Weather Sealing Tips?

pachuco said:
Just as a covering or do you cut holes in it to shoot? I like this shower cap idea allot. Thanks!
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Just as a cover. Unless it's a deluge (in which case, frankly, I'm not that dedicated to photography to be out shooting) I'm not worried about a few droplets. The M8 is a fairly tight ship. Neither my Canon 20D or 5D are considered weather sealed either, nor were many of the film cameras I've used which had tons of electronics inside, and I never had a moisture-related failure. Even the 1-series Canons which are called weather sealed aren't waterproof, if you drown one it's not a given that it will survive.
 
Pachuco,

you should ask my sister how She does ! She tested her M8 real hard by plunging into a lake with it 🙂 Still works today !
 
Ben Z said:
Just as a cover. Unless it's a deluge (in which case, frankly, I'm not that dedicated to photography to be out shooting) I'm not worried about a few droplets. The M8 is a fairly tight ship. Neither my Canon 20D or 5D are considered weather sealed either, nor were many of the film cameras I've used which had tons of electronics inside, and I never had a moisture-related failure. Even the 1-series Canons which are called weather sealed aren't waterproof, if you drown one it's not a given that it will survive.
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Right on, I will start putting those in my bag. I have quite a few of them (along with little soaps and little shampoo) that I wind up just throwing away. Great tip!
 
Base with entries

Base with entries

Phil_F_NM said:
The biggest problem with this whole DIY weather protection is that when the card gets full or the battery dies, the plastic has to come off & a new card/battery be put in.
I have a suite of 2GB cards and need to get at least one 4GB if for only this reason alone.
As for the battery, I don't know how to solve the problem aside from getting a spare M8 bottom plate, drilling a hole in it, taking a non-OEM battery apart to use as a lead adapter then snake some wires out to a homemade battery pack in a pocket.
We could use whatever batteries suited our needs then according to how much life we wanted in a charge and how heavy we minded our pockets.
Maybe I should start producing these... there's definitely a market.
But I'd rather buy one than build it.
Regarding the weather sealing, it seems like every cell phone company out there has an adequate water/shock resistant covering made of silicone that allows full usage of the little keypads. It can't be that difficult to make. I know that my cell phone has a qwerty keyboard + about 10 other buttons, all of which can be used in a silicone wrap in any color I want.

Phil Forrest
Click to expand...
Or you could try to use this base in some way - www.leicatime.com
 
jaapv said:
I doubt it is that simple, Harry. It is a vintage-style built body. There was a piece about the weathersealing of the S2 in LFI. It seems to be not as straightforward as one might think. Anyhow, the only M8 that died of moisture that I know of was destroyed by internal condensation, which would not have been prevented by weathersealing. There are a number of reports of dunked M8s, even more of soaked ones surviving, so it cannot be as bad as all that. Not that I would not highly appreciate weathersealing 😉
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I don't want to get in to a discussion about Tina's M8 taking a bath in a South American river. I wasn't there and all I can say is that sometimes the gods give you a break. But I would not recommend anyone to push their luck.

I'm pretty sure the body can be sealed without changing the appearance of the camera. There aren't a lot of entry points to begin with and as it is the body is very tight. The lenses may not be sealed, but that didn't stop Nikon from making the somewhat sealed F3-P and well sealed F4. For what it's worth I studied industrial design...

I have a hunch that Leica may seal the body for the M10. The M9 still uses what essentially is the M8 shell. A mold like that is very expensive and they may have simply not wanted to put that much cash in to it.

On the other hand they simply may not get it.
 
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Phil_F_NM said:
In the near future, I think I'm going to hit a hardware store for some O-rings to provide a bit of a seal around the base of the shutter speed dial and the drive selector switch. As for the buttons and the dial on the back of the camera, I think I may be able to fashion up something using my favorite 3M outdoor double sided tape + a sheet of silicone or polyurethane.
I think the port for the USB cord could be easily sealed using some RTV silicone and delicate working of an X-acto knife. (while still retaining the capability to use the port.)
Phil Forrest
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A while back I saw a picture of Christopher Morris from VII Photo during Gulf War II. He appeared to be holding a Canon 20D or 30D that was heavily taped around critical areas to prevent sand from entering the body... 😉
 
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In lieu of a weather-sealed M (but taken by a Ricoh):
4360421450_b1d789e677_m.jpg
 
pachuco said:
Hell, I've never had a weather sealed Leica, why am I so gosh darn obsessed with it now?

Well, because it's not the same, is it?
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Exactly. It's not the same.

There are plenty of reports of people shooting with the M8/M9 is all sorts of weather and coming home with the bacon. I just find it really unnerving and as I said a game of Russian roulette.
 
Harry Lime said:
I don't want to get in to a discussion about Tina's M8 taking a bath in a South American river. I wasn't there and all I can say is that sometimes the gods give you a break. But I would not recommend anyone to push their luck.

I'm pretty sure the body can be sealed without changing the appearance of the camera. There aren't a lot of entry points to begin with and as it is the body is very tight. The lenses may not be sealed, but that didn't stop Nikon from making the somewhat sealed F3-P and well sealed F4. For what it's worth I studied industrial design...

I have a hunch that Leica may seal the body for the M10. The M9 still uses what essentially is the M8 shell. A mold like that is very expensive and they may have simply not wanted to put that much cash in to it.

On the other hand they simply may not get it.
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Oh- I do think they get it. The S2 is submersible -far over the common standards for weathersealed.
 
Harry Lime said:
A while back I saw a picture of Christopher Morris from VII Photo during Gulf War II. He appeared to be holding a Canon 20D or 30D that was heavily taped around critical areas to prevent sand from entering the body... 😉
Click to expand...

This is what I am leaning towards, really. I have plenty of gaffers tape and no qualms about putting it on my Leica!
 
Thanks for the discussion, all. As I am waiting on mine to arrive, I have also been thinking about this a lot. Pachuco, I suspect that I will be doing something similar with tape/saran wrap/etc.

What about lenses? Anyone have any tips for these? It seems that they could be more easily resurrected, anyway, if for no other reason than lack of electronics 🙄 but might still be useful to help them out as well if possible.
 
grahamule said:
Thanks for the discussion, all. As I am waiting on mine to arrive, I have also been thinking about this a lot. Pachuco, I suspect that I will be doing something similar with tape/saran wrap/etc.

What about lenses? Anyone have any tips for these? It seems that they could be more easily resurrected, anyway, if for no other reason than lack of electronics 🙄 but might still be useful to help them out as well if possible.
Click to expand...

Lenses fall into the film Leica category for me in that I know I can have those cleaned and restored so I'm not as worried. Are the mounts tight enough to keep water out? Well, that's one place I'm putting the tape on 😀
 
pachuco said:
Lenses fall into the film Leica category for me in that I know I can have those cleaned and restored so I'm not as worried. Are the mounts tight enough to keep water out? Well, that's one place I'm putting the tape on 😀
Click to expand...

Yeah that's kind of what I meant by "more easily resurrected" 🙄 I was just checking to see if there is some non-obvious, super-slick way to avoid having to send them off in case of extra harsh conditions (not that I really expect to see such that often).
 
Phil_F_NM said:
The biggest problem with this whole DIY weather protection is that when the card gets full or the battery dies, the plastic has to come off & a new card/battery be put in.
I have a suite of 2GB cards and need to get at least one 4GB if for only this reason alone.
As for the battery, I don't know how to solve the problem aside from getting a spare M8 bottom plate, drilling a hole in it, taking a non-OEM battery apart to use as a lead adapter then snake some wires out to a homemade battery pack in a pocket.
We could use whatever batteries suited our needs then according to how much life we wanted in a charge and how heavy we minded our pockets.
Maybe I should start producing these... there's definitely a market.
But I'd rather buy one than build it.
Regarding the weather sealing, it seems like every cell phone company out there has an adequate water/shock resistant covering made of silicone that allows full usage of the little keypads. It can't be that difficult to make. I know that my cell phone has a qwerty keyboard + about 10 other buttons, all of which can be used in a silicone wrap in any color I want.

Phil Forrest
Click to expand...

I know I would be interested in at least testing out this system. Sort of a tough-skin concept, no? I'm not sure I follow you on the battery part, is this an external battery?
 
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