weather sealing.

hi i know that the k10 and k20 and k200 and k7 have weather sealing and also that you need a weather sealed lens to make use of it,
but what is the worst weather you have used your kit in and has it caused any problems,
i have seen canon and nikons out in bad weather at football matches and rugby (sporting events), never pentax olympus and sony.
how confident are people in there weather sealing.

thanks in advance.

I have never seen Pentax out full stop (apart from once at the Red Arrows).
Pentax weather sealing is supposedly one of the best there is but I have never wanted to find out if that's true or not. For some reason its not the camera that worries me (my K10D is past it anyway) but taking such an expensive lens out in the pouring rain doesn't do much for me

One of my worries when using the big 100-300mm zoom is always that the camera won't fit in the bag with it (as my first move in the event of rain would be to put it back in the bag and get the Lowepro "AW" weather cover around the lot). Luckily I think the weather cover is stretchy enough to go over the bag with the camera jammed in the top rather than properly stowed!

I would mostly be worried about the lens mount area - surely this must be the weak point even if both camera and lens are the WR versions?

I use my DA18-55 and Tamron 70-300 when it rains - neither is weather sealed, but at the same time I didn't pay much for either so it wouldn't be the end of the world if they did get ruined (I'd be a lot more upset to lose the FA77 for instance!).

As it happens though neither has come to any harm, despite me continuing to shoot in torrential conditions where rain has run in rivers over the camera. I do try and keep them pointing down so the lens mount isn't directly exposed (just lifting up to shoot) and I never return them to the camera bag wet - I wait until I get back to the car then towel them down before leaving them out to dry properly at their own pace.

So far so good and some of my favourite shots have been in downpours when other snappers have gone running for cover.

I used my K10D in a monsoon in Blackpool Had the 50-135 on and no problem whatsoever. The sealing really does work.

I recently used my K200 in atrocious weather in spain.

The only problem was the non sealed Sigma lens fogging up when we went into bars!

See the pics on these threads,
https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/topic/sunny-girona--18540
https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/topic/more-from-sunny----girona-18550.

Incidently the little Optio E50 isn't waterproof but survived no trouble!

I was in a guest house in S Africa recently and there were some birds at the far end of the pool and I thought some ground level shots would be nice.

Another "rather snooty" guest had his Nikon out and was treating it like a baby!

I just picked up the K20D with DA*50-135 and walked straight into the pool with it. Even being splashed by someone swimming past did not worry me.

The Nikon poseurs face was an absolute picture - I wish I had captured it! I then took great delight in telling him how weather resistant the camera and lens were.

My K20D ended up half in and half out of a stream on the beach. Not by design I hasten to add. The camera survived fine although, oddly, it did for the battery in the grip. The lens is another story but it is all OK now.

K.

I used my K10D several times in the rain with a non WR lens, of course I was carefull and kept wiping the lens dry, especially around the mount, I never bothered about the body.
I have since use both the K10 and K20 with WR lenses and not had any problems whatsoever, the worst conditions were in Glastonbury last year when my K20 and 16-50DA were literally dripping water.

A couple of years ago I fell headlong into a Welsh stream, cracking my head on the rocks and breaking my glasses. The K10 was submerged in the muddy stream.

After we were both recovered by the laughing hordes ( friends ) I took the camera and tipped a 2 litre bottle of clean water over it to wash the mud off then wiped it down with some tissues.

Then I washed the blood off my head and got into some dry clothes and carried on taking pictures, and competing in the off road 4x4 trial I was also driving in. Mud, water, dust dirt and rain are a constant part of our sport, which is why I chose the K10.

I've used it in torrential rain with no problems at all, it's been dropped a few times and when I'm driving I just give it to the nearest person and they take pictures with it. it's a remarkable tool in that respect, it's a tough bit of kit.

Last year I walked around with both a K200D and a K20D and shot picture after picture in a torrential downpour at an outdoor Elvis Tribute concert.
The pictures because of my skill of course are pathetic, but the faces of those "other" camera people crammed under a tent was worth getting soaked to the skin. The Pentax gear came away totally unscathed!! YAY for the weather sealing.

Stephen

Simple answer is that I am very confidant with the weather sealing!

Personally, I was one of those that appreciated it, but never wanted to try it! That changed when I had the K-7 on test for a couple of weeks before it came out, and on the next day at the zoo, it promptly chucked it down!

For testing purposes, I got out of the car, and put the camera out on a table and left it there for 10 minutes. Even though I was thinking 'that's my new DA* 60-250 on the line here!', the idea was that it wasn't my camera, and if it couldn't cope with some rain, muggins here was gonna find out. It didn't faze it at all. Quite boring really, it just carried on working.

In all honestly, you will probably find that you will give up shooting in the rain before the camera does, but the looks of all those previously smug looking other brand shooters genuinely is priceless!!

My K20 has been totally covered in snow and ice, I just wished I had another cammera with me to get a picture of it

Mine has been used in a couple of rainstorms in the Pacific North West - you only get one chance at a photo then you will take it even in the pouring rain. I was soaked to the skin, but the camera was fine. And that without weather sealed lenses.

It has also been out to sea, Orca watching, in the rain and survived. But then again so did my Ds. When I went whale watching in New England it rained all day but the Ds survived it no problem at all. Both times with the Bigma on the camera, so again not weather sealed.

Glad you've got your priorities sorted out! Camera first, bleeding head wound second