The weather sealing fantasy

[Thardy]

Weather sealing? Who needs it?

A friend of mine on the waterfront in Fort Langley on a cold, rainy June day. All Pentax gear; some weather-sealed, some not, but mostly borrowed--he works in a camera store--which explains the 'extra" protection.

I have a Pentax K20D which I happily shoot in the pouring rain--with a weather-sealed lens, of course. We get lots of the wet stuff here in the Lower Mainland of B.C. so I find weather-sealing to be a big plus. In answer to the specific question; have I ever had a camera falter because of rain? No, but in the past I've shot mainly manual cameras and have been more careful. Weather-sealing allows me to "let it all hang out", so to speak...

Looks like I need to think long and hard about buying "demo" gear from camera shops.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Well Roger, people have had digi M made economically unrepairable with very little water if read some past posts.

The reason is unseen water damage that shows up later under repair warrantee. It is a fact.

Dear Ronald,

Possibly. That's why I asked for personal -- not hearsay -- anecdotes.

Cheers,

R.

 

[shadowfox]

You can always test one.

Olympus E-3 can do the above already (since 2008), here's what its successor can do in addition

Of course this is the link to the original photographer's site: http://www.markhumpage.com

 

[bgb]

Never had a camera fail due to water either from humidity or rain, I'm careful with my cameras
I did have a camera fail as a result of dust when i was traveling in Africa. It was an OM-10 and i guess it stopped working after 3 months. Yes i was careful but there is a lot of dust in Africa and it gets into all sort of places it's not welcome.

 

[atlcruiser]

Cleaner, quite possibly, but that's what air cleaners are for. Cooler... not so sure. Try it: hold a thermometer at normal air intake height and at snorkel height, and see if 3 feet makes a lot of difference.

Cheers,

R.

Much cleaner..the majority of dust falls soon after being picked up so it is lower to the ground. Also, most snorkels have prefilters that spin the worst of the dust out prior to hitting the air cleaner. The air cleaner is only good until it is no longer clean...hence the prefilter aspect of the snorkel.

Much cooler...especially on paved roads. Exhaust raises temps considerably at the 5 foot and lower mark. Once you are above 5 foot or so you can see as much as 15' lower temps. This is especailly an issue in warmer climates.

Intakes actually draw from much lower than the apparent location inside the engine compartment. Air is pushed under the car and most of the air goes from low moving to high to help dissapate heat from the engine bay. Usually intake temps are about 10' higher than ambient temps making the differential with a raised intake even more apparent.

I do this for a living

 

[jky]

Used my old M8 in light rain and snow & it worked out fine... kept it covered in my coat and wiped it down frequently when it got wet. On that note, I wouldn't have used it in the torrential downpour my D700 experienced in Asia last year.

I did try to devise a cover for the M8 using ziplocs but found it cumbersome trying to rotate dials and focusing.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Much cleaner..the majority of dust falls soon after being picked up so it is lower to the ground. Also, most snorkels have prefilters that spin the worst of the dust out prior to hitting the air cleaner. The air cleaner is only good until it is no longer clean...hence the prefilter aspect of the snorkel.

Much cooler...especially on paved roads. Exhaust raises temps considerably at the 5 foot and lower mark. Once you are above 5 foot or so you can see as much as 15' lower temps. This is especailly an issue in warmer climates.

Intakes actually draw from much lower than the apparent location inside the engine compartment. Air is pushed under the car and most of the air goes from low moving to high to help dissapate heat from the engine bay. Usually intake temps are about 10' higher than ambient temps making the differential with a raised intake even more apparent.

I do this for a living

Dear David,

Fair enough, especially the point about air being pushed under the car. But the dust mostly isn't on paved roads, of course. With a Series Land Rover there's a nice big gap under the bonnet for air to get in, and no doubt you know about Series oil-bath air-cleaners.

Cheers,

R.

 

[atlcruiser]

series rovers have nice big gaps all over

I just started a resto on a '70 IIA 88 and we will begin a semi resto on a '82 RHD III 109 this month as well.

 

[Paul Luscher]

Have to admit, I'm with most of these folks here: I'm not going to go out of my way to shoot in a deluge, just to see how tough the camera is. Anyway, if the weather's that bad, you're not going to have too any good shots.

Shot in Ireland in the rain with a Minolta X-700, and in California in the rain with a NIkon F. Both of them did develop problems which led to a trip to the camera repair shop.

 

[kevin m]

I lost a nice Panasonic point & shoot at the beach two years ago. I had finished shooting with it and stashed it in the pocket of my cargo pants. The pocket got splashed with a bit of salt water - not even soaked - and the camera, which didn't seem wet at all, shorted out when I turned it on and it never worked again.

Weather sealing for digital cameras isn't a fantasy, it's the current state of the art for pro-level cameras and lenses.

 

[Ronald M]

I believe it was a RF member who lost is digi M on a trip to Iceland and reported it here. The cost of a Solms repair was 90% the cost of a new camera. No I have not personally ruined one and would be very cautious. I don`t even expose my sealed pro Nikons to water.

 

[Andy Kibber]

I had a Lomo LC-A that developed serious internal corrosion after a few too many trips to the beach. Not a fancy or expensive camera, but the incident makes me think twice about taking other cameras to the beach.