Using nikon D3100 in cold weather? - 1

I'm going for a trip to china Beijing this end of November. As I was told the weather there's quiet cold. So can D3100 be used in this cold weather?

Like any camera take simple precautions:

The battery life will be shorter in extreme cold so have a spare battery kept warm in your pocket.
Beware of it misting up when you take it from the cold outdoors into a warm interior - it will need time to aclimatise!
Your hands will be cold and using a camera with thick wooly gloves ain't easy! Get some fingerless gloves and be extra careful that you don't drop the camera due to numb hands. If you do drop it the plastic case will be more brittle in the cold so you will do more damage. Lens changing is particularly dangerous with cold numb hands.

Otherwise - should be OK!

Get a second battery. Battery life drops dramatically when it gets cold. At -12c it can get as low as 200 pictures. Keep the second battery in an inside pocket

All DSLRs below $1000 will perform the same here. The camera will work quite fine, and it's not like -30. We've used beginner cameras in a few minus degrees and things were fine.

Battery will last a little bit less, but other than that everything will be okay.

Here's a DSLR Buying Guide - http://www.the-dslr-photographer.com/2009/11/which-dslr-to-buy/

Bejing's average low in January is only -10°C. Your camera will have no problem. I've used my Nikon D40 in -20°C temperatures for full days with no problem. I kept the camera at ambient temperature. As long as you don't use flash, you'll have plenty of battery life, but charge your battery each night. It doesn't hurt to have a spare battery should you want to use fill flash which will tax the battery at lower temperatures.

Going indoors will fog the camera until it warms up. If you don't want the camera fogging up, put it in a sealed plastic bag before you go indoors. Let the camera warm up for an hour, then take it out of the bag. I don't bother with the bag thing.

Great camera, quality of pictures is awsome. Takes studio quality pictures that that will make you forget about your little point and shoot camera. Your point and shoot is small enough to carry around about anywhere to catch quick snap shots, but for planned events, get togethers, holidays, or anyting like that you will always be grabbing for your nikon d3100.It is as easy to use in auto mode as my pocket camera, but also has a lot of other functions and plenty of atatchments. Bottom line is it's a great camera, gives crisp and clear picture, and has great accesories to acomodate whatever type of photography you want to do. I love it.