Your most used, robust and advanced digital camera

Yet my X-Pro1 and X-Pro2 cameras continue to rock along perfectly. I wouldn't class them as the most robust cameras I own. That distinction still goes to the older Nikons--D3, D700, D300. A year or so ago I posted here on RFF about the D3 I bought online that came with over 600,000 clicks on the meter. Being overly cautious I sent it back for a refund. I later bought one with over 85,000 clicks and use it pretty often. Massive, heavy and out dated though it might be, I suspect I'll still be taking pictures with it long after all the newest super cameras give up and take the old dirt nap.
 
Dogman said:
Yet my X-Pro1 and X-Pro2 cameras continue to rock along perfectly. I wouldn't class them as the most robust cameras I own.
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Yep, my X-Pro2 that I bought on day 1 is still being used by a friend. I like the X-Pro3 the most, but I do have to admit to feeling a little ripped off this time.
 
I only have three digital cameras left because I'm in the process of selling my Fuji X-Pro2 (lack of use). When it comes to the camera I use the most, right now is my Z5, but its performance reminds me constantly of how good my D800 is in comparison.
 
Ko.Fe. said:
Weather sealed lens and cameras have gaskets. Non sealed have none.
Trying to find experience with not weather sealed camera and lens with Leica label on them is very deep pockets privilege.
I have none.
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Oh, come on. You're being ridiculous.
You've owned a Leica in the past. Has it ever failed because you were out shooting in rainy weather, and the failure was ascertained to be water inside?

when my Vito B shutter jammed and I had it taken apart for repair, we found rust inside. When my IIf shutter failed and we took it apart, we found a broken spring, no corrosion. When my X2 4way controller failed, it was down to a bad contact .. no corrosion. Etc.

G
 
I sold my last Nikon digital a few months ago but bought a new iPhone Pro Max 13 and have done everything from family snaps and eBay photos to actual serious color photography. I think it's all I need for practical purposes and can stick to film for "official photography"
 
Godfrey said:
Oh, come on. You're being ridiculous.
You've owned a Leica in the past. Has it ever failed because you were out shooting in rainy weather, and the failure was ascertained to be water inside?

when my Vito B shutter jammed and I had it taken apart for repair, we found rust inside. When my IIf shutter failed and we took it apart, we found a broken spring, no corrosion. When my X2 4way controller failed, it was down to a bad contact .. no corrosion. Etc.

G
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I have M4-2, IIIc and M-E 220. I don't use them under the rain. I'm not ridiculously rich to use non weather sealed cameras under rain.
 
peefeeniz said:
I sold my last Nikon digital a few months ago but bought a new iPhone Pro Max 13 and have done everything from family snaps and eBay photos to actual serious color photography. I think it's all I need for practical purposes and can stick to film for "official photography"
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I'm keeping Canon 5D MKII for it. Even with L lens and TTL flash it is less expensive than new Pro phone. :)
52060543516_3eab39d114_b.jpg


I went at world cup event at local velodrome yesterday. Used M-E 220, 35, 50 and 135 lenses. For next time, I'll try to sell some photo gear and get 28-300 Canon L lens.
 
Ko.Fe. said:
I have M4-2, IIIc and M-E 220. I don't use them under the rain. I'm not ridiculously rich to use non weather sealed cameras under rain.
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I guess you never used cameras on anything but sunny days before weather-sealed cameras existed. I did a lot of photography before such things even existed, at any price. In all conditions.
 
The Nikon F was never said to be weatherproof but it was. In my newspaper days I recall shooting a college football game in a driving rain in the afternoon and returning to the office where I removed prism and back from the cameras and put them in film drying cabinet to remove the rainwater. I then reassembled them and took them out that evening to shoot a football bowl game in a freezing cold rain with mud splashing everywhere. Then it was return to office where I repeated the same procedure and then brushed off the dried mud. Kept using those cameras for a couple more years until they were stolen. Never missed a lick. Nikonos? Don't need no stinkin' Nikonos....
 
Godfrey said:
I guess you never used cameras on anything but sunny days before weather-sealed cameras existed. I did a lot of photography before such things even existed, at any price. In all conditions.
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I haven't seen photos from GW, HCB, VM, next to none photogs I'm interested taken
at any price. In all conditions.
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:)



By now I have weather sealed camera and lenses. I know if service will see even little sign of water on inner parts, it comes with huge bill of "liquids damage" or refusal to repair.
I'm not pretending to be a photo pro here, but I worked in service where RMA was regular with water damage, including condensation on inner parts.
 
Dogman said:
The Nikon F was never said to be weatherproof but it was. In my newspaper days I recall shooting a college football game in a driving rain in the afternoon and returning to the office where I removed prism and back from the cameras and put them in film drying cabinet to remove the rainwater. I then reassembled them and took them out that evening to shoot a football bowl game in a freezing cold rain with mud splashing everywhere. Then it was return to office where I repeated the same procedure and then brushed off the dried mud. Kept using those cameras for a couple more years until they were stolen. Never missed a lick. Nikonos? Don't need no stinkin' Nikonos....
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The Nikonos wasn't particularly handy unless you were underwater with it. The original was, after all, little more than an interchangeable lens, scale focus camera that was specially pressure-sealed to be used submerged, when diving. I had one, briefly, in the middle 1980s. You had to lubricated the seals regularly, and replace them periodically, for the camera's sealing to remain intact to spec. I thought it would be useful to shoot with in rainy weather, but ended up using a Nikon F most of the time.

The Nikon F was not weather sealed but it did well when abused and used in environmentally nasty conditions. As you say, you could just take it all apart, blow it out with a hair dryer, put it back together, and keep on going. It was also a camera robustly constructed for easy service: a good Nikon tech can strip the whole thing down and have it all back together in a few hours. The Photomic meter heads were occasionally a little fragile and would show water damage now and then. I got my first Nikon F Photomic FTn when I was a sophomore in High School, when I was chief photographer in the school's student-operated Photo Staff. It was happily abused for the remaining three years of high school covering football games, baseball games, swim meets, class events, faculty and student portraits, whatever ... in every situation that happened along. Never missed a beat, got dunked in water via rain or just me dropping it when in the field a few times. When it got wet, I'd take it apart and dry it, go back out shooting a few hours later. I sold it sometime about five years after I graduated high school to a friend of mine who was doing photo-stringer work for the local newspaper. He used it for another decade. Just kept on going.

Over the years, I had a couple more of these cameras, most with the FTn head but a couple with a plain prism. I have another Nikon F plain prism now ... a very early one by the serial number. This one sat in a friend's basement, in an open box, with the lens missing for a decade or three. He gave it to me. I blew it out with an air can and it worked okay but the slow speed shutter timing train was very dirty, ran too slow. I handed it to a local repair tech who completely overhauled it: cleaned, lubricated, and adjusted everything. Most expensive service on an Nikon F I ever had to pay for ... about $175. That was a decade ago. It is fully functional and works perfectly today still.

My first two Leicas (a IIf and a IIc) suffered tons of use and abuse from my young self between 1969 and 1985. I lost one of them when I tripped on the temple of the sun in Mexico in 1977 and it fell out of my hands and bounced off the steps of the pyramid on its way to the ground below. The second was lost in '85 when I was trying to catch a photo of the antenna assembly that we'd just fixed in flight on a data capture mission for NASA/JPL over the Pacific Ocean ... It jounced out of my holster when the plane hit some turbulence and the open cargo door let it fly out of the plane (I had a safety line attached to me...). Both had been used in all situations, just like the NIkon F, and never missed a beat until their demise.

Weather sealing came into being as cameras become more electronically dependent. Sealing is good stuff, don't get me wrong ... both my Olympus E-1 and E-M1 are fully sealed as are their pro-grade lenses ... and it protects the sensitive electronics when in good condition. But of course what that means from a service and maintenance perspective is that the seals need to be replaced every few years or they lose the weather protection they afford. Same as the Nikonos. I can't get seals for the E-1 any more (no longer available, and the camera's 19 years old), but I've had the E-M1 seals replaced once now ... it's almost 10 years old (perhaps this fall or next...?).

I go out shooting in all kinds of weather, in all kinds of circumstances (like blowing sand/dust on the Black Rock Playa combined with 110-120°F temperatures). With any camera, I take due care to keep it from harm, but my interest is to make photographs and if I can't do that with a particular camera, well, the camera isn't really much use, is it? Regardless what a camera costs, or whether it has weather sealing or not, you can take care to protect it in use and keep it from being destroyed. This is just common sense.

And regardless what kind of sealing a camera has, if you abuse it sufficiently in bad circumstances, it will fail and be rendered to junk. This is also common sense.

G
 
Always buy cameras for what you actually photograph, not for the hypothetical. Unless photography is your job and the hypothetical can happen at any moment.
 
I'm in Southern California.....what is rain? Are cameras sealed from air pollution, fire smoke? I took an Olympus OM 1n to the beach once, a (small)rogue wave came over it when I wasn't looking. Immediately DOA...but 50mm 1.8 survived.
 
My iPhone.

It’s always with me.

Can make:
Video
Slo-Mo
Photo
Square
Pano

I can email the photos to friends and for getting prints. Put them on a jump drive.
Battery is very good.


Lots of fun in front of the lens!
 
I am slowly retiring my M9, along with the M8.2 and the M240's, in favor of the Pixii. So far it has demonstrated itself to be competent, sturdy and able to create really good images. The M9, and the other red dot gear, are lovely anachronisms and longevity cannot be guaranteed. I think Pixii is a better bet. So the Pixii and the Sony A7M III are my go-to's now.
 
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