UKH

I remember when (half a decade ago?) I dropped the Canon DSLR in a big pile of snow. I was really stressed, but it worked well after that for many years!

Last week, I was doing the Ledge Route (II) with Olympus E-PL5 and Lumix 20mm attached to the camera strap via Peak Design Capture Pro. It was raining in the morning, so it stayed dry and cozy in a dry bag style camera bag, but once it started snowing, I thought I'll get few nice pictures.

Once I got to the top ( http://i.imgur.com/JnVuuOi.jpg ) I realized that the Capture Pro is frozen up, as well as the camera itself. Basically an ice layer formed all over the camera... Once it thawed, it was all wet, but I wiped it, took couple of pictures and it is all okay.

I am sure that any camera is okay to use in a light rain. But really, how waterproof are they? It is not rated to be waterproof (no kayaking or diving!), but should we worry about getting cameras wet?

In reply to PPP:

Still waiting for my battered Panasonic GF1 to give up the ghost. It's been splashed, drizzled on and sweated over more times than I can remember, not to mention being clouted off rocks on numerous occasions and frozen once or twice. It still soldiers on and has remained faultless at all times. It's not supposed to be 'weather sealed' but I don't think anyone's ever told it. Was considering upgrading to something "a bit more robust"(!) for a Julian Alps trek later this year as I wouldn't want it to fail amongst spectacular scenery with no back up. Not entirely sure I'll bother though.

In reply to PPP:

Depends entirely on how much water gets into the body. Splashing a rain can often be alright. From my experience however, taking a lower series DSLR to a place like Niagra Falls can result in a pretty dead camera....

In reply to PPP:

Depends. Unless your camera is actually weather sealed then it's pretty much down to luck. That being said, I used an Olympus E-PL3 and now an Olympus E-M10 through several Scottish Winter, Canadian and Alpine seasons without any problems.

Conversely, prior to that I had a number of Canon G-series that all died due to water damage during far less strenuous use.

In reply to PPP:

I've got away with some serious damp problems, but I've also had my G10 die...

Should we worry? No, but I certainly take care not to let my camera get wet.

In reply to PPP:

I got lucky with my weather-sealed Oly E-M5. I had a non weather-sealed lens on it while going up Saklikent Gorge, which had a load of that grey/blue glacial meltwater coming down. My son spotted that the camera had been trailing in the water for an unknown length of time, but amazingly after a shake and a switch off for 10 minutes it just carried on working. It's still going strong 2 and a half years later. I wondered if the fine sediment had somehow sealed the lens flange, because nothing got inside. Took an age to get it off the body though.

In reply to PPP:

I use a Pentax DSLR on the hills which is weather sealed and has weather sealed lenses. Whilst I haven't fully submerged it, it has survived comfortably. This video shows that the weather sealing is fairly effective youtube.com/watch?v=Eo61t5fH6Qw&

However, the big issue is getting condensation and/or water droplets on the lens itself. Hard (even with lens covers) to protect against and whilst they can be easily cleaned with a clean and dry lens cloth, that requires the lens cloth to be dry! Which, if the camera isn't might not be the case, leading to smearing the water around the lens.

So, get a WR camera and lens, keep your lens cloth in a small dry bag / ziplock and keep the lens water-free before shooting each time you use it. Bit of a faff, but doable.

In reply to planetmarshall:
My E-M10 really didn't like the cold last week in the Alps, was about -10 and the shutter - aperture wheel refused to do anything, it was an hour or so after it had warmed up before it wanted to work again.....

In reply to PPP:

How long is a piece of string?

In reply to PPP:
Hard to say. Use a canon G1X for winter climbing pics and it has stood up to snow, damp, rough treatment really well.
Got my Canon 6D damp in light rain and the back buttons stopped working, were ok when it dried out, thankfully.
Had a Ricoh GX in a chest pocket when I was out in the rain and it got damp with condensation. When it dried out the sensor was covered in spots, had to pay to get it sorted.
So, the G1X is a trooper and the others seem very fragile in the wet.

In reply to PPP:

My old Canon 40D stopped working in heavy rain whilst photographing an Americaan Football match, despite all my efforts to keep it dry. My 7D on the other hand, seems impervious to wetness, as is my non weather sealed 70-200mm F4L lens. BTW, the 40D came back to life after half a day sat on a radiator on top of a book and has been fine since.