Will high altitude affect a digital camera or lenses on Kilimanjaro?
Asked 7/1/2011
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2 answers
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I’m climbing Kilimanjaro (5,895 m / 19,341 ft) and plan to bring an Olympus E-30 with a couple of lenses. I’ve been advised to check the altitude limits for digital equipment. Are there any camera or lens problems to expect at that height, and are there any precautions I should take?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
15y ago
2 Answers
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Nothing will be wrong with your digital camera.
However, do not use a Microdrive or any device which includes ones. Those have a 10,000 ft maximum altitude. Microdrives as Compact Flash are rare these days but they are commonly (but not always) used in video cameras, iPods and media-players.
Once on a press trip with 11 other photographers we reached an altitude of 12,000 feet and every single iPod in the group failed. A number of people were expecting to use those devices to off-load their data. I was surprised to find out I was the only one who know about the altitude problem.
NOTE: It is actually not the altitude that matters but the air-pressure that is necessary to lift the HDD head off the platter. Still, manufacturers quote altitude. Where it matters is on a plane. Commercial aircraft are pressurized around 85kpa (as measured by me) which corresponds to a much lower altitude (roughly around 6000 ft) than their corresponding cruising altitude, so you can use a Microdrive on most such aircrafts.
Originally by user1620. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1620
15y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
At Kilimanjaro’s altitude, your camera and lenses should generally work fine. Standard digital camera bodies and lenses are commonly used well above 10,000–14,000 ft without issues, and altitude alone is usually not a problem.
The main exception is any storage device with a tiny hard drive, such as old Microdrives or similar HDD-based media. Those can fail at altitude because they rely on air pressure to operate properly. Normal solid-state memory cards are fine.
A more practical concern is cold: batteries lose capacity faster at low temperatures, so bring spares and keep them warm when possible.
At extreme altitudes, reduced air cooling can make heat dissipation harder, so avoid unnecessary flash use or prolonged high-load operation in very thin air. That’s mostly a concern far above Kilimanjaro’s height, but it’s good practice anyway.
In short: your Olympus and lenses should be fine; use solid-state storage, carry extra batteries, and be mindful of cold and heat.
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