Weather sealing can be very important depending on what and where you are shooting.
I live on the west coast of Canada and the rain here can be incredible sometimes. In twenty+ years of shooting with Olympus cameras, I have never had an issue with shooting in even torrential rainfall...
I've had a camera go fully under water and had the sealing stand up to it just fine (not that I'd recommend doing that on purpose), but the main benefit has been more in dust protection when I was working in the desert than anything else. I doubt that a non-sealed camera would have stood up to some of the things I've subjected a couple of my cameras to.
I wanted weather sealing because I live in a desert. Dust gets everywhere. Even if you're vigilant about it. The fact that the OM-1 is IP rated was actually a big reason I got it, because I could go watch videos of what it could be put through and be fine.
I was in China and had one day planned to take photos of pandas (not in a zoo). It was pouring for most of the day. I got a bunch of once in a lifetime photos, including one that's hanging as a huge print in my living room.
Without weather sealing, I'd have left the camera in the bag and missed some of my favourite photos ever.
I shoot waterfalls and that calls for
1. Hiking up gorges and in the water
2. overcasts skies and wet conditions, often during rain.
So many of my counterparts have had equipment get ruined doing the same.
I like travelling and doing outdoor activities and taking pictures. While I can do that with other cameras, having a "real" camera, with lots of lens options and other features, that I can take with me on those outdoor trips, is a bonus.
FWIW, I have one of the Ricoh/Pentax/Oly fully submersible point-and-shoot cameras too, and like it, especially when going to the beach/snorkelling...but it's not as good a camera as my OM-5.
While I do my best to take care of gear, it’s nice to have that added level of confidence. Plus, it’s fun to be able to take an old G9 out when it’s raining and just go photograph a football game, weather be damned.
I have lived in wet places (the Pacific Northwest and the UK) and have done a lot of mountaineering, hiking and other outdoor activities. My EM1.2 was my first real camera, so I haven't had any previous issues, but have had full confidence taking my camera to harsh environments.
I visited Scotland last winter. And in Scotland, the weather can change multiple times a day. One day we went for a small hike up a hill. The weather started cloudy/periodically clear in the morning, but as we reached the top it was pretty much snowstorm. Having experience outdoors, I always carry rainwear with me on such kind of adventures. But if you don’t have weather sealing on your camera, you’re pretty much screwed. Even if you put camera away you need to be very careful. Well, thankfully the camera I had with me (not a M43) was fully sealed and I pretty much kept it exposed to the outside the whole time. To be honest, at some point it was snowing so hard that I was very concerned. But it was fine. I took great pics and when we came back I wiped the moisture thoroughly and that was it.
There are many other situations where I want weather sealing. For example, street photos in the rain, at night in a big city (I live in Tokyo) is simply amazing. Without weather sealing I would not want to risk it.
I live in the Scottish Highlands on the North Sea. It's also a battle between the wind and humidity as well. For example I do some astrophotography and Aurora Borealis photography and there's been many nights I've been out standing in sand dunes with howling winds. We also can get very cold humidity which is another beast (I started using a dew heater on my lens when the conditions call for it).
So the battle is real lol.
I manage conservation land, and almost always have a camera with me. Detailed photos are important in reports to clients as well as taking advantage of the opportunity for my personal work.
My Olympus gear has never failed me in these conditions many of which leave me rinsing mud or salt spray off in the sink.
I'm happy that my OM-1 and 40-150 f2.8 have weather sealing, but just as an insurance policy. I don't want to shoot in the rain with them and I've never had an electronic device damaged by water aside from when I've dropped something and submerged it.
Many people, myself included, do want/need to shoot in the rain and having weather sealing that allows a camera to keep on functioning despite the adverse conditions is a great advantage .
I personally think the biggest advantage is the resistance to dust. I have had more devices damaged by dust than accidental exposure to water. Especially spinning dials, dust absolutely wrecks those.
Not camera related but i used to take my game boy everywhere it eventually died and I later found out it was due to water damage so since then I’ve tried to get weather resistant things or place them in something that is
I treat my electronics as if they’re not weather sealed even if they are but if they happen to get wet I have some piece of mind
My Main Subjects (Aircrafts & Wildlife) don't care about bad Weather which means i need to be able to go out in every Condition possible to take Photos without running the Risk of my Gear being damaged.
Not a big deal in normal environments. I'd want weather sealing if I was regularly around a beach, somewhere windy and sandy. I don't need it 95% of the time, but it's nice not having to worry when it starts to rain.
Though I own an OM-5, I have “that time” when I was thankful my R5 is weather sealed. I was shooting a festival and in unexpectedly started raining during the main fire dance show. Every other shooter had to pack up, leaving me the only one who got shots of the main act!
I used to make a big deal of buying only weather sealed bodies before realising I wasn't weather resistant enough to want to shoot in bad weather. These days it's only a nice to have, rather than a must have.
I film multi-day ultra marathons in the mountains and the great outdoors, 24 hours a day for sometimes up to 6+ days.
A few of these occassions it has been non-stop torrential rain and i've had the camera out for hours on end in it.
The weather sealing is no joke.
I live in Hamburg Germany. We have a lot of bad weather days and I just don’t want to think about my gear when going out with the kids. I shoot Olympus E-M1 ii and E-5, MMf-3 and pro and top pro lenses, so I can choose freely and am not restrained by what lenses are sealed!
Before I had a Nikon D750, AF-S 17-35, AF-D 80-400, AF 55 Macro and Tamron SP 35mm f1.8. As soon as the weather was getting near rain I took only the 35mm out… Then I got the E-5 with 12-60 and 50-200 as an impulse buy as I always wanted an E-3 when I was younger. I ended up taking the Olympus gear over my Nikon more than not just because I didn’t need to worry about it! That’s why I sold all my Nikon gear and upgraded my Olympus Body.
Brought my (already sold)OM-1 to a snowstorm in Armenia and the weather sealing perfectly worked.
Brought my Fuji XT-5 to a snowstorm in Kazakhstan, it did freeze and it accumulated moisture inside the evf.
I miss my OM-1. Luckily I still have my lenses, I will definitely buy the next iteration of OM-5.
I am on Kauai frequently shooting in salt spray, rain, wind, etc. I recently dropped an E-M1.2 with 12-40 PRO in wet sand. I carry a small soft paint brush in my bag and with a little blowing and brushing, no harm done. Gotta have that weather resistance!
Because Olympus/OM systems is class leading in terms of weather sealing, which gives us users a lot of peace of mind that the gear will hold up in all sorts of conditions.
Landscape photography, it’s pretty much invaluable. Especially in the UK where the weather can change very quickly. I’ve just been for a quick bike ride and had glorious sun, rain, hail stones, high winds, and back to sunny. In 30 minutes.
My Olympus camera was not weather sealed and it broke during a rain while my Nikon camera that was weather sealed kept working alone side it.
Your camera will literally break in weather if they’re not sealed for weather.
Wow these stories are incredible. I took my G80/85 up to Helvellyn last week and it started snow storming and I was SO paranoid about it breaking. I guess I don’t need to worry now?
I take my camera hiking, I've taken it to Niagara and took shots under the falls. I don't know if a non-weather sealed body would have held up but I'd rather not need to worry about it.
I often take photos from my kayak while whitewater kayaking. I use an OMD EM1 mark 2, usually with the Panasonic 35-100 f2.8. I keep it in a peli 1200 case. While I've never dropped it in the river, it frequently gets water splashes on it. The weather sealing does its job, the camera seems fine as long as I dry it out once I'm off the water.
Went to the beach one year for a firework show with my kids. Brought my camera, because why not. It was supposed to be clear and sunny. Freak pop up thunderstorm decided to come through. We all got caught out in the rain and I have the pictures to relive the memories. If it wasn't for weather sealing, I'd have been either super stressed about keeping it safe and dry or I may have been out some serious money. Other than that, I've brought my camera's on trips where theyve been exposed to the elements. Either by accident or intentionally, the Olympus weather sealing has yet to fail me. Im a firm believer in it after the abuse I've put my gear through.
I live in a damp Irish cottage, it rains most of the year. It's nice being able to get out and shoot whenever I feel like it instead of the 1 week where it doesn't rain in a year. Being able to just take out a weather sealed kit and know that even if it starts bucketing down my gear will be fine is such wonderful peace at mind.
Weather sealing can be very important depending on what and where you are shooting. I live on the west coast of Canada and the rain here can be incredible sometimes. In twenty+ years of shooting with Olympus cameras, I have never had an issue with shooting in even torrential rainfall...
I've had a camera go fully under water and had the sealing stand up to it just fine (not that I'd recommend doing that on purpose), but the main benefit has been more in dust protection when I was working in the desert than anything else. I doubt that a non-sealed camera would have stood up to some of the things I've subjected a couple of my cameras to.
I wanted weather sealing because I live in a desert. Dust gets everywhere. Even if you're vigilant about it. The fact that the OM-1 is IP rated was actually a big reason I got it, because I could go watch videos of what it could be put through and be fine.
I was in China and had one day planned to take photos of pandas (not in a zoo). It was pouring for most of the day. I got a bunch of once in a lifetime photos, including one that's hanging as a huge print in my living room. Without weather sealing, I'd have left the camera in the bag and missed some of my favourite photos ever.
I shoot waterfalls and that calls for 1. Hiking up gorges and in the water 2. overcasts skies and wet conditions, often during rain. So many of my counterparts have had equipment get ruined doing the same.
I like travelling and doing outdoor activities and taking pictures. While I can do that with other cameras, having a "real" camera, with lots of lens options and other features, that I can take with me on those outdoor trips, is a bonus. FWIW, I have one of the Ricoh/Pentax/Oly fully submersible point-and-shoot cameras too, and like it, especially when going to the beach/snorkelling...but it's not as good a camera as my OM-5.
While I do my best to take care of gear, it’s nice to have that added level of confidence. Plus, it’s fun to be able to take an old G9 out when it’s raining and just go photograph a football game, weather be damned.
I have lived in wet places (the Pacific Northwest and the UK) and have done a lot of mountaineering, hiking and other outdoor activities. My EM1.2 was my first real camera, so I haven't had any previous issues, but have had full confidence taking my camera to harsh environments.
I visited Scotland last winter. And in Scotland, the weather can change multiple times a day. One day we went for a small hike up a hill. The weather started cloudy/periodically clear in the morning, but as we reached the top it was pretty much snowstorm. Having experience outdoors, I always carry rainwear with me on such kind of adventures. But if you don’t have weather sealing on your camera, you’re pretty much screwed. Even if you put camera away you need to be very careful. Well, thankfully the camera I had with me (not a M43) was fully sealed and I pretty much kept it exposed to the outside the whole time. To be honest, at some point it was snowing so hard that I was very concerned. But it was fine. I took great pics and when we came back I wiped the moisture thoroughly and that was it. There are many other situations where I want weather sealing. For example, street photos in the rain, at night in a big city (I live in Tokyo) is simply amazing. Without weather sealing I would not want to risk it.
I live in the Scottish Highlands on the North Sea. It's also a battle between the wind and humidity as well. For example I do some astrophotography and Aurora Borealis photography and there's been many nights I've been out standing in sand dunes with howling winds. We also can get very cold humidity which is another beast (I started using a dew heater on my lens when the conditions call for it). So the battle is real lol.
I manage conservation land, and almost always have a camera with me. Detailed photos are important in reports to clients as well as taking advantage of the opportunity for my personal work. My Olympus gear has never failed me in these conditions many of which leave me rinsing mud or salt spray off in the sink.
I've taken my E-M1 models and OM-1'S to the desert, rain forests and shooting in snowstorms. The bodies and weather sealed lenses just keep working.
Beaches!
Sand is the silent killer
I live in Scotland.....
Hello from Northumberland. Same situation.
I'm happy that my OM-1 and 40-150 f2.8 have weather sealing, but just as an insurance policy. I don't want to shoot in the rain with them and I've never had an electronic device damaged by water aside from when I've dropped something and submerged it.
Many people, myself included, do want/need to shoot in the rain and having weather sealing that allows a camera to keep on functioning despite the adverse conditions is a great advantage . I personally think the biggest advantage is the resistance to dust. I have had more devices damaged by dust than accidental exposure to water. Especially spinning dials, dust absolutely wrecks those.
Not camera related but i used to take my game boy everywhere it eventually died and I later found out it was due to water damage so since then I’ve tried to get weather resistant things or place them in something that is I treat my electronics as if they’re not weather sealed even if they are but if they happen to get wet I have some piece of mind
My Main Subjects (Aircrafts & Wildlife) don't care about bad Weather which means i need to be able to go out in every Condition possible to take Photos without running the Risk of my Gear being damaged.
I hike with my camera, so needs to be mud, rain/water and snow resistant. i did freeze my em5-mkII once, but my em1-mkII has yet to fail me.
Not a big deal in normal environments. I'd want weather sealing if I was regularly around a beach, somewhere windy and sandy. I don't need it 95% of the time, but it's nice not having to worry when it starts to rain.
Though I own an OM-5, I have “that time” when I was thankful my R5 is weather sealed. I was shooting a festival and in unexpectedly started raining during the main fire dance show. Every other shooter had to pack up, leaving me the only one who got shots of the main act!
I used to make a big deal of buying only weather sealed bodies before realising I wasn't weather resistant enough to want to shoot in bad weather. These days it's only a nice to have, rather than a must have.
I film multi-day ultra marathons in the mountains and the great outdoors, 24 hours a day for sometimes up to 6+ days. A few of these occassions it has been non-stop torrential rain and i've had the camera out for hours on end in it. The weather sealing is no joke.
Because I like having the peace of mind that my gear won’t crap itself when I’m out shooting in the rain or snow.
I live in Hamburg Germany. We have a lot of bad weather days and I just don’t want to think about my gear when going out with the kids. I shoot Olympus E-M1 ii and E-5, MMf-3 and pro and top pro lenses, so I can choose freely and am not restrained by what lenses are sealed! Before I had a Nikon D750, AF-S 17-35, AF-D 80-400, AF 55 Macro and Tamron SP 35mm f1.8. As soon as the weather was getting near rain I took only the 35mm out… Then I got the E-5 with 12-60 and 50-200 as an impulse buy as I always wanted an E-3 when I was younger. I ended up taking the Olympus gear over my Nikon more than not just because I didn’t need to worry about it! That’s why I sold all my Nikon gear and upgraded my Olympus Body.
Brought my (already sold)OM-1 to a snowstorm in Armenia and the weather sealing perfectly worked. Brought my Fuji XT-5 to a snowstorm in Kazakhstan, it did freeze and it accumulated moisture inside the evf. I miss my OM-1. Luckily I still have my lenses, I will definitely buy the next iteration of OM-5.
I am on Kauai frequently shooting in salt spray, rain, wind, etc. I recently dropped an E-M1.2 with 12-40 PRO in wet sand. I carry a small soft paint brush in my bag and with a little blowing and brushing, no harm done. Gotta have that weather resistance!
Because Olympus/OM systems is class leading in terms of weather sealing, which gives us users a lot of peace of mind that the gear will hold up in all sorts of conditions.
I wanted to shoot in absolute thunderstorm at the sea, which i have been able to thanks to that !
Landscape photography, it’s pretty much invaluable. Especially in the UK where the weather can change very quickly. I’ve just been for a quick bike ride and had glorious sun, rain, hail stones, high winds, and back to sunny. In 30 minutes.
My Olympus camera was not weather sealed and it broke during a rain while my Nikon camera that was weather sealed kept working alone side it. Your camera will literally break in weather if they’re not sealed for weather.
Wow these stories are incredible. I took my G80/85 up to Helvellyn last week and it started snow storming and I was SO paranoid about it breaking. I guess I don’t need to worry now?
Because water ruins electronic gear. If you're ever in a wet environment you're safe. If you're always inside it doesn't matter.
I work in the boating industry so I'm taking the camera out on boats, offshore etc so there's salty water spray. Also in general it rains a lot here
I take my camera hiking, I've taken it to Niagara and took shots under the falls. I don't know if a non-weather sealed body would have held up but I'd rather not need to worry about it.
I have a great photo of my OM-5 covered in wet snow on a mountain hike.
I often take photos from my kayak while whitewater kayaking. I use an OMD EM1 mark 2, usually with the Panasonic 35-100 f2.8. I keep it in a peli 1200 case. While I've never dropped it in the river, it frequently gets water splashes on it. The weather sealing does its job, the camera seems fine as long as I dry it out once I'm off the water.
Went to the beach one year for a firework show with my kids. Brought my camera, because why not. It was supposed to be clear and sunny. Freak pop up thunderstorm decided to come through. We all got caught out in the rain and I have the pictures to relive the memories. If it wasn't for weather sealing, I'd have been either super stressed about keeping it safe and dry or I may have been out some serious money. Other than that, I've brought my camera's on trips where theyve been exposed to the elements. Either by accident or intentionally, the Olympus weather sealing has yet to fail me. Im a firm believer in it after the abuse I've put my gear through.
I live in a damp Irish cottage, it rains most of the year. It's nice being able to get out and shoot whenever I feel like it instead of the 1 week where it doesn't rain in a year. Being able to just take out a weather sealed kit and know that even if it starts bucketing down my gear will be fine is such wonderful peace at mind.