Cooling a DSLR

[Jason A B]

I was wondering if anyone has made their own cooling box for a dslr ?

I would like to make one for the summer months and have been messing around with a few parts, i can easily get the experimental box down to -5c in about 10 min.

My question is, is -5c too cold for a modded full spectrum canon dslr as the safe operating temp is between 0 and 40c.

Could i end up damaging the lcd screen and would i really get that much of a difference in noise at this temp ?

[Thalestris24]

Hi

I haven't attempted it though it can be done. You probably have to think about how to deal with the condensation caused by the cooling. Have look/search through the DIY section: http://stargazerslounge.com/forum/18-diy-astronomer/

Louise

[laser_jock99]

Has anyone tried pumping chilled, dry air through a camera body to cool it?

I was thinking of relatively simple rig using an aquarium air pump, bucket of ice cubes & salt (-17 deg C) with copper coil heat exchanger to chill the air going into the camera body with maybe some kind of drying (in-line silica gel canister?)

[Thalestris24]

Has anyone tried pumping chilled, dry air through a camera body to cool it?

I was thinking of relatively simple rig using an aquarium air pump, bucket of ice cubes & salt (-17 deg C) with copper coil heat exchanger to chill the air going into the camera body with maybe some kind of drying (in-line silica gel canister?)

Hiya

Um, that sounds a bit 'steampunk'...  Not sure if you'd necessarily get a cooling flow of air over the sensor. I reckon a cold finger is probably the most elegant solution.

Louise

[LukeSkywatcher]

I'm sure ive heard of people putting them in resealable freezer bags and into the fridge. Either that or i'm thinking of CCD camera. Please dont follow what i say as truth. I cant afford to buy you a new DSLR. 

[JamesF]

I believe GIna has been some way down this path, and at least a couple of other SGL posters too.

James

[Mick J]

You may have seen the Gary Honis guide, we did make something like this - peltier/heat sink/fans/ali box/camera - our mark 1 was ebay bits, the mark 2 was all from a camping type cooler, everything was in the lid, 12 volts and worked better, almost went for a mark 3 - but ended up with an Atik.  Mostly the weight hanging off the end of your scope can be something to think about.  Cold finger can be lighter.  A drop in temperature in the summer months can be helpful.

A couple of threads on ice in space at the moment, Box & Finger

Are you using Peltier or another method for cooling ?   "My question is, is -5c too cold for a modded full spectrum canon dslr as the safe operating temp is between 0 and 40c"   sorry cannot answer your question.

[Jason A B]

Yea i was going down the peltier cooling method and thermostatically controlling it so it did not get too cold.

[wxsatuser]

Can't be bothered.

If I wanted it cooled I'd buy a cooled CCD.

[Mick J]

Can't be bothered.

If I wanted it cooled I'd buy a cooled CCD.

yea but, yea but, yea but............  that's what we did in the end, and it was a dramatic improvement,  but also we had the dslr and a secondhand cooler box was cheap and we like to play around a bit and our secondhand Atik is small, light, cooled and cost us more than they are new today.

[laser_jock99]

Can't be bothered.

If I wanted it cooled I'd buy a cooled CCD.

That would be the ideal solution for sure- but I was thinking of ideas to cook something up with materials I had to hand. Filling the entire camera body with chilled gas seemed like an easy route. I just wondered if anyone had yet tried it?

Putting the camera in cooled box might work- but how do you access the controls or see the screen without a PC?

I might try a few experimenent to see how cold an airflow you could get.

[nigelbeaumont]

Try DSLR Controller on Android - I use it to control my DSLR inside a coolbox instead of using a PC