Weatherproofing - Lifespan

Just had my four year old K3 in for a minor repair to the SD card door and have had an advisory that the seals are showing signs of corrosion..... Clearly if one takes moody landscapes in wet and windy conditions, or one spends time in humid and steamy jungles the seals are going to be stressed somewhat. What sort of longevity should we be expecting from the weatherproofing?

Thanks John, appreciated.

I also would add that Pentax SLR cameras are NOT "waterproof"

If I buy a weather-resistant product and look after it properly I expect it to stay like that for a very long time, not just four years or less!

Then your living in cloud cuckoo land. Any water sealing will wear as it's opened & closed. This is no doubt the main reason no camera manufacturer quotes an ingress protection rating for a DSLR.

Water resistant watches generally loose there rating if the battery is replaced. If they don't is because the seals have been replaced at the same time as the battery.

A friend of mine does underwater photography around the world using expensive housings rated to 100m+ every time he dives he pressure checks the housing to ensure it's still pressure tight. On one of his trips there was someone else who was less careful - they lost use of their camera on day 1 and had to spend the rest of the week on the dive boat without a camera.

It would be possible to make a fully sealed compact camera if Data transfer from the non removable media was via something like bluetooth & charging was via an inductive pad...

My K3ii failed on a recent holiday to Zimbabwe where spray and rain from Victoria Falls entered the camera which was being used with the WR 16-85mm lens. The LCD steamed up within 15 minutes of being at the falls! The camera was 18 months old and it killed the light meter. For the rest of the holiday I used manual - never had to think about exposure so much since the early 1980s!

Pentax are not interested in honouring the warranty and say it was being used in conditions it could not cope with. It is sold as being able to be used in 'severe conditions including rain'. My dispute with Pentax has been going on since late February and as yet, despite repeated attempts by Johnson's (the official repairers) over the last week to get a final decision from Pentax as to what refurbished K3ii body they are going to offer me (for which I am being asked to pay) they have not even bothered to reply to Johnson's. Truly dreadful customer service by Pentax - in fact I don't think it could have been worse.

In short, based on my experience, users of the K3 should not trust the weather sealing.

Sorry you've had problems with it. It does seem that WR has worked for some when testing it though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0nFu3dm-Gc
Pentax cameras aren't designated as fully waterproof so the older they are the more susceptible they're going to be to water ingress, though in this case it sounds to be more the humidity of the air was the issue.
It's the same with so called waterproof watches, open them to change the battery and they'll likely not be waterproof any more.
If you used the zoom the 16-85mm does not zoom internally so that humid air and even water can be sucked into the camera.
Did the camera still have the flash socket cover in situ? They often go missing accidentally or on purpose and might prove an entry point for moisture along with worn battery and SD card flap seals, and then there's the hdmi cover so it's hard to say why it failed you.
Yes you're right to suggest not to trust it! Notwithstanding, hope you got some great photos regardless.

My only experience of water in a camera was a film era SFXn which got so wet I had to remove the lens and drain the mirror box - still worked flawlessly afterwards. My Z-1 (not supposedly sealed) was thouroghly drowned in dust at Manchester airport (made it's way into all the control recesses), again no problems. My WR Zoom 90 compact has been sozzled in countless pints over the years - "It's water resistant!" splosh...

I don't have any weather sealed lenses, I wouldn't use my K-5 in the wet, but I'm happy to use a mechanical film camera and cheap lenses in any conditions.

You wouldn’t be happy if your car or your windows leaked in that time, what’s the difference? My Leica binoculars have never leaked, my German watch has never leaked (no batteries). If building and engineering structures leaked in such a short time there would be legal action before you could blink. It’s down to good design, quality control and durable materials.

The weather sealing on the Sony A7rIII looks to be very poor at the bottom of the camera from this report. Particularly around the tripod bush. Supposed to be a PRO Camera

https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2018/02/taking-apart-the-sony-a7riii-in-search-...
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The other man's grass isn't always drier

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Such a shame they put so much effort into weathersealing the camera except for the part most vulnerable to, say, a small puddle of spilt beer.

Rules in this country according to law( no I cannot quote the law)
state the issue should be taken up with the retailer

Regards

But cars and windows do leak. They have opening device to gain entry or let the air in. Have you not seen the reports of cars, homes and shops after flooding? Non are waterproof, if they were they'd be no air replacement and anyone in them would suffocate without a dedicated life support system like the space station! We're talking consumer cameras here, not life support equipment.
If someone wants a waterproof (as opposed to weatherproof) camera, they should buy one sold for the purpose.
Notwithstanding, it might be worth checking to see if the camera is covered under the home insurance policy, and if not this time, specifically include it in the future. Or you just take the risk personally.

https://www.switchbacktravel.com/weather-sealed-dslr-cameras-list

Something like this might help in adverse conditions as it's designed to be waterproof. DSLRs certainly aren't.
Or speak to these people.

I'm not sure those Youtube videos of people holding their camera under a running tap are being particularly helpful and anyone relying on an unprotected camera to be waterproof is being somewhat naive.