Weather-sealed gear and lens front element

cba_melbourne wrote:

TheEye wrote:

Water droplets bead right off, especially the bigger ones.

Lothar-Günther Buchheim was a war correspondent in the Kriegsmarine in WW2. He is the author of the novel Das Boot which was made into an equally famous movie. I have read most of his books and his way of shooting and his equipment was discussed in his book U-Boot Krieg, if I am not mistaken. He also talks about it in his novel Das Boot. He was shooting with Leica cameras and lenses and used a piece of window leather in an effort to keep the lens as clean as possible. There are many pictures he took that were taken at high seas in stormy weather with him and the equipment being doused by seawater and ocean spray. Definitely worth an online search. If he could get good shots 80 years ago with his gear, we have no excuse to be water-shy.

His Leica was paid for by the Reich Propaganda Ministry. And those U-boot's had an average life expectancy of a little over one year. That would include the crew... and the war correspondent on board. Two thirds of U-boot crews never made it back home. I am sure Mr Buchheim was not overly preoccupied with salt water ruining the Leica issued by Joseph Goebbels. Cameras are easily replaced - not so sons, husbands and fathers.

BTW, like most other German companies, during the war Leica was made to employ slave laborers too.

Your off-tangent rant is appreciated. I don't disagree with what you are saying but fact is that we don't need to be water-shy when using weathersealed cameras. My example was merely meant as an example to reduce fear of water. I did not intend to provoke a tirade.