Last night while taking pictures, my camera stopped cooling. Usely working around 60% at -20 below ambient temperature, the TE went up to 100% and then the camera temperature started to go down not able to maintain the -20 asked. I looked the camera info and saw that the ambient temperature was marked at 25,0C while the real outdoor temperature was only 12,0C. I tried to restart the camera. It did cooled down to -20 but after 5 minutes of operation it started to warm back and the TE went back to 100%. I have a friend working beside me with the same camera and his ST8300M was cooling at -20 with a TE of around 50%. Do I have to return the camera for repair or would it be only cleaning or else? Wilfrid Ouellet, Rimouski, Québec, Canada.
Yes, fan is running. I also sprayed some air in the fan opening just in case there would be dust accumulated but did not change anything.
The "ambient" display is actually the case temperature, which will be warmer than the surrounding air. It would be useful to know how your neighbour's camera was doing on that front. The old ST models were rated at about -35C delta, which is approximately what you have there. One other thing to be aware of... at some point SBIG engineers increased the size of the cooler power supply in the ST cameras, to increase the cooling margin. I'm not sure at what point in the evolution of the cameras that happened. Its possible that your camera is older than your friend's and therefore has slightly less cooling capacity.
OK tks Doug, but my friend told me that his ST8300M was older then mine. Also it was operating normally since my beginning in february so outside (or ambient) temperature was cooler then now. So it could be a problem not reported by the last owner. I was said he used it a couples of time only. With the serial number in the info window, would it possible for you to tell me the manufacturer's date? I will have a picture taken for the info on my friend's camera and post it here to compare numbers. My friend (Patrick Dubé) has many years of experience and he is certain that my camera should be able to maintain easily the -20 as asked. I will get back to you with some more info. Clear sky tonight!
The camera was manufactured in April 2010. You can usually tell the manufacturer date for this model by the serial number itself...xxYYMMxxx.
Hello back again. My friend's camera was manufactured Dec 2009. Tested again and my camera stayed about 10 minutes at -20 with TE at 60% then increased at 100% in about 5 mins. Meanwhile his camera programmed at -20C and TE stayed at around 45%. Ambient temp for both camera at 25C. Now using the camera at -15C and stayed all night with TE around 50%. Only 5C difference. Anything else should I be looking for? I know that I should not worry for 5 degrees difference but I really thing that something wrong with the camera and it should be investigate. I am worry that it could get worse. So question: should I return the camera for repair? Tks.
I can tell you from over 3 years experience with my ST-8300M there is no way it would keep -20 C at 25C ambient. I usually cool around a -30C delta, sometimes I push a few more degrees but I usually max out the cooler if I try to cool at or above a -35C delta. It has been pretty consistent with this performance for the life of the camera. BTW I'm not reading ambient temp from the camera but from my weather station, cloud sensor, and dew heater controller which all read the ambient temp pretty consistently.
Tks Joshua. I forgot to say that I do not use the ambiant temperature reading of the camera but true outside temperature that is around 15C . My concern is about the fact that we both have the same camera and mine those not work as well. Right now I am using it at -15C with no problem so I guest that the -30C delta is the limit I will have to live with.
If you're getting reliable regulation at -30C delta then that is completely normal for an ST-8300 camera.
