desert shooting - how hot can it get and still work?

I spent a month filming in Death Valley about 3 years ago. The standard rule for gear is if you are doing OK, then the gear is too. If you're overheated so is the gear. Don't do anything to your gear that you wouldn't do to your own body. Here's what we did.

All electronic gear, tape stock, film, and food was stored in coolers. We needed a bunch of them so most were the cheapie Styrofoam ones. Anything that might possibly be damaged by heat was stored in a cooler. Each cooler had at least one of those plastic blue ice packs in it to help combat the 120° heat. We made a deal with the hotel we were staying in to refreeze them every night.

We brought several large white golf umbrellas for the crew and C stands to hold them up. I also had a smaller white umbrella that attached to the tripod to shade the camera. The goal was to keep everything we could under some kind of shade.

We made a special cover for our cameras using insulated fabric. These were loose fitting and had pockets sewn into the sides so we could put chemical cold packs inside them to keep the gear cooled down. We purchased the chemical cold packs at a medical supply house. They worked great. You just twist and wiggle the bag and you have 2 to 3 hours of portable cold.

Everyone on the crew attended a desert survival class to learn how to watch out for heat stroke and other bad things that can happen. The rangers at the Park set this up for us. It only lasted 4 hours and was great. If you are going to be out in the desert for any length of time I'd at least read up on the dangers of the desert. Take at least twice as much water as you think you need and drink it. It's easier to pee than find water at 4 in the afternoon when you're 60 miles from the nearest drink. Beer and Soda Pop will only hydrate you about ¼ as much as drinking water so don't rely on a cool one to cool you off.

I use a different camera (JVC DV500) and I shot last week in Arizona and New Mexico in 110-115 degrees without much difficulty. I agree with blocking the sun as much as possible. Hot air temperature isn't nearly as destructive as direct sunlight.

...just dealt with a case of serious heatstroke before my shooting trip and I completely agree with the water remarks as well.

As an aside, I would take several new, high-quality paint brushes for dust brushing throughout the day, and before repacking the gear.


-Tim Kolb