Test: Gloves for photographers

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

A photographer with warm hands is a happy photographer!

Winter is perfect for taking beautiful photos, but often leaves you with cold hands or half-frozen fingers. After fifteen minutes, you can often no longer hold your camera, let alone operate it.

Gloves that keep your hands warm are often too thick and unsuitable for photography, while gloves that should be reasonably suitable can leave you with freezing cold hands in no time.

How good would it be to have warm hands while still being able to operate your camera properly? Fortunately, there are companies on the market trying to solve this problem.

I have the Stealth-Gear Extreme Gloves and MacWet Climatec Long gloves myself, and I would like to tell you a little more about them.

I tested these gloves while photographing two running and cycle cross-country races in wet and cold conditions. How did I find these gloves in practice?

Stealth-Gear Extreme Gloves

The gloves are lined on the inside, so your hands should stay nice and warm. This was certainly the case for the first few hours. After photographing all day in these conditions, however, my fingers did start to feel rather cold.

It was not -20 degrees, but it was still around six degrees below freezing. Without gloves, I would not have been able to hold my camera for more than fifteen minutes, let alone operate it.

The entire palm side is covered with a silicone pattern. This gives you enough grip to hold your camera securely. So you do not need to worry about accidentally dropping your camera.

But of course, you do not just need your camera to hold it. To make it possible to operate your camera properly, Stealth-Gear has made a small circular opening in the thumb and index finger of both gloves. You can easily push your index finger and thumb through these openings.

This means you can operate all the camera buttons, dials and shutter button properly. I found this system worked well. When my fingertips started to get cold after a while, I simply pulled them back through the openings into the gloves.

Unfortunately, it had rained heavily at times before a few of the events, making the course rather muddy. As a result, my gloves were no longer as clean and dry after a while as they had been at the start of the day. Even so, they stayed reasonably dry and I was not too bothered by the weather.

When I got home, the gloves also proved easy to clean in cold water with a little soap. I could then simply hang them on the clothes airer to dry. To maintain their breathable and waterproof properties, you can also look after the gloves with NikWax cleaning and waterproofing products.

Pros
- Good balance between warm hands, comfort and flexibility when operating the camera;
- Waterproof and breathable material;
- Adjustable wrist closure;
- Good grip thanks to the silicone surface on the hand and palm.

Cons
The only disadvantage, in my view, is the openings in the thumb and index finger. After just one day's use, they had already started to fray very slightly. So I do wonder what they will look like after ten uses.

Note: Make sure you choose the right glove size when buying them. They are available in sizes M, L, XL and XXL. It is best to measure the width of your palm.

Mine is 9.5 centimetres, which means M fits me well. If your palm is wider than 10 centimetres, or slightly wider than that, you would be better off choosing L.

MacWet Climatec Long

Unfortunately, what I had been afraid of also happened. After an hour of photographing, my hands began to feel cold, especially my fingers.

I suspect this is partly due to the special Aquatec material used in the gloves. It promotes airflow around your hands and is intended, among other things, to prevent sweaty hands.

Unfortunately, as you will understand, this is a significant drawback. The gloves should be very good for use in autumn, when it starts to get a little cooler. In my view, however, they are less suitable for photographing outdoors all day at temperatures around freezing point.

Pros
- Excellent comfort
- Unobtrusive design
- Very good grip
- Camera easy to operate
- Works well when using the touchscreen on, for example, your mobile or camera
- Waterproof and breathable material
- Adjustable wrist closure
- Good grip thanks to the silicone surface on the hand and palm

Cons
Too thin to keep your hands warm while photographing at temperatures below 0 degrees.

Conclusion

Vallerret

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