The Hiking Camera Conundrum

Jeff Biscuits wrote:

bartjeej wrote:

I'm sure you and I wouldn't be the only ones facing this problem.

Indeed… it seems a little frustrating, assuming that there must be a latent market for that sort of thing.

As for ILC's, I'd trust the sealed Olympus and Nikon Z models above all Fujifilm ILC's, including X-H1 and the GFX models.

Interesting. I’m completely out of touch with M43 having sold all my old gear. Any tips for an Olympus body and lens that offers good bang for little buck on the secondhand market?

Any generation Olympus E-M5 / E-M1 should do for weather sealing (later models have an excessively conservative IPx1 rating, but even the Mk 1 e-m5 was held under a tap by Olympus representatives), although the oldest cameras might be facing drying out of seals by now, so if you can inspect them before buying that'd be best. As for lenses, the Olympus 12-50 powerzoom is cheap as chips and very well sealed due to its internal zoom action. The 14-150 mark II is not internal zooming but ought to be very well sealed regardless. The Olympus Pro lenses are among the best sealed lenses on the market, but more expensive.

Panasonic makes well sealed bodies and lenses too, not sure if they'd handle the same abuse as the Olympus models quite so reliably. Panasonic lenses on Olympus bodies and vice versa can be tricky in terms of sealing, as they place the lens flange seal in different positions.