Posted by Ed Wetschler on October 2, 2011 at 11:28pm
Your advice, please: A month from now I'll be hiking in a fairly rainy area with my Canon SLR and a telefoto lens that's about six inches long. How do you protect your gear from rain?
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That's a tough one Ed. My Olympus E-3 is splash-proof and has been fully tested in full drenching rain storms and fire/rescue operations. Before that however, I was up the creek along with everything else. Frankly the best advice I can give is keep it under you poncho, shoot briefly preferably under an umbrella (courteously held by a companion), or duck under any overhang and shoot out into the rain.
As far as just traveling with the gear, my last canoe trip I put each piece into its own ziploc bag, put it in my gear bag and put my gear bag inside a dry bag that I had lined with a contrators garbage bag for extra protection. This is obviously overkill for just a rainy hike, but I was protecting it in case of a spill. I put a life-jacket on my tripod!
So it really is dependent on how rainy the rain is. If we're talking Amazon tropics you would be well served to keep some silica gel in your gear bag. (Rice gets soggy ;-) )
If it's a hike through the Pacific Northwest just keeping out of the rain should do.
Over the years i have tried all sorts of contraptions from sealed bags for underwater use to custom made rain hoods for the camera/lens combo. Most of these 'hoods' required you to attach the protective canopy to the lens via the fillter threads.
I found all of these cumbersome and of little use as the condensation and drips off the hands still made it to the camera.
So the rule is if you can keep yourself dry, then that's where the camera should be.
Carry plenty of micro pore lens cloths (in separate little baggies, so as one gets wet you still have adry one) and maybe a couple of those squished camping towels. Wipe often.
Good luick.
Where you goin?
=jim=
Ed Wetschler > Jim DeLilloOctober 3, 2011 at 4:01am
All good advice, Jim, for which I thank you. In fact, I'm still wowed by the piece you wrote on drying out your camera. I'm going to New Zealand, where I'll be hiking on the Queen Charlotte Sound Track in November.
Replies
Ed, I've used several different covers. Right now I like http://optechusa.com/rainsleeve.html they are cheap. If you expecting rough usage I suggest the http://www.stormjacket.com/SJ1.html . My What's New In Photography page on Facebook features new stuff like this all the time.
You can find several rain sleeves here - http://store.forestwander.com/index.php?k=rain+sleeve&c=13
I bought a rain sleeve a few months ago and they work really well.
For $15 or $20 it is a good investment.
Brilliant -- I like it! Many thanks, N.P.
That's a tough one Ed. My Olympus E-3 is splash-proof and has been fully tested in full drenching rain storms and fire/rescue operations. Before that however, I was up the creek along with everything else. Frankly the best advice I can give is keep it under you poncho, shoot briefly preferably under an umbrella (courteously held by a companion), or duck under any overhang and shoot out into the rain.
As far as just traveling with the gear, my last canoe trip I put each piece into its own ziploc bag, put it in my gear bag and put my gear bag inside a dry bag that I had lined with a contrators garbage bag for extra protection. This is obviously overkill for just a rainy hike, but I was protecting it in case of a spill. I put a life-jacket on my tripod!
So it really is dependent on how rainy the rain is. If we're talking Amazon tropics you would be well served to keep some silica gel in your gear bag. (Rice gets soggy ;-) )
If it's a hike through the Pacific Northwest just keeping out of the rain should do.
Over the years i have tried all sorts of contraptions from sealed bags for underwater use to custom made rain hoods for the camera/lens combo. Most of these 'hoods' required you to attach the protective canopy to the lens via the fillter threads.
I found all of these cumbersome and of little use as the condensation and drips off the hands still made it to the camera.
So the rule is if you can keep yourself dry, then that's where the camera should be.
Carry plenty of micro pore lens cloths (in separate little baggies, so as one gets wet you still have adry one) and maybe a couple of those squished camping towels. Wipe often.
Good luick.
Where you goin?
=jim=