Weather-sealed gear and lens front element

Henry Richardson wrote:

I know that weather-sealing is very popular and considered a very important characteristic for many people here. Cameras and lenses. Flashes too? Some won't buy without it. I, of course, can think of many photo scenarios when it may be difficult or even impossible to keep the camera dry. Rain, splashing water, etc. Over many years I have often been outside taking photos in the rain, but usually it is me wandering and walking for long periods. Just like I do when it is not raining. So, I am not constantly taking photos. I might take a few, continue walking, and then soon or much later take another one. Mostly in urban environments. I usually will carry my umbrella and that mostly keeps me and my camera dry as long as there is no strong wind. With strong wind then usually no umbrella. It, of course, can sometimes be a bit awkward to take a photo trying to hold the umbrella while also using 2 hands for the camera. Yet, I have done it countless times. When in the rain I just make a reasonable attempt to keep the camera and lens dry, but don't get anal retentive about it. When water gets on it then I try to wipe it off as soon as I can. Same for the front filter. Never had any problem. In very light rain then no umbrella.

My thoughts about weather-sealing after 45+ years of using many ILC cameras (SLRs, DSLRs, m4/3) is that I have never had any weather related problems with any of my cameras so this isn't a big deal to me. The E-M5 was the first I have ever owned that was weather-sealed, but none of the lenses I owned when I was using it were. My PEN-F, E-M10II, E-M10, and G3 are not weather-sealed. My experience is that in most cases having weather-sealed cameras and lenses are not of much use for my photography anyway because the biggest problem with shooting in the rain is keeping the front element clean. I use a lens hood and protection filter, but unless there is no wind and you keep the lens always pointed downward you are still often going to get drops on the front of the lens. Actually, even if you try to keep the lens pointed down I still regularly get drops on the camera. Rain splatters and bounces off other people's umbrellas, raincoats, walls, signs, and even my own clothes. I have to walk around with one hand covering the front of the lens hood. Even doing that and using an umbrella I often get stray drops on the lens when I am trying to take a photo.

For those of you who shoot a lot in the rain or in conditions where water is splashing a lot (on a speed boat, wind-driven ocean surf, etc.) and you use weather-sealed gear how do you manage to not have problems with water drops on the front of the lens? Do you not care and just shoot with the drops there?

I have seen videos of people spraying their weather-sealed cameras and lenses with a water hose and I even saw one of someone who dunked it in a bucket of water.

Henry

Water droplets on the lens are always a problem when shooting from a bouncing rubber boat.  All I can do is keep the camera pointed down between shots, preferably in a waterproof bag (although uusually open they provide some protection)  some dry cloth to wipe the lens is useful....last week everything got wet and I only had tissue which had wrapped my lunch, butter and lenses don't mix well.

Surprisingly shots often come out well enough even if the objective is a bit smeared or speckled.

More important is if I get hit by a rogue wave the gear is still OK when cleaned off.

A direct hit from a wave on the objective will force water through the rim of most filters, I have found.

Best

Tom

More recent lenses have nano coated front elements, and in the last couple years, nano coated filters are abundant. Nano coatings make water bead and run off much better than conventional multi coatings. Plus, a quick wipe from a dry(ish) microfiber cloth kept in a zip lock bag in your picket leaves a clean and streak free glass finish (conventional mult coatings leave a smeared/ streaky finish) to try and get the next shot.

I generally agree that rain is not the best reason for weatherproof gear.  It is not that hard to keep the camera dry and rain will degrade many shots.

But I deal with snow and cold.  Snow gets on stuff even when it is not snowing.  Usually keeping it off the lens is trivial (lens cap) - but it will sneak into every crevice of a zoom.  It comes from all directions. Weatherproof gear is a big difference maker.

For the splashy boat trips, I use a waterproof bag and a towel.  Once the gear is wet a waterproof bag will be certain to keep it that way, unless you put a towel in there.

Overall, I would say that weatherproof gear is really best when its nice out to take photos but your gear might be subject to adverse conditions without warning.

Henry Richardson wrote:

I usually will carry my umbrella and that mostly keeps me and my camera dry as long as there is no strong wind. With strong wind then usually no umbrella. It, of course, can sometimes be a bit awkward to take a photo trying to hold the umbrella while also using 2 hands for the camera. Yet, I have done it countless timeser.

Never tried one myself, Henry, but maybe you need something like this here    :

https://www.walimex.biz/Swing-handsfree-Regenschirm-oliv-mit-Tragegestell

On Amazon: https://www.amazon.de/Walimex-Swing-handsfree-Regenschirm-oliv/dp/B005ZTJBS8

What I have used, only once and just for fun, many years ago, was this € 3 soccer fan merchandise thing (on a walk in the forest where nobody could see me!)

Worked (as long as you kept the camera close to your face!).

Liewenberger

IMO, since the advent a digital weather sealing on bodies has been overrated. But the media sells it and you live the roll! Now everybody needs it. Like a lot of things you'll never use. For me weather sealing was more important with film. In that case it was more to keep sand and water from getting into where you load the film. Those dam scratches on you negatives. Digital bodies are generally impervious to a little rain.

When it comes to lenses I think it has more to do with the design. If the lens moves there's a chance to get stuff in there. I live in a more desert type region and it gets windy to boot. Even so, 40 years of photography I've only had to bring one lens in for repair that got sand inside.

Many years ago I used to shoot eos 1 level cameras. Then I got tired of lugging them for general use and bought a rebel. Because the camera was inexpensive I abused the hell out of, and the 28-135IS lens. Beaches, rain, you name it. The camera took a lickin' and kept on tickin. I was actually surprised. Also another thing I like about my pen-f. If it's raining I put a pancake or prime on it and it fits in a pocket or easily under my jacket.

Now don't get me wrong. Weather sealing isn't bad! Especially if you're like a sports photographer and expected to stand on the side lines and keep taking pictures in all sorts of torrential weather. Even then I usually see the shower caps come out:-) But it's not a make or brake selling point for me.

I use the old, unsealed 14-150 in the rain because it has a fairly deep hood and I don't care much about that lens anyway. I often tuck the camera under my arm with the lens pointing down.

I've had two cameras fail due to water damage, a Nikon F100 and Oly E-PM2. The latter drowned in my own sweat-soaked shirt on a nice day. Weather sealing works, and it's useful even without sealed lenses or under sunny skies.

Henry Richardson wrote:

For those of you who shoot a lot in the rain or in conditions where water is splashing a lot (on a speed boat, wind-driven ocean surf, etc.) and you use weather-sealed gear how do you manage to not have problems with water drops on the front of the lens? Do you not care and just shoot with the drops there?

Most of the comments are about weather-sealing and its usefulness. But, the whole point of my post was about shooting in the rain or splashy conditions and the problem of water on the front element. In my experience, having the best weather sealing in the world helps absolutely ZERO for shooting in those conditions because of the front element. The only way I can sort of shoot is to use an umbrella to keep most of the rain off the front element when I shoot. And with the umbrella the camera stays pretty dry so the lack of weather sealing has never been important.

Okay, so how are people shooting in these conditions?

I even saw a video review of one of the weather-sealed cameras awhile back with a guy walking around in the rain, no umbrella, holding the camera, and shooting. He was showing how water resistant it was. I was wondering how his camera which was totally wet from rain could possibly have a pristine front element. I don't think he showed a single photo he had taken in that segment though and he never showed what the front element looked like. It struck me as ludicrous, but I suppose it fools lots of people.

I have walked around in the rain with my camera countless times over the years and even in a light rain when it comes time to shoot and you take your hand away from the front element (even with the lens hood on) you will almost always get drops very quickly, mostly before you can even get the shot. If you need to point the camera up a bit then it is near impossible. The only way is to have an umbrella or some other way to shield the camera and even then it can be quite difficult because of the reasons I already wrote about: wind causing drops to hit the lens even while under an umbrella, rain bouncing off things very close to you, even your own body and hands, etc.

Every year on Independence Day, 4th of July there are Outrigger Canoe Races in Waikiki. Several times over the years I went down there to take photos. In 2011 the sea was calm with only the occasional small wave so I waded into the water with my camera. As you see in the last photo of this sequence of guys horsing around in the water there is a big water drop on the lens from a splash. By the way, the camera and lens are not weather-sealed, but I was careful and my hands stayed dry. You can see me in the last photo shoulder deep in the water with my camera held up.

Canon 60D + Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6

Canon 60D + Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6

Canon 60D + Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6

Canon 60D + Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6

Canon 60D + Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6

And my wife on shore happened to take a photo of me out in the water that day. I didn't know she had taken it until the next day when I got her photos off the memory card.

Canon A590IS

I think your rain is different to mine :-). In Scotland it's usually windy when it is raining; too windy to use an umbrella outside a town (and they aren't much use there either). I can take pictures down-wind in rain without the lens getting wet. Up-wind I wait for the rain to ease up; fortunately that happens quite often and I can live with small spots on the lens.

I put the lens cap on between shots, but that causes the lens to mist up, and it needs to be wiped.

These two shots were taken a couple of minutes apart, in opposite directions. My E-M1.2, and me, got thoroughly soaked before I got back to the car.

I am an avid hiker/backpacker. I've always carried a camera, and live on the east coast USA. Summers are very humid, can be rainy, and winter snow is usually wet snow.

One of the reasons why I bought a G9 was for its weather resistance. I have a G7, and a G2, both of which would get used only if I had a means to protect them from moisture. The G2 got dunked in a fall crossing a way too deep stream, (was able to dry it out though), but I always felt I was  missing some nice shots because of the weather.  I will be replacing my main lens with a water resistant one as well. I would feel better about my setup because I am unable to really dry things off for several days at a time.

Here are just a few examples, not great examples, of me shooting in the rain. I have lots of photos I have shot in the rain over the years, but I don't have a rainkeyword in Lightroom so the only way to find one is going by memory and then poking around. Actually, maybe I should add a new keyword and then over time go back and assign it to any photo I took while in the rain.

Click on original to see a better, sharper image. The photos in a dpreview thread are highly compressed and soft.

This first one is a self-portrait in 1992 in the winter on B&W film. Cold, rainy day in Tokyo. You can see me with my umbrella trying to take a shot and stay reasonably dry. Note, I was shooting with a manual focus SLR so I had to use 2 hands in order to focus and adjust the aperture ring.

Minolta X-700 + Minolta 50mm f1.4

These 2 young woman in Sapporo were apparently on their way to the train station. Maybe then on to the airport. As you can see the rain was coming down really hard. I felt sorry for them because the station was about a 30 minute walk away in good weather without suitcases. They were probably hoping a taxi would come along.

Canon G16

He lives a life of quiet intensity, Tokyo:

Panasonic G3 + 14-42mm f3.5-5.6

Working in the cold rain is pretty miserable, Tokyo:

Panasonic G3 + 14-42mm f3.5-5.6

Panasonic G3 + 14-42mm f3.5-5.6

Panasonic G3 + 14-42mm f3.5-5.6

This is one area that coatings can help and I know some of the larger Nikon telephotos have those coatings.

Zeiss, Swarovski and Leica all put coatings on their top end binoculars that make the water bead up and roll off by itself. They work well - I have a pair of Swaro EL 8.5 x 42 that have it.

I suppose it would add to the cost of the lenses and there are enough complaints about that round here already....

This was shot in a monsoon downpour with a Sony A9. I carried two bodies with G Master lenses hanging from a Spider belt with absolutely no protection from the rain for over 3 hours.

The lens hoods kept the water off the front.