5d Mark III weather sealing

Might get some rain this weekend, and I'm 2nd shooting a wedding. of course it has to be outdoors

I'll stick to the 50mm f/1.2L, the 24-70 F4L IS, and 70-200mm F4L IS. All have ass-end gaskets, but will a little sprinkling ruin my 5dIII? My plan is to shoot that outdoors, wipe it off, turn it off, take out the battery, and shoot the deception indoors on my 6D while the 5d dries out for the evening.

We need to get DigitalRevTV to put a 5dIII in the dishwasher or something

I've done several trips to rainforest regions with the 5D3 and at times it saw heavy rain for several days. Never had an issue because of it and I don't typically bother with any kind of protection.

i have also used my 5d3 in the rain on a number of occasions, without any protection, and had no problems doing so. They do have a decent level of sealing on them, but they are not as well sealed as a 1d series and are NOT "waterproof".

You should have no problem using it in the rain, but there are no cast iron guarantees.

Thanks. I suppose that's not enough of a dire warning to tell my wife I need to buy a 1Dx now

I suppose changing lenses too much to be the biggest risk. That sounds like the area that water will get in the easiest.

Silver-Halide wrote in post #17815683
I suppose changing lenses too much to be the biggest risk. That sounds like the area that water will get in the easiest.

Yeah, I try and avoid lens swapping in the rain if I can. Fortunately, I have 3 bodies so can mount different lenses and cover my options that way usually. If I do have to change a lens in the rain, i try and get under some sort of cover if possible, keep the camera pointing downwards and try and get the rear lens caps on / off as quickly as possible to prevent drips getting in the back end of the lens. The weather sealing won't help when you have a damn great hole open in the front of the camera, but as long as you keep the hole pointing down it shouldn't get rain in.

Take care and you should be fine, these things are pretty robust and can take a fair bit of abuse / wetting, but it doesn't hurt to be cautious of course and take sensible precautions where you can.

Is the 6D as sealed as the 5dIII? I'm guessing Lens Rentals has done a tear down of both at some time, or maybe Canon Rumors?
If the 6d < 5d3 I'll probably just shoot the 70-200mm on the 5d. Otherwise I'll shoot the 24-70 on the 6d as needed. The 50 1.2 is comparatively more useful indoors.

I never use my kit in the rain, but if you have to cant you get one of those rain hood things

If it were my 5D3, I'd buy a rain cover for it. Why take a chance the rain covers are what... all of $10?

Silver-Halide wrote in post #17815705
Is the 6D as sealed as the 5dIII? I'm guessing Lens Rentals has done a tear down of both at some time, or maybe Canon Rumors?
If the 6d < 5d3 I'll probably just shoot the 70-200mm on the 5d. Otherwise I'll shoot the 24-70 on the 6d as needed. The 50 1.2 is comparatively more useful indoors.

I haven't used the 6D but from what I have seen and read elsewhere, it isn't as well sealed as the 5D3. There are illustrations around that show the gaskets and seals on the two cameras and there aren't as many on the 6D. I imagine that it would still take a moderate degree of wetting in it's stride, but there will be a higher chance of a drop of water just managing to get through the seals if fate isn't on your side.

My older bodies have significantly less sealing than the 6D but survived use in light rain with no major issues, and heavier rain with a supermarket carrier bag over them keeping the worst off. I say no "major" issues because there were a few times when water got in and the controls and displays went into a hissyfit. On each occasion I shut them down, dropped the battery out, towelled them down when I got the chance and put them somewhere dry. The next day they were back to normal and showed no remaining ill effects. My oldest (a 20D and 5Dc) first got wet many years ago and still work today, so there has been no ongoing corrosion eating away at them unseen.

There is always some risk in using a camera in the rain, the 5d3 will be the lowest risk of the two.

I shot the Scott Kelby Photo Walk in October in drizzle with a Rebel XSi, EF-S 18-135, and a Hoya Skylight. Every 5 minutes or so I had to dry the skylight with a paper towel; otherwise the camera wouldn't focus. This is a camera that is anything but wx sealed. It survived just fine. I also did NYC in late summer with the 5DMIII and 24-105 in light rain, no skylight. It also survived just fine.

If you've got a skylight or UV, I'd use it as Canon's info indicates you need something on the end of the lens to ensure it is wx sealed. If you don't have one, you're kinda on your own, but I was impressed with what the Rebel could handle.

Regarding DRTv, Kai would just throw it into the ocean on a rope, and then drag it out. He'd then dry it with a blow torch. All class. (Me shakes me head.)

Good luck!

I've taken my 5D2 out in light showers without any ill-effects. Probably the wettest it got was while on a trip to Chicago earlier this year. I was out for an evening photo walk and it was out in a drizzle for an extended period of time (see photo below). Worked great the entire time and haven't had any trouble with it in the 6 months since then.

Two months ago I photographed a college football game and there were very light showers off and on during the game. I had a hand towel with me and kept that draped over my camera to keep the water off (I was more concerned about my 100-400 v1, which doesn't have weather sealing). I also bought some Optech plastic bag style rain sleeves just in case the rain got worse. They were about $10 if I remember right…cheap insurance.

I would add that it's probably best not to open up the camera battery door or change lenses while the camera is wet. When you open the battery door or change lenses, there is a much bigger chance of some water seeping in to places it shouldn't be. Trust the seals to do their job keeping the water out.

I shoot in the rain a bit with my cameras, just had my 1DIV and 5DII out in a good downpour and suffered no ill effects.

I always always have a towel or micro fibre cloth in my pocket for these situation, sometimes ill leave it draped over the camera if its heavy enough, but i absolutely have o issues shooting in the rain with all my bodies. Heres my 5D3, pretty much spent its day getting wiped then soaked again. No worries at all.

Also a filter will complete your weather sealing if you need it, all my lenses bar my 17-40 have hoods large enough to not worry about filters.

Submariner wrote in post #17815772
I never use my kit in the rain, but if you have to cant you get one of those rain hood things

Yes, what Mark said. Cheap insurance.