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Weather Sealing is a Gimmick.

Started Feb 19, 2015 | Discussions thread
Chas2 Veteran Member • Posts: 3,715
Re: Weather Sealing is a Gimmick.

Voldenuit wrote:

Skeeterbytes wrote:

Confronted with two lenses of the same spec and price, one is sealed and one is not, which would you choose?

Cheers,

Rick

I'd pick the one with the best optical performance (not just sharpness, but also bokeh, coma, CA, contrast, other optical characterstics such as microcontrast, rendering, "look" etc).

If equal, I'd then pick the one with the best handling.

*Then* I would pick the weather sealed one, if it doesn't entail too many other compromises (size, weight).

I agree with that which is how I ended up picking the 12-35 for my GX7.

Although the 12-40 is arguably a slightly better lens, I thought I would be much happier with the slightly smaller size and weight, and the 58mm filter size.  I think size and weight fall into the handling category.  The weather sealing was never a big swinger...and looking at the thin rubber gasket on the lens, I am surprised at what constitutes weather sealing.  I know that this is not the only seal, but it is the only main visible seal.

 Chas2's gear list:Chas2's gear list
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GM1 Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7 Panasonic G85 Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 9-18mm F4.0-5.6 Panasonic Lumix G 20mm F1.7 ASPH +12 more
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