Error 99 and cold weather

[Roy C]

It has been very cold for the last couple of days and when I have been out with my 40D I have had the same thing happened - shoot for around 2 hours and 150 (ish) shots no problem at all and then I got a error 99 'please switch off/on or replace the battery'.
In neither case was the battery dead but yesterday I replaced with a fresh battery and the same thing happened within 5 shots.
Does any one know if very cold weather can effect a Camera in this way?

[gmax]

It has been very cold for the last couple of days and when I have been out with my 40D I have had the same thing happened - shoot for around 2 hours and 150 (ish) shots no problem at all and then I got a error 99 'please switch off/on or replace the battery'.
In neither case was the battery dead but yesterday I replaced with a fresh battery and the same thing happened within 5 shots.
Does any one know if very cold weather can effect a Camera in this way?

I was out in the marsh last Saturday for a few hours (-7°C, wind 90 km/h), roughly the same number of shots (no flash, I never review pictures on the screen) and the battery lasted half the usual time ... I blame it on the humidity, not actual low temperature (my record was -30°C, very very dry, and my 350D worked flawlessly). In these days I keep spare batteries close to my body - no, not there ;) ... I switch them from time to time and it seems it works quite well.

[Roy C]

I was out in the marsh last Saturday for a few hours (-7°C, wind 90 km/h), roughly the same number of shots (no flash, I never review pictures on the screen) and the battery lasted half the usual time ... I blame it on the humidity, not actual low temperature (my record was -30°C, very very dry, and my 350D worked flawlessly). In these days I keep spare batteries close to my body - no, not there ;) ... I switch them from time to time and it seems it works quite well.
Thanks for that Max, I am now pretty sure that the 40D has packed up.

[RoyS]

Roy - from my experience, all electronic equipment has a 'working' temperature range, outside which results are not guaranteed. The specifications for the 40D on the Canon website state for Operating Environment: 0-40deg C, humidity 85% or less. So, this could well be the cause of your problem - presumably, Canon can advise on how to recover.

best wishes - Roy S

[Duke Leto]

Don't pros keep spare batteries in warm places about there body to overcome this problem (I think it was a comment from Andy Rouse)

[Jaff]

It is most certainly the case that very cold weather drastically reduces the charge on a battery. Keeping spare batteries in a warm place is the thing to do and even when one's apparently done, just keep it nice and toasty for about half an hour and you might get some more out of it.

The Err99 thing does seem strange though. I was out on wednesday and never got it but batteries did indeed quickly drain.

EDIT: Just read through you other thread, sorry that your 40D has gone completely. I used Lehmans once and their service was excellent.