Weather-sealed gear and lens front element

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.

ahaslett wrote:

Love the first shot! Have you tried B&W with something like Silver Efex?

Andrew

Thank you. I have a photo club B&W challenge coming up, and I'd overlooked this one as a possibility. I tend to think of simpler scenes for B&W, but that might be a mistake.

I haven't settled on a favourite way to do B&W conversions. I have Silver Efex; more often I use Photoshop B&W adjustment, or just Lightroom for simplicity.

rsmithgi wrote:

My experience shooting in heavy rain is with the 40-150 Pro. It has a deep hood and that is enough to keep the front clear of drops.

I have shot successfully in light rain with the 12-40 pro.

Yes, I always use a lens hood and that helps. But only if you are always shooting down or at most level. And if there is any wind or bouncing water drops then even a lens hood doesn't work. And shooting level with a lens hood I have found that raindrops will hit the bottom inside of the lens hood and splash onto the lens element.

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

Running off the bus in a pouring rain, Tokyo.

Canon G15

Canon G15

Budapest. Bronze shoe memorial of Jews that the Nazis shot and threw into the Danube River. Some people think it is a great place to get a happy snap together.

Canon S95

Submarines in the rain at Kure, Japan.

PEN-F + 14-150mm II

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

This is the Taipei 101 Building in Taipei, Taiwan on a rainy day. You can see the raindrop. This was the best of multiple attempts. Try, fail, clean lens, try, fail, clean lens, try fail, clean lens, try, fail, etc. Within a second of pointing the camera up it would have one or more big drops. Any longer and it would have many. Lens coatings, filters, etc. that allow drops to easily roll off would be useless.

E-M10II + 14-150mm II

This one is in Seoul, Korea last month. It took 3 attempts to take this photo without raindrops on the front of the lens. The rain was coming down pretty good and it was cold. Because I had to point the lens upward I tried to compose and focus with the umbrella protecting the front of the lens. Then on 2 attempts I quickly moved the umbrella out of the way for only about 1 second to take the shot. Both attempts failed because in that 1 second several raindrops got on the front of the lens. For the third attempt I decided to incorporate the umbrella in the photo.

PEN-F + 14-150mm II

So, as I said, having a weather-sealed gear is not really much help when shooting in the rain. The front lens element decides whether you can practically shoot, not the weather-sealing. Of course, I still shoot in the rain, but weather-sealed cameras add nothing to make it easier, in my experience.

Notice this photo of a rain-covered Fuji X100V:

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/63626511

The front element is covered with lots of water drops.  Okay, great, the camera is weather resistant, but you can't shoot with it like that. Jeez.

Henry Richardson wrote:

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'd usually be birding, the appropriate lenses have very deep lens hoods. I also use filters, such as the Olympus Zero-D filters, which means I can wipe down the camera with anything to hand, such as my handkerchief, with almost no regard to the gunk that has accumulated on the cloth or lens. I definitely walk about with the sopping wet camera in hand, but I do periodically wipe it off, and I do stow it inside my jacket if there's no prospect anticipated for a while (hoping not to overtax the seals). I'm normally in forest, so wind blown rain is less of an issue.

Different focal lengths, different subjects, and different locations work better in the rain than others. If it's possible, change all of the above to suit the circumstances.

I have a thread with recent results here: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/63621966

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.

In the worst conditions, I image it would be a cycle of wipe the front element, quickly get off a shot and repeat.  I've done this near a couple of waterfalls, but it's very difficult to think composition in those circumstances.  I think it would be best to run about without a camera and plan the composition and moves necessary to get it.

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.

If it's only a hobby, you can just adjust to circumstances, accept the story behind the compromised results, or maybe just enjoy the outing.

zackiedawg wrote:

I agree with you Henry. I too have used many cameras, ranging from absolutely no weather sealing at all and no claims to be in any way resistant, to cameras and lenses that claim weather-sealing...but I haven't had a problem with any of them when shooting in the rain. I also, like you, rarely head out into rain with the intention of shooting in the wet - not because of fear of hurting the camera, but because of the limitations of being able to shoot in heavy rainfall. I find rain to be an interesting subject for photography, but once it starts getting on the lens, you're essentially shooting through the bottom of a Coke bottle - the finest lens in the world will look like a Lomo with vaseline smeared on the lens. I'm not talking about a single drop getting on the lens, but steady rain getting onto the front of the lens.

Yes, for street stuff, etc. shooting in the rain is quite difficult. Much more so than landscapes, birds, wildlife, pets, etc. I gather most people on dpreview shoot those sorts of things though. I fairly often shoot in the rain, but it is a big pain in the butt because of the front lens element. I have some examples in some of my posts in this thread.

Nice photos!

This new video was in my youtube recommended list so I watched a bit, but didn't finish. I had a big laugh at a few points when he expresses frustration because he finds it very difficult, nay as he says: "horrible" and "absolute crap", to shoot because of rain getting on the front of his lens. I have it cued up to one scene where he is talking about it at around 5:30 and on for several seconds:

EXTREME Street photography!! Testing the weather sealing!! (Fuji X-T3)

https://youtu.be/z0gZTw-AoK0?t=327

If he had read my post above he would at least have been prepared for what he was going to experience. He discovers that having weather-sealed gear doesn't actually help him much.

I didn't finish watching to see what happens later in the video.

brianric wrote:

I shoot quite a few outdoor charity events each year and they are a rain or shine type of events. I only have two lenses that are not weather-sealed, and they are not in use in rainy weather. I carry a small hand towel in my right pocket rain jacket. The only time I'll use a filter on the lens if it is heavy wind-whipped rain. I just dab with the towel the front element of the lens. I keep the lens pointed down when not shooting. I also shoot with one camera only, as I usually shoot with two in dry weather, as I'm too busy trying to keep the front element dry. I also let the client know they will get pictures but I can't guarantee the quality of the pictures.

Yeah, I shoot in the rain too from time to time. Many times over the decades. And I have found that having weather-sealed gear is not all that much help most of the time because in order to try to keep the lens free of water drops I usually end up having to keep the whole camera pretty much free of water drops. See the post just above of the guy using his Fuji X-T3 for street photography in the rain. He is happy it is weather-sealed, but then complains the biggest problem is trying to keep the water off the front of the lens. I have done it for many years so I manage to handle it better than him, even though my gear isn't weather-sealed.

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/63700719