Weather Sealing is a Gimmick.

Joseph T Lewis III wrote:

wolfie wrote:

If this is a gimmick then there should be a appallingly high failure rate judging by the "abuse" that Olympus owners have given their WR rated cameras and lenses - me included. But his thread is not throwing up masses of people affirming your stance.

I like particulalrly the example of Ming Thien who went far beyond your limited idea of WR:

"I had to test it. You know, waving a red flag at a bull and all that – 10 minutes under a hot shower while powered on, sitting in about 1cm of standing water. All whilst intermittently shooting a frame or two, and no ill effects whatsoever afterwards. Impressive, to say the least."

I think the simple explanation is Olympus engineers the build quality to a higher level than their marketing people are prepared to state for legal reasons.

Happy now?

Wolfie, I am happy as a clam. However, I do not understand why you directed your smug post to me. What I said on the matter (in a post early on in the thread) had to do with whether or not Olympus always honored warranty claims for water damage. In that post I said:

"There have been several threads on this forum in the past, where Olympus owners stated that their warranty claims were denied for water intrusion even though they were not doing anything they weren't supposed to. Conversely, there have been other threads where water related warranty claims have been approved. So, "you pays your money and you takes your chances" (grammatical mistakes intentional).

Personally, I don't like standing in the rain anyway. I get wet, and my glasses either fog up or are covered with water, making it difficult to see. Therefore, I am not likely to ever put my E-M1 and its watersealed lenses to the test (at least I won't plan ahead on doing it). It is vaguely reassuring to know that if I do get caught unawares by a sudden shower, take a splash of water from a hose or the spray kicked up from the bow of a boat etc. my camera will probably come out OK, but that's about it. YMMV."

Why do you think the above makes me think water sealing is a gimmick?

This was meant to be attached to one OP's replies.