Care of my Panasonic HMC 150 in Cold Weather

[Melvin Partido]

Next month (September), I will be taking a seven days Alaskan cruise. I'm sure the weather will be very cold when doing the land tours.

I have two cameras. A small Canon GL2 mini Camcorder and my bigger Panasonic HMC 150 that I purchased earlier this year. I am still undecided what camcorder I will take along on this cruise vacation.

Whatever camcorder that I decide to take, I will purchase a Lowebro backpac for that camera. I'ved seen images of both Lowenbro backpack for the Canon GL2 and my Panasonic HMC 150. The Lowenbro for my Panasonic HMC150 looks a little bulky, but the lowenbro backpac for the Canon looks ideal and not bulky.

But I am leaning on selecting the Panasonic HMC150 because it takes better video pictures and it just right for a cruise vacation. The downside is the image of that Lowenpro bag is bulky.

With all that said, whatever camera I select, is there any preparation I have to take when taking the camcorder into cold freezing weather? Will I lost any power from my charged-up camcorder battery?

[Don Bloom]

Melvin,
While Alsaka will be colder than your home city don't overestimate the weather. My son and his wife did an Alaskan cruise in 2009 in June and by and large the temps were pretty nice. Yeah a sweatshirt or light jacket might have been needed and there were days of cooler weather especially as they got further north the temps never got to below freezing and in fact never got to less than about 40 to 45 degrees at night. I've had cameras out in far worse weather with no kind of protection for the cameras. For me, yes!
If you were going in December, January, Febuary, March then of course the weather would be of concern but I bet if you googled weather in the citiies you'll be going to you'd find it's pretty mild most of the time.
Have fun, I've done a lot of cruises in my time but have never done the Alaskan and really want to, One day!

O|O
\--/

[Nate Haustein]

Melvin,

I've actually owned both of those cams as well (good choices!), and here's what I would say:

- the picture quality of the Panasonic is considerably higher, as you probably know. Personally, I don't think I would be content coming back without the best footage I could get.

- though tempertures may not be quite as cold on your trip, I did have a few occasions in the past where the GL2 failed to record to the DV tape in cold weather. I live in Minnesota and this was frustrating at best. It would be horrible to miss that one great shot because of equipment malfunction. Tapeless is the way to go, and also, the HMC150 has a 3 second prerecord mode - use it.

Have a great trip!