Weather Sealing is a Gimmick.

mpgxsvcd wrote:

Klarno wrote:

Last July, I was hiking in the Bisti Wilderness area with my E-PM2 and E-M1 as several monsoonal squalls were blowing through the area.

I have a rainproof Think Tank system for hiking, and I used that system to protect the gear that I knew couldn't handle it. I had to get moving, so I just left the E-M1 out on the strap. These storms were moving through the area quickly, I got caught in three separate storms, and frankly I'm lucky I didn't get hit by lightning (there's absolutely no cover in this harsh desert).

I don't find much use in photographing while it's raining--very hard to avoid getting image-destroying water drops on the lens unless it's on a telephoto lens with a bucket lens hood.

But where having the weather sealing made things easier was that it was one less thing to worry about.

At the end of the hike, I was soaked head to toe. I had enough clay on my boots to make an amphora. But the camera was fine.

What is worse? Relaxing because you think that your camera is protected and warrantied because it has a “Weather Resistant” label on it when it actually isn’t covered? Or not having the “Weather Resistant” label but still having the same basic weather resistance?

Nice pictures by the way.

Frankly, I was more worried about the lightning than anything else. But even if the warranty doesn't cover failure of the weather sealing, the fit and finish of the E-M1 is a lot better than the E-PM2, and there is visible gasketting on the E-M1 anyway. Even knowing that Olympus says sand = bad, shooting in Great Sand Dunes on a windy day, the dials and buttons of my E-PM2 and helical of my 40-150 f/4.0-5.6 got clogged with sand in a way that just didn't happen on my E-M1 or 11-22.