Mister E
Well-known
Here's my D700 after several hours of shooting in the rain:
CRL_2946 by Chris.jpg, on Flickr
I had it soaking wet many times in the two years it traveled around the world with me. Constant monsoon downpours in Cambodia, etc. I had a drunk sexpat spill beer on it in northern Thailand and it still is running like a champ.
CRL_2946 by Chris.jpg, on Flickr
I had it soaking wet many times in the two years it traveled around the world with me. Constant monsoon downpours in Cambodia, etc. I had a drunk sexpat spill beer on it in northern Thailand and it still is running like a champ.
Harry Lime
Practitioner
Weather sealing is very, very real and a must for a pro level body. I'm not even sure why this is up for debate. Leica building a $7000 digital 'pro' body without sealing is pretty absurd and makes you wonder if they've forgotten their heritage.
A few years back I shot with a Canon 1Ds in the desert. Dropped it in to dust as fine as talcum powder. The first thing that went through my head, as it sank a few inches in to the sand, was "Oh, sh*t! Good thing it's sealed...". To clean it up I simply poured a bottle of water over the camera and dried it off.
Shot with my analog M bodies in New Orleans after Katrina. Dried black mud everywhere that turned in to ultra fine dust, when you stepped on it. I ended up taping the camera bodies with gaffers tape. Believe me, I wished those bodies were sealed, but at least the mechanical film bodies won't fry themselves if they get wet.
Had to send a Leicaflex SL in for service, after it got drenched in a storm in Hastings (UK). The sealed F3-P was fine. I wrapped a handkerchief around the lens.
Shot with my D700 and Canon 1-v HS in some ferocious downpours without a hitch, while the M bodies stayed in the bag.
Know someone who took an unsealed Canon 20D to the tropics. It died of internal corrosion a few months later.
To be frank I find it very difficult to take the question posed serious, because the answer is so obvious.
A few years back I shot with a Canon 1Ds in the desert. Dropped it in to dust as fine as talcum powder. The first thing that went through my head, as it sank a few inches in to the sand, was "Oh, sh*t! Good thing it's sealed...". To clean it up I simply poured a bottle of water over the camera and dried it off.
Shot with my analog M bodies in New Orleans after Katrina. Dried black mud everywhere that turned in to ultra fine dust, when you stepped on it. I ended up taping the camera bodies with gaffers tape. Believe me, I wished those bodies were sealed, but at least the mechanical film bodies won't fry themselves if they get wet.
Had to send a Leicaflex SL in for service, after it got drenched in a storm in Hastings (UK). The sealed F3-P was fine. I wrapped a handkerchief around the lens.
Shot with my D700 and Canon 1-v HS in some ferocious downpours without a hitch, while the M bodies stayed in the bag.
Know someone who took an unsealed Canon 20D to the tropics. It died of internal corrosion a few months later.
To be frank I find it very difficult to take the question posed serious, because the answer is so obvious.
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kshapero
South Florida Man
Want to see photos of you "water fighting".
I shot a football game last week in Miami Pouring rain for 15-20 minutes. had a great time and the M6 would come out from my jacket to catch the "shot".
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Mister E
Well-known
Bob Michaels
nobody special
Roger: I don't think I have had a problem caused by rain. But sweat wicking down the shutter button has caused a corroded shutter release switch on my Zeiss Ikon. My camera repair friend says that is a common problem here in FL with just about all cameras. He says the exceptions are the Canon and Nikon high end DSLRs which are actually well sealed. He says that film Leicas are no better than any other camera in that regard.
Interestingly my ZI still worked but would go through batteries quickly because of the short caused by the corrosion. Thankfully the replacement shutter release switch was free as my friend got it from a parts camera that one of his repair friends had.
Freakscene
Obscure member
I live on the edge of a desert and the environment here is very dusty. My M8s have both been rendered inoperative by dust twice. One by beer once. They routinely have serious dust in the viewfinder. I want weather sealing.
Marty
Marty
semilog
curmudgeonly optimist
An M with a small lens is easy to carry under your jacket; a larger camera or zoom is not. If you live in, say, Seattle and shoot in pretty much all weather, and not infrequently in salt spray, sealing is darned nice, especially on larger bodies and lenses.
Mister E
Well-known
I live on a tropical island and basically don't own a jacket. Never had a problem with my D700 and a hooded lens in all kinds of rain. Most of my film cameras have been fine too. I shot my Ikon in the rain the other day and the shutter lock jammed up the next day after sitting in my dehumidifying box. It doesn't even mater because once the finder gets wet it's almost impossible to focus an RF lens and none of the RF hood are deep enough to keep rain off of the front element.
noimmunity
scratch my niche
I backpack regularly in alpine terrain and always take a camera. Last summer I deliberated about whether to take the M8 with me on a two week hike, finally deciding to leave it at home and just take the Bessa T. Four days into the trip, Typhoon Morakot struck with record rains. I have several rolls of black and white taken at the height of the storm that have streaks across them from inundation by the rain, in spite of best efforts to shelter and protect the Bessa T. Yet the T's shutter fires even without batteries, and I'm really glad to have shots from that priceless time. If I'd taken the M8, the disaster wouldn't have been just a subject for my photos, but a factor preventing me from taking photos at all.
Frank Petronio
Well-known
My weather-sealing (and business) strategy is to not own any camera worth more than I afford to replace relatively painlessly.
That's about a $500 threshold as you can see from my signature.
But it true, and liberating, not to have to worry about stuff so damn much.
That's about a $500 threshold as you can see from my signature.
But it true, and liberating, not to have to worry about stuff so damn much.
Keith
The best camera is one that still works!
This thread would be so much more palatable if it had been called 'the weather sealing debate!'
What's with all this 'fantasy' stuff that Roger keeps hitting us with?
I think we should remove the windscreen seals on his Landrover and see how wet he gets before he begs us to put them back!
What's with all this 'fantasy' stuff that Roger keeps hitting us with?
I think we should remove the windscreen seals on his Landrover and see how wet he gets before he begs us to put them back!
dof
Fiat Lux
I don't think weather sealing falls into the realm of fantasy at all. As anyone who's been to Burning Man will attest, it's very useful for keeping not only water, but dust out one's camera.
My playa cameras are a Holga and my "beater" FM2. I just can't bring myself to subject the M8 to the alkaline dust of the Black Rock desert.
My playa cameras are a Holga and my "beater" FM2. I just can't bring myself to subject the M8 to the alkaline dust of the Black Rock desert.
rxmd
May contain traces of nut
Anecdotal evidence aside, the keyword here is obviously "most", and unfortunately the rest who really need it tend to be professionals with money.
That said, what's up with the crusades against fantasy lately?
N
Nikon Bob
Guest
This thread would be so much more palatable if it had been called 'the weather sealing debate!'
What's with all this 'fantasy' stuff that Roger keeps hitting us with?
I think we should remove the windscreen seals on his Landrover and see how wet he gets before he begs us to put them back!
Good point, with the words fantasy and hysteria in the last few threads it sure does provoke debate with an edge. Most don't really need it, weather sealing on cameras, but some do. It is the opposite with windscreen seals, for most that is.
Bob
charjohncarter
Veteran
I think the upshot of electronic cameras is; they better be weather sealed, which most are now. Old mechanicals could put up with anything. I have related my story of the Nikon F that was carried out of the Cong area in a bucket of water that was eventually rehabilitated.
tlitody
Well-known
This thread would be so much more palatable if it had been called 'the weather sealing debate!'
What's with all this 'fantasy' stuff that Roger keeps hitting us with?
I think we should remove the windscreen seals on his Landrover and see how wet he gets before he begs us to put them back!
It's the Absinthe, favourite tipple of artists and writers. He'll be seeing green fairies next
igi
Well-known
+1
Since I live in a country where half of the year is flooded with monsoon rain, I guess owning an M9 is the more "macho fantasy land" scenario
ederek
Well-known
One word folks: poparellla
It's real and available now. Hoping Santa delivers one this year. :angel:
It's real and available now. Hoping Santa delivers one this year. :angel:
amateriat
We're all light!
I've had only a few occasions where my cameras were put directly in harm's way, weather-wise, in the name of Getting The Picture. All involved snow. Lots of snow. First there were my Minolta 9xi do-everything AF SLRs, which were, in fact, heavily weather-sealed. Never a hiccup from either camera body in nearly ten years of heat or rain, but they got buried in snow, where I was most worried about them, and they survived.
Next, years later, were my Hexar RFs. In their literature, Konica mentioned, perhaps a bit too casually for my taste, that the RF was "weather resistant." At any rate, I was caught in a blizzard with both of them. They got buried too. Came out just fine, although I sent them off to K/M (while they were still around) to be checked just in case.
I feel that, regardless of what some camera company tells you, it's probably wise not to look for trouble, since even for cameras like the Canon 1D series, Nikon D3/D700 et al, they still tell you, right in the Owner's Manual, not to get the thing wet. Yes, it's a CYA maneuver, but also a kindly bit of advice.
Also: There was a company that made what amounted to a heavy-duty zip-lock bag with a large, optical-quality piece of circular glass molded into it. That was a nice bit of genius. That's the cheap-and-cheerful ticket to shooting under hostile natural conditions. Does anyone know if it's still being made?
- Barrett
Next, years later, were my Hexar RFs. In their literature, Konica mentioned, perhaps a bit too casually for my taste, that the RF was "weather resistant." At any rate, I was caught in a blizzard with both of them. They got buried too. Came out just fine, although I sent them off to K/M (while they were still around) to be checked just in case.
I feel that, regardless of what some camera company tells you, it's probably wise not to look for trouble, since even for cameras like the Canon 1D series, Nikon D3/D700 et al, they still tell you, right in the Owner's Manual, not to get the thing wet. Yes, it's a CYA maneuver, but also a kindly bit of advice.
Also: There was a company that made what amounted to a heavy-duty zip-lock bag with a large, optical-quality piece of circular glass molded into it. That was a nice bit of genius. That's the cheap-and-cheerful ticket to shooting under hostile natural conditions. Does anyone know if it's still being made?
- Barrett
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
Regarding weather sealing: I was out shooting an abandoned schoolhouse on a very foggy day about 10 years ago near Fort Wayne. I had an Olympus OM-4T on a tripod. Suddenly, with no warning, the clouds opened up like a broken dam. The water came down on me and my camera so hard I could barely see in front of me. I snapped off a couple shots in the rain, figuring the camera was gonna be toast anyway so might as well get the shot.
Got back to the car and dried off the outside of the camera with kleenexes and guess what? It kept working! The OM-4T is weather sealed with gaskets around the buttons and around the top plate. 7 or 8 years later, that OM-4T developed an electronic problem...switching it between auto and manual sometimes didnt change the camera's mode! I sent to John Hermonson and he said it was just a dirty contact, caused by age, not the water from years earlier. Camera was in perfect condition, no corrosion inside! He cleaned it and its worked great ever since.
Weather sealing is WORTH IT
Got back to the car and dried off the outside of the camera with kleenexes and guess what? It kept working! The OM-4T is weather sealed with gaskets around the buttons and around the top plate. 7 or 8 years later, that OM-4T developed an electronic problem...switching it between auto and manual sometimes didnt change the camera's mode! I sent to John Hermonson and he said it was just a dirty contact, caused by age, not the water from years earlier. Camera was in perfect condition, no corrosion inside! He cleaned it and its worked great ever since.
Weather sealing is WORTH IT