Dear Wirecutter: Which Camera Should I Use on a Snowy Mountain?

Q: I’ve read your review about tough cameras. I’m interested in an Olympus TG-4, but one of your tests has created some doubts:

All of the cameras came back to life after being frozen at 3 degrees Fahrenheit (though they are rated to only 14 degrees Fahrenheit), but the Panasonic was the only one that was operable at that temperature. Very impressive, though lenses get so foggy at that point that the camera isn’t necessarily useful. At least we know the Panasonic will survive your next cross-country skiing expedition.

I need a camera that works on the peak of a mountain with snow and freezing wind, but I need to know if “freezeproof at 14 degrees” will assure that or not.

Olympus TG-4

For snowy mountaintops

Built to handle cold, pressure, moisture, and dust—but still capable of taking better photos than the competition.

Buying Options

Buy from Amazon

A: The TG-4 is probably going to be as good as you’re going to get in an affordable camera for a non-photographer. Anything more than that, and you’re headed into specialist gear that will cost a mint. From my understanding (which is admittedly a bit patchy on this), the vast majority of “tough” cameras are built to this same specification. But based on what I’ve heard from photographers and seen people say on message boards, you’re probably okay to use these cameras in substantially worse conditions—but with some caveats. The listed temperature is really what the camera was tested in, and it can probably push that boundary pretty substantially. You can find stories all over the Internet of people taking even non-weatherproofed cameras into pretty cold situations.

The fogging issue isn’t really a cold-temperature one—it’s a temperature-differential issue. Much like how your glasses (if you wear them) fog up going from outdoors in the cold to an indoor space that’s warm, a notable temperature shift can cause condensation on your camera lens. This can happen when you go from a hot outdoors day and then jump in a cold pool with your camera, or when you pull a camera out of a warm bag to shoot in the snow.

The other big issue is battery life. In cold weather, batteries perform remarkably worse. Like way, way, way worse. Bring a backup. Bring three. LCDs can also start to malfunction at low temps (below -20 degrees Celsius or thereabouts), but that’s pretty nastily cold, and chances are you won’t be handling that for extended periods.

So, in all honesty, the TG-4 will probably be okay. Just be careful how you use it, whenever possible bring it to temperature slowly, pack a bunch of spare batteries, and maybe include a big pile of silica bags in case you need to help dry things out.

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