ok...the issue is the electronics...same with the lenses...unless they are using plastic elements...electronics expand as they get hot and contract as they get cool...this over and over again can cause cracks and other issues...

That said...I have left my gear in the dead of summer...by accident...thought I brought everything in...and so far it's still working...

Just my experiences...

[kenw]

If your trunk has no glass (traditional sedan, coupe, etc), the temp inside isn't that much more than outside. If your 'trunk' has glass (SUV, Station wagon, Pickup), the UV/IR can get well over 150 degrees and higher.

[PatrickONeill]

also, be aware of humidity. I left my camera and two lenses in my camera bag overnight after a day of shooting in hot, wet weather. Now the lenses both have fungus hazing on the inside.

Now I have ziplocks and tons of silica gel packets wherever I go. and I never leave my equipment in a camera bag.

[KD5NRH]

Originally Posted by kenw

If your trunk has no glass (traditional sedan, coupe, etc), the temp inside isn't that much more than outside. If your 'trunk' has glass (SUV, Station wagon, Pickup), the UV/IR can get well over 150 degrees and higher.

Especially when the sun is shining on that nice black camera bag. IMO, we Texans need to band together and demand that any cases for heat sensitive equipment also need to be offered in plain white or reflective options. (That silver they make popup reflectors and windshield shades out of should be great for a camera bag.)

[SCone]

Solar-powered panel built into the roof to provide cooling a parked car. Any designers out there?

[KD5NRH]

Originally Posted by SCone

Solar-powered panel built into the roof to provide cooling a parked car. Any designers out there?

I fiddled around with a couple of Peltier junction thermocouples for a while when I was working outdoors at a wind farm. I was looking at trying to wind or solar power them, but never went very far with that. Cooling a large area would take quite a bit, though a huge improvement could be had if the car had some sort of built-in insulated and/or reflective sunshades. Think along the lines of the sunroof blackout shade, but on all the windows.

[kenw]

Originally Posted by SCone

Solar-powered panel built into the roof to provide cooling a parked car. Any designers out there?

I actually built one back in the 80s that used 2 solar panels and a small fan. After measuring the difference during a nice warm Waco summer, I found dropping 2 windows made as much or more of a difference in the interior air temp even with no significant breeze. Just a 1/8" gap in 2 windows (1 ea side) will flow more air than almost any fan that can be powered by a solar panel.

My dreams of financial windfall dashed....

If you have one, simply popping up the sunroof will make a huge difference, that will set up a chimney effect for air flow; BUT adjust the interior sunroof visor to block all but a finger's width of opening. If you want to create your own George Foreman grill, close the glass sunroof and leave that visor open all day......sizzle!

Park FACING the sun and use a reflective windshield screen. If possible, place the reflective shield OUTSIDE on the windshield. It will look silly and winds and thieves may find it attractive but the UV/IR benefits are significant over having it inside the windshield.

[Gambit]

Originally Posted by kenw

I actually built one back in the 80s that used 2 solar panels and a small fan. ...My dreams of financial windfall dashed

You can easily find these solar powered car fans out there;

I see them occasionally

I see them occasionally

. You say that they're only about as effective as a small window opening on each side; what about both?

Originally Posted by kenw

If you have one, simply popping up the sunroof will make a huge difference, that will set up a chimney effect for air flow;

Yes, a small opening on top plus a small gap for the side windows is quite helpful.

Originally Posted by kenw

Park FACING the sun and use a reflective windshield screen. If possible, place the reflective shield OUTSIDE on the windshield.

Hmm, hadn't thought of that one. Might have to give it a try.

[kenw]

Originally Posted by Gambit

You say that they're only about as effective as a small window opening on each side; what about both?

my crude experiment showed that the temperature improvement was non-existent since window had to be down a bit for the solar powered fan to work anyway (and it was a pretty wimpy fan). If you had a way to duct the fan properly without opening any windows at all, then it would be helpful by itself. But since I HAD to open the window a bit to exhaust the fan, the fan didn't appear add any more temp reduction.

[Tsladaritz]

This may not be worth it, but I have kept my camera bag in a small ice chest. I originally did it when I had kids bouncing around with sport equipment, etc. in the back of my suburban. Now I dont' drive that car anymore or have kids in the back, but I still use my cooler for camo. ;-) It does seem to help keep the camera better than letting it roast in the floor.

[irfan.in.tx]

Thanks for your insights and experiences. Looks like in prime summer heat, even an hour or so would be risky.

[jfoureyes]

I've left my camera bag with lenses and cameras in the trunk of my car without any damage to them in the Houston summer's for many years... but I always kept my slide film in a cooler back in the old days. On other photo forums this has been ask and folks in the south where temps are high in the summer always said they put their gear in the trunk of their cars if they were out on location shooting.

[Coelus]

I usually crack a window or two on the suburban or any other vehicle I've had. I always keep some type of camera in the car and haven't had any issues. My biggest problems come from having lenses in an air conditioned environment then taking then into heat and humidity. The fogging problems are usually the greater evil IMO.

[metalshredder]

Remember also that the time of day has bearing on how much time you might have....

An hour in the car while at walmart at high noon, probably a bad idea. 10 min while you run in real quick, same time of day? not such a big deal.

One must keep in mind, even if you're USING your camera outdoors in the summertime, the ambient temperature can easily be 100 deg, and that's......apparently ok, i mean, you can't NOT use your camera because it's hot outside, but yeah inside the car can get easly 140 deg. I've shot those little thermo lasers onto vehicles' dashes. black cars get even hotter (but we knew that already).

Oh, the wrench in the spokes here for cracking the windows are......depending on how sketchy the part of town......one may think twice about cracking the windows for security reasons.