Does the Temperature Outside Impact Battery Life for Endzone Camera Systems?

When you are shooting video of your team, you can’t not turn up simply because the weather is bad. That means that, even in freezing cold weather, you are going to be there with your video camera tower and endzone camera to record games and training sessions. Whether you have a Sport Scope sideline camera or a Hi Rise Camera endzone camera system, you will have probably heard that cold weather impacts on battery life. Is that true, or is it just a myth? Here’s how the outside temperature affects your endzone video camera batteries. And, some tips on what you can do about it.

What Happens When a Camera Battery Gets Cold?

Modern cameras are designed to operate within a range of “normal” temperatures. That range is generally considered to be between 0 – 35 Celsius. However, when a camera battery gets very cold, it does impact on the battery life. Low temperatures slow down the electrochemical processes within a battery. That reduces the rate at which electricity is produced. This has two implications for an endzone camera operator.

Cold Batteries Have a Lower Rate of Self-discharge

The good news is that, when you are not using your battery, it will hold its charge for longer in the cold. The lower levels of electrochemical reactivity in a cold battery reduce the rate of self-discharge. So, when you are storing batteries, they will retain their charge for longer if you keep them in a cold location.

Cold Batteries Have a Lower Capacity

The bad news is that cold batteries drain faster when they are being used. The reduced reactivity that low temperatures cause reduces the capacity of a battery. When a battery gets cold, the internal resistance increases. That means that electricity is wasted as power is delivered to the camera. The result of that is you will get less footage time out of a cold battery than you will out of a warm one.

How to Combat the Cold Weather Battery drain

The solution to the problem of camera batteries draining faster in cold weather is very low tech. Step one is to keep the batteries somewhere warm before you venture out into the cold with your endzone camera system. Step two is to take at least two batteries with you. Keep one battery in a warm pocket while you are using the other and swap the batteries over frequently. That will increase the life of both batteries. It’s also worth noting, if you find that you don’t have enough power to finish your filming, try warming the cold battery up again. That can often bring an apparently dead battery back to life. Check out our super-charged battery pack.

Conclusion

The available charge of an endzone camera battery is reduced by the cold weather. You also must be careful condensation when you take a camera from the cold back into the warm. So, the next time you take your Sport Scope or Hi rise Camera video camera tower and endzone camera system out in the snow, put your batteries in an inside pocket. Take one out when you need it and swap it for your spare warm battery whenever you get the opportunity to do so. That way the charge in your batteries will last much longer.