Not possible to make these new cameras as weatherproof as the E-1?

The E-1 according to things I read back then was built to an dust/water resistant industrial standard that no other cameras were built to, including pro Canon and Nikons. It was graded by the size of particles and water flow and pressuree that were excludable from the body. I'm just wondering if the smaller size and increased complexity of the new Olympus bodies precludes that kind of weatherproofing?

RichRMA said:

I'm just wondering if the smaller size and increased complexity of the new Olympus bodies precludes that kind of weatherproofing?

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If they can make the TOUGH series water sealed to 10-30m (depending on model), then they could do the same with a larger cameras...I actually seen a rep dunk an E-3 with 12-60mm into an aquarium at a trade show.

It seems though Oly is going cheap for m4/3 cameras, like not including lens hoods, not having rubber on the focus and zoom rings (I HATE the feel of the plastic knurled rings, and have to put rubber bands around them so I can actually touch them without having my skin crawl).

Well, that's an oversimplification. For a fully featured ILC, there is a finite limit on how small it can be while maintaining the same degree of sealing. Each rotating shaft on a dial, each button, gaskets around screens, body seals, etc, all must be sized so that they are reliable and provide good sealing. You simply couldn't do that in a body that was, say, half the size of an E-M1. Take for example a rotating dial. If you want to waterproof that dial, it takes a cylinder around the shaft wide enough to accommodate an o-ring. When you start putting buttons and dials side-by-side, you end up with a real estate problem that prevents designing bodies that are ever smaller.

The OM-D E-M1 is every bit as sealed as my E-1 was but, to be honest, I wouldn't want a body any smaller or it would just be hard to use.

By the way, I'm an ocean engineer and we deal with the same issue on larger hardware all the time. It's just a tradeoff.

Chuck