What do you need to do to protect your camera ?

[Jim Almquist]

Buzzsaw talked about coming up to shoot even though it was going to be snowing out and from the sound of things it might be heavy at times. Do you just blow the snow off ? I know that my Canon is not a weatherproof model so is there any tricks ?

P.S. Sorry you can't make it up Buzzsaw but you got to keep momma happy or nobody's happy

[finnbay]

Jim,

I cut the legs off of an old pair of camo rain pants and rubber band it a couple of times and that works really well.

[311Hemi]

Good question. In addition...to that:

1) How would these cameras/lenses hold up to bumping around....say if you had a camera in a padded bag laying in a fish house traveling across the lake behind a snowmobile in below zero weather. Or in a backpack while snowmobiling all day long.

2) What do you guys use to clean lenses. Disposable lens wipes, or the cleaning clothes you can buy. I know I ended up scratching a pair of sunglasses with a cloth wipe I kept using and didn't notice it had been contaminated with something.

[buzzsaw]

Buzzsaw talked about coming up to shoot even though it was going to be snowing out and from the sound of things it might be heavy at times. Do you just blow the snow off ? I know that my Canon is not a weatherproof model so is there any tricks ?

P.S. Sorry you can't make it up Buzzsaw but you got to keep momma happy or nobody's happy

Yes sir! You are correct!

She did give me a pass to chase stuff for the morning however. ( ;

[Steve Foss]

I do the same as Ken. I have a camo sleeve off a set of old pvc rain pants I've been carrying around for five years. I tape it to the front edge of the lens hood and it extends back over the whole camera. It only really works with a lens that has a full hood, but I've shot in pouring rain and sleet and wind-driven snow and it's been fine. The cover sticks out about 8 inches past the back of the camera so I can fold it down over the back when needed, and then just flip it up enough to get my face in the opening to shoot.

Hemi, I've been carrying my DSLRs in padded bags in my portable flipover fish house for about six years and have never had a problem. I make sure, however, that there's nothing heavy in the sled that can bounce around and smack the bag hard, and I never pull my gear faster than 30 mph, with 20-25 mph being more common. If you have lots of loose heavy stuff in there or are a fast gear hauler, all bets are off. In winter, when the lens/camera is cold, you don't clean off a lens, so you better not get it dirty. Anyway, some spots or dust on the front element won't hurt anything because that element is so far from the sensor. If the rear glass element has anything on it, that more seriously impacts image quality because it's so much closer to the sensor.

[311Hemi]

In winter, when the lens/camera is cold, you don't clean off a lens, so you better not get it dirty.

Good to know Steve, thanks. Is there a reason you don't clean of the lens in cold?

[Steve Foss]

You can brush off dust with a fine brush when it's all cold, but if you use anything at all moist to try to wipe off dust or spots in cold conditions, it'll turn the moisture to a thin coat of smeary ice, and you'll spend the next 25 minutes trying to get that off.

[Dbl]

I use Think Tank raingear for camera and lens. I shoot in some fairly nasty conditions and this stuff is a breeze to use. Easiest commercial gear I've seen to put on. I like the fact that it rolls up and stores on the front of the lens and when you need it you un-roll and it covers everything.

Works in rain, snow whatever. When I bought mine it only worked on 300 or larger glass. I believe they have one out now for the 70-200 class lens.

As Steve said don't ever try blowing on a cold lens, you will have issues for quite a while that are not great for taking pictures.

[CapnJack]

Hi all. While I own a cheap p&s digital I always love looking through this forum for all of the great photos. Recently I've been thinking about sticking my toe in the entry level dslr pond. Fear of water in a digital camera comes from experience. My old Olympus didn't like taking a face plant in a waist deep cold trout stream any more than I did! Anyway...

While a new slr would probably be too bulky to carry around fly fishing it would be riding around in my boat and fish trap. I've recently been considering the Olympus E-520 or the Pentax 200D. The Pentax is touted as having a weather resistant body with 60 seals. I understand that water could still get in around the lens and a weather sealed lens would also be needed. Now I know that some of you that responded to this thread use way better than entry level cameras that are also weather sealed yet still use a water proof cover. Are weather resistant features over stated? Or is this just peace of mind. Also could anyone comment on the two choices above for a first timer. The more research I do online the more confused I get. They all get picked apart pretty good. Most of the time it will be used for outdoors stuff with the usual Holiday family pics stuff thrown in. The Pentax while having no live view does have a much larger view finder and 11-point auto focus compared to the Olympus' 3- point. The Olympus more compact and lighter. Both have in body stabilization. Is live view all it's cracked up to be? Thanks for any help, Steve

[Steve Foss]

No DSLR is impervious to water, not even the top-line bodies. If you drop those bodies in the water, they are going to get ruined more times than not. That includes the lower priced ones that say they are weather sealed.

So even when I'm shooting with a top body, if I'm out in weather I'm using my lens/camera weather cover.

As for whether to buy one of those two cameras, I'm not going to try to talk you out of choosing one. In the end, my message is to try them all in your hands and see which one suits you better.

However, the only thing they might have going for them over the Canon/Nikon entry level bodies is the in-camera stabilization. The in-camera kinds do well with wide-angle lenses out to about 100 to 150mm, but because of the vagaries of stabilization the in-camera kind doesn't work as well on telephoto lenses. And it's with the telephoto that the stabilization really helps you out.

Canon/Nikon, in contrast, don't offer in-camera stabilization but do offer lineups of stabilized lenses (image stabilization for Canon and vibration reduction for Nikon). They are more expensive than non-IS lenses, but then again you'd probably only need to buy one stabilized lens, because it's not that important for wider angle work.

For my money, the reasons to stick with Canon or Nikon is the large array of lenses and peripheral gear they offer. Simply put, you have a lot of lens choices with Nikon and even more with Canon. This will matter more if you end up getting heavily into photography and less if it's just going to stay a casual thing.

So all that being said, I'd restate that it's a great idea to go hold the E-520, 200D, Nikon D80 and Canon XSi in your hands. Put lenses on them. Work the controls. Buy the one that feels best in your paws. You can't go wrong with any of the entry level DSLR cameras. For that matter, you can find a middle-level Nikon or Canon body one or two generations old (like the Nikon D200 or Canon 30D) for the same money you'd pay for a new entry level body (sorry to complicate things). The image quality in those cameras isn't any better than the entry level bodies, they simply have more features that the entry level ones don't. Again, not a consideration if you're going to be a casual shooter but worth thinking about if you already know you're going to get serious with photography.