Snow/rain on the lens and weather sealing

I've had a lot of digital cameras out in pretty rough weather, and
it's never given me any trouble. It seems like now that megapixels
are starting to level off a bit manufacturers are using more
ruggedized bodies to differentiate their stuff. I'm curious, what
kind of weather does it take to destroy a camera? A sand-storm in the
desert?

Now I wouldn't go tempting fate, dive with the camera and no housing,
or anything like that. But I've stumbled over the leg of my tripod,
and sent my D60 crashing down into wet grass in the middle of the
night, and had my 5D out in snow storms, just covered in melting
snow. Maybe I'm abusive, but some of my best landscapes have been on
trips with questionable weather ... with some luck and a good vantage
point, it adds a lot of drama. It also seems like the cameras are
better at taking this kind of abuse than we tend to think. The worst
that's ever happened was with an Olympus digital point and shoot, out
in a blizzard, and the batteries went flat after about three
exposures. Once they warmed up they could power the camera again.

http://forrestcroce.com/Photos/StormNearTiogaPass.html
http://forrestcroce.com/Photos/SnowfallUnderSnoqualmiePass.html

In both of these, you can see snow melting on the lens. It was coming
down too fast to keep the optics clean. So, I'm curious if other
people have had the same experience, or if I'm just really lucky. And
if anybody happens to know just where the line is between what you can
get away with putting a d-SLR through and what not to risk, I'd love
to hear it.

 

It depends. The Nikons in general can take a lot of abuse. However,
they will eventually give up if you get them too wet or too hot or too
dusty for too long.

Lenses seem most sensitive to losing AF or VR when dropped; it takes a
lot to knock a lens out of alignment, but it can be done.

So, sandstorm in the desert might not be enough to knock it out. I have
dropped my D70 off tables onto marble floors, dropped it on pavement
from chest height, and used it outdoors during a category 4 typhoon. It
has fallen forward on the tripod, smashing the front of the lens on a
rock. It rolled with me when I fell into a construction trench. I
carried it around for months on end unprotected in the trunk of my car
in tropical heat. I took pictures with it on Hurricane Ridge during a
snowstorm. I have had it hanging out the window of an airplane in the
middle of winter. It survived. I think what finally killed it was
something wrong with the CF card holder; I haven't had a chance to take
it in, yet. My guess is it is probably something minor.

The D200 you could probably drive tent stakes with.

Canons are similarly tough. You could probably drop-kick one of the pro
models through a wall and it would survive.

Other models may not be so tough. I have had a lot of problems with
Fuji and Minolta cameras, though I have never owned one of their DSLRs.
All of them seemed extremely sensitive to moisture and heat. I lost a
Fuji to condensation -- completely zapped it out.

 

Crazy!

My Canon AE-1 died with just the slightest bit of water 12 years ago,
since then I'm very careful. I guess those old film cameras just
weren't built to last like the new digital ones are :/

 

I can't speak to where the line is, and it probably depends a lot
on the camera (amateur/advanced amateur/pro) body, and its history.

I generally us tenba rain covers on my cameras and lenses in heavy
rain, but in light rain I have never been concerned with getting
a little water on my 1D Mark II and L lenses. I have worked in
temperatures as low as about 5 degrees F with no problems.

I also dropped the 1D II about a meter onto a rock in Australia,
fortunately with no ill effects.

Salt spray seems to be the worst for corroding parts and destroying
optical coatings. I always use a UV filter on my lenses when working
around salt spray near the ocean.

But all the above experiences pale in comparison the beating
gear takes on safari in Africa. A couple of weeks on dirt roads
with your lens mounted on top the vehicle, feeling the pounding
dirt road (when you have a road), or the pounding from driving
through a forest off road (and I mean no road at all),
or on the open Serengeti. Add in the dust factor and
everything takes a beating. And I was lucky on the January
trip: recent rains kept the dust factor down a little. I was
constantly concerned with the pounding, but luckily no
one in our group had permanent damage. We did have a few
components stop working or sound strange (like the IS
on a 500 mm lens) for short times.

Roger
http://www.clarkvision.com

 

Well, it was a Canon, so who cares? Seriously, some fantastic
improvements have been made in sealing and ruggedness in the last five
or six years, even in the film cameras.

 

Man! That is adding insult to injury!

 

Salt spray, fine sand, and dust seem to do the most damage, that's for
sure. I was out taking pictures of blowing sand streams on a beach
during a typhoon in Aparri, Philippines, and despite all kinds of care
to keep the camera protected I still got sticky sand all over it. Took
me hours to gently clean it off.

But to me, the camera is a tool for taking pictures. While not exactly
disposable, I would be willing to sacrifice it for a single great shot.

 

Like having an elephant shit on your camera. I actually had
this happen to my old Speed Graphic 4x5. It's better
than sitting on it, I guess.

Doug McDonald

 

Il 13/03/2007 15:40, Doug McDonald dixit:

This is one of the most amazing stories I ever heard about photography!
It seems a lost Hemingway's page...

Please, can you tell us more?



Cyrus (the /curious/ virus)

 

Did you get a picture of the event?

Roger