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Weather sealing

Posted: Sat 28 Jul 2018, 00:21
by Sarahrs
I’ve just discovered the benefits of weather sealing, my poor camera and lens got caught in the downpower. I’m trying to drying them out, but I can categorically say my afuji is not a fan of a downpour, might be upgrading to a weather sealed lens shortly if they don’t dry out.

Re: Weather sealing

Posted: Sat 28 Jul 2018, 07:34
by Steve B
Even weather sealed systems tend to be moisture proof rather than wet proof. Assuming you have a camera bag with a waterproof cover, if shooting in the wet you can buy rainsleeves for cameras very cheaply.

Anyhow it should dry out soon enough, although I wouldn't try the usual tricks, eg rice, that are recommended by some for mobile phones etc.

Re: Weather sealing

Posted: Sat 28 Jul 2018, 08:30
by Mike Farley
Roger Cicala and his team at Lens Rentals do occasional teardowns and the quality of the weather sealing is one of the things they investigate. They only do them when they have some gear to repair or a bit of time to satisfy their curiosity, so not every camera or lens has been subjected to the process. I do not recall that they have done anything for a while, but they have been busy setting up lens testing equipment. Their findings are that recent Canon gear is very well constructed, Sony's less so. Most cameras will survive a bit of exposure to the wet, but I would trust Canon's claims about weather sealing a bit more. As Steve says, though, nothing is completely weatherproof but some is better than others.

If caught out, sometimes cameras do carry on working after a soaking, sometimes they don't. A bit of research on the Internet will reveal the experiences some have had. One tip I have seen is to put the affected gear in a container of rice to help draw out the moisture. I have not had to do it for myself, so cannot say whether it helps but it cannot do any harm, either.

Some recent Lens Rental posts are for a Sony A7s II, which is not so good for sealing despite its premium price:

https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2017/1 ... ony-a7sii/

A Canon 5D Mk IV, which is better. At the conclusion, Cicala says "The weather sealing on the Canon 5d Mark IV appears pretty robust, although you know my opinion on weather sealing in general."

https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2016/0 ... -teardown/

And, because you shoot Fuji, here is a report for one of their lenses. Although it is the 55-200 which is from the budget end of the range, construction quality seemed decent:

https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2016/0 ... -teardown/

Perhaps the simplest thing is to carry a camera protector as a precaution. These Optech sleeves are inexpensive, light and take up virtually no space in a camera bag:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Op-Tech-Rainsl ... rainsleeve

I hope that you are successful in drying your camera and lens out.