Question for L owners

One of the selling points, and reason for the increased price, of the L series of lenses are their environmental seals. Or said another way their ability to stand up better to harsh environments like wet and dusty.

My question is what has been your experience with L in these situation. Do they stand up to harsh environments?

Are there stories of non-Ls standing up to harsh environemnts?

Not all L lenses have the weather sealing.

And they are only truely sealed if you have a 1 series body.

I'd say the weather sealing is an advantage, but in most cases not a selling point.

Overall build quality on the other hand. It's not really something you can explain i guess as i never really grasped what people meant until mine came in the mail. It's just so smooth and solid, and i got the same impression from my bosses L lens (mine is 70-200 his is 17-40)

Not all L glass is sealed. the 100-400 is not sealed. the push/pull zoom can't be sealed and it doesn't hve a gasket on the mount.

I have had mine is damp conditions to a misting rain. With the 1D being "sealed" and the 70-200 being "sealed" I felt OK getting it damp. For a blinding rain and mud, I would probably back up it's seal with some type of weather protection...

I have heard that to truely make the 70-200 seal, you need to run it with a filter attached.

The 300 f2.8 has a large hood to protect the front element from the weather, i.e. dirt, rain, snow. But I would still cover it if I had plans on shooting in a down pour.

Better safe than sorry.

This is true, not all L lenses are sealed...

However, this is NOT true. Even with the 1 series bodies, those L lenses that are not weather-sealed will still not be weather-sealed. The 100-400 IS L, for example, is one of them.

[edit] Rereading Timmy's post, I guess he was talking about the sealed lenses being sealed only with the 1 series lenses. In that case, he is absolutely correct. The weather-sealed 70-200 IS L, for example, won't do much to protect the 10D or the 20D when it comes pouring down.

what they said.... if the body isn't weather sealed, then the lens doesn't really matter.... I'm not about to take a shower with my rebel even though my 17-40 is sealed
BTW are there any weahter sealed flashes? 580EX?

No, you want to talk about frustration....

Picture this, a guy from the paper with a brand new 1D MKII, a sealed 300mm f/2.8 and a 550EX.

It's starting to rain, and he is forced to cover his camera with a black garbage bag simply because canon forgot to weather seal their pro flashes

I was really hoping they'd seal the 580...but they didnt.

timmyquest wrote:
No, you want to talk about frustration....

Picture this, a guy from the paper with a brand new 1D MKII, a sealed 300mm f/2.8 and a 550EX.

It's starting to rain, and he is forced to cover his camera with a black garbage bag simply because canon forgot to weather seal their pro flashes

I was really hoping they'd seal the 580...but they didnt.

I think Pekka raised this a while ago. I seriously doubt you'll see a regular flash that's weather-sealed because you're dealing with some very high voltages inside, and the trigger circuits are exposed through the hot-shoe. So they'd also have to weather-seal the flash-camera connection, without making the flash incompatible with any of the other Eos cameras (or the G series!) and while ensuring a secure electrical contact between flash and camera. This is necessary both for reliability (don't want moisture shorting the circuit and having the flash go off prematurely) and safety (really don't want high voltage leaking out and being conducted around by the water film over everything). If you really want to be that weather-tight, I have two words for you: Nikonos, Ikelite.

So is there any way of telling which L lenses are weatherized and which are not?

Someone posted a list just a little while back.
Search

voila:

http://www.photography​-on-the.net …&highlight=weat​her+sealed

Canon's EF Lens brochure should be definitive.

What weather sealing? bought them for the optics.

Jon wrote:
Canon's EF Lens brochure should be definitive.

Yes, but dated. Is it current?

Have Fun,

So what's the newest L? All I can think of are on there.

Yup. Just take a look at the lens mount. If there's a rubber seal ring around it, then it's weather sealed.

BTW, the new TCs are weather sealed, too.