Weather Sealing is a Gimmick.

mpgxsvcd wrote:

Weather sealing is simply a warranty. It simply says that if you are using a weather sealed camera with one of "their" weather sealed lenses then they will honor the warranty if it was being operated under a limited set of conditions.

Weather sealing doesn’t guarantee that it won’t break due to weather. It just simply guarantees that they will cover the repairs if it does break under certain conditions.

It is completely up to the manufacturer to determine whether it was being used properly or not. They can easily deny your warranty claim if they feel it was not being used in a “Properly Weather Sealed Configuration”.

Basically, weather sealing is an absolute gimmick. They determined how many people would actually send their cameras in for repair after weather damage. Then they calculated how much it would cost to fix those few cameras and jacked the price of the “Weather Sealed” cameras up by that amount plus a hefty profit.

I use my non weather sealed E-PM2 on my telescope during the winter. It is typically left out at sun down in very humid conditions. Then the temperature drops below freezing and all of the dew freezes on the camera and on the screen.

I come back out 8 hours later and it is still chugging away taking pictures even though it isn’t weather sealed. Even the “not weather sealed cameras” are more durable than you think. I abuse it like this at least once a month during the winter.

Also remember that the camera is only weather sealed with a weather sealed lens on it. All other lenses will not qualify for the weather sealed warranty if anything weather related happens while you are using them. They are going to want to see both the camera and the lens for the warranty repairs to find out what failed. They won't just take your word for it that you were using a weather sealed lens.

How many of you have ever sent a non-weather sealed camera in for weather related damage that would have been covered under warranty if it had been weather sealed? I am guessing that number is very, very small.

I am guessing that most of the cases involving weather related damage are probably of the “I dropped my camera in the lake” and not the “it was very humid or drizzling” kind. Dropping it in a lake will not be covered under warranty no matter what lens is on it and whether it is weather sealed or not.

Other than one incident a few years back where i submerged a camera in sea water which killed it stone dead { a low end Olympus DSLR } . I have never in 30+ years of photography had any damage or incident to any camera caused by any type of weather { other than batteries losing power quicker in the extreme cold } , whether the camera was labeled "weather sealed" or not . I am a major fan of landscape shooting and I have  shot in all kinds of weather from torrential rain { a not uncommon occurrence here in Scotland } to heavy snow I shoot all winter in temperatures as low as -20 { on the mountains in winter}. On holiday I have shot in the Sahara , the salty dead sea coast and so on.

I think generally speaking cameras even relatively lower end models are far tougher than we imagine. There are videos aplenty on YouTube etc of people doing extreme things to their high end gear { it is exactly these kind of activities the camera companies are covering themselves against } but the digital-rev video where they put two non-weather sealed cameras through more than they would ever be expected to survivehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1tTBncIsm8

Apart from the likes of the Nikon AW1 no camera is actually water "proof" they are just a bit more resistant to it than lesser models. All the companies use the same methods { tighter seams etc} and technology { if you can call a rubber O-ring technology  } . So all manufacturers are in the same boat which is why if you delve deep into the small print about what is actually covered by "weather sealing" you will find the same gotchas