Covering a DSLR

[MLeeK]

I use the rainsleeves through football season. Love them!

So they work pretty well?

Yes, they do. I cinch the lens end onto the lens hood and they are shaped for your arm to go in. You slip off the protective eye piece on your cam, slip it back on with the eye piece hole in place. Works great-until you tilt your cam towards the sky, then you have to clean the lens. I've done that a time or two!
depending on what lens you are using you may want to get a different hood to offer you a little front element protection

 

[Netskimmer]

I hear bread bags work well, never tried it though.

 

[jonathon94]

I use the rainsleeves through football season. Love them!

So they work pretty well?

Yes, they do. I cinch the lens end onto the lens hood and they are shaped for your arm to go in. You slip off the protective eye piece on your cam, slip it back on with the eye piece hole in place. Works great-until you tilt your cam towards the sky, then you have to clean the lens. I've done that a time or two!
depending on what lens you are using you may want to get a different hood to offer you a little front element protection

I may get a UV filter for that purpose

-Please ignore typos I'm currently on my phone-

 

[MLeeK]

So they work pretty well?

Yes, they do. I cinch the lens end onto the lens hood and they are shaped for your arm to go in. You slip off the protective eye piece on your cam, slip it back on with the eye piece hole in place. Works great-until you tilt your cam towards the sky, then you have to clean the lens. I've done that a time or two!
depending on what lens you are using you may want to get a different hood to offer you a little front element protection

I may get a UV filter for that purpose

-Please ignore typos I'm currently on my phone-

The only thing a filter is going to do is keep the rain off your front element, it's not going to stop the rain spots if the rain is allowed to hit the front of the filter.

 

[Crollo]

I've heard about this radical new invention called an umbrella, apparently its pretty good at keeping things dry in the rain.

Yeah except for handling the camera effectively without having to buy a unnecessarily expensive cumbersome piece of equipment to keep it upright and for when rain isn't accompanied by wind, which is just so rare isn't it?

 

[jonathon94]

I've heard about this radical new invention called an umbrella, apparently its pretty good at keeping things dry in the rain.

Yeah except for handling the camera effectively without having to buy a unnecessarily expensive cumbersome piece of equipment to keep it upright and for when rain isn't accompanied by wind, which is just so rare isn't it?

Thank you! But as for the filter that's what I want. I'd rather possibly mess up a cheap filter then a more expensive lens

-Please ignore typos I'm currently on my phone-

 

[Tony S]

I used to use a "2" gallon Zip-loc baggie as a rain cover. Cut a slit in the bottom of the bag where the crease is that is slightly smaller than the lens hood. Then slide the camera in through the zipper end so that the slit you cut will now stretch around the lens hood and seal it. This provides pretty good protection for the camera and lens, the stiff zipper part (I preferred it in a horizontal position most of the time) of the bag keeps that end somewhat open and you can reach the controls to operate this pretty easily, including getting up to the eye piece. I found it worked really well when using a monopod, thread the monopod on right through the bag, that way the bag was not moved around much by handling it too much. I used it for several years in some pretty bad downpours and never had to worry about the camera or lens.

 

[jonathon94]

I used to use a "2" gallon Zip-loc baggie as a rain cover. Cut a slit in the bottom of the bag where the crease is that is slightly smaller than the lens hood. Then slide the camera in through the zipper end so that the slit you cut will now stretch around the lens hood and seal it. This provides pretty good protection for the camera and lens, the stiff zipper part (I preferred it in a horizontal position most of the time) of the bag keeps that end somewhat open and you can reach the controls to operate this pretty easily, including getting up to the eye piece. I found it worked really well when using a monopod, thread the monopod on right through the bag, that way the bag was not moved around much by handling it too much. I used it for several years in some pretty bad downpours and never had to worry about the camera or lens.

While I'm sure that will work great since I use to pretty much do the same thing with my compact before I got a DSLR, I was looking more towards a permanent solution.

 

[MLeeK]

The plastic rainsleeves aren't really a permanent solutoin. I go through maybe 3 or 4 of them per football season. If you want permanent you need to spend a few bucks and buy a good rainsleeve.

The point you are missing with the filter/hood is that the hood protects your front element (whether it's a UV filter or your front element) from being covered with rain. If it's covered with rain you can't shoot... You have to stop and clean it off... missing the shots.

 

[Overread]

Never put an OPTech rainsleeve on in anger or in haste - cause chances are you'll go right through it!
As Mleek says they are good, but not as durable as many of the more expensive options. If you were shooting in rainforests or in similar harsher environments you'd probably warrant a much more durable (if expensive) option.

One thing I do really like about the OPTech option though is the fact that you pretty much retain all lens control - many of the more durable options can end up just covering the whole of the lens so your zoom and focus controls are all lost - ok on a prime with AF working - but if you've a zoom or need to make focus adjustments you're sunk.

 

[WhiskeyTango]

I've been intrigued by the "Hydrophobia," by Thinktank, but damn it's pricey...

 

[DiskoJoe]

I've heard about this radical new invention called an umbrella, apparently its pretty good at keeping things dry in the rain.

lol unless you need to use two hands for any reason. It was a consideration though

Get an assistant. In the professional photography world this is referred to as a "tag along" lol

 

[Destin]

Yeah, don't be a sally, OP.

Monopod+duct tape+umbrella = problem solved.

 

[jonathon94]

Yeah, don't be a sally, OP.

Monopod+duct tape+umbrella = problem solved.

Lol nice

-Please ignore typos I'm currently on my phone-

 

[Gaerek]

I used to use a "2" gallon Zip-loc baggie as a rain cover. Cut a slit in the bottom of the bag where the crease is that is slightly smaller than the lens hood. Then slide the camera in through the zipper end so that the slit you cut will now stretch around the lens hood and seal it. This provides pretty good protection for the camera and lens, the stiff zipper part (I preferred it in a horizontal position most of the time) of the bag keeps that end somewhat open and you can reach the controls to operate this pretty easily, including getting up to the eye piece. I found it worked really well when using a monopod, thread the monopod on right through the bag, that way the bag was not moved around much by handling it too much. I used it for several years in some pretty bad downpours and never had to worry about the camera or lens.

While I'm sure that will work great since I use to pretty much do the same thing with my compact before I got a DSLR, I was looking more towards a permanent solution.

Dude, you're either going to have to put out some coin, or deal with a "disposable" solution. There's no such thing as a free lunch.

I used to do something very similar to Tony S here. Same 2 gallon bag. Difference is this. I wouldn't cut a slit, instead, I'd put the camera in and orient it how I'd like it to be in the bag. Then, screw down a filter through the bag. Then carefully back the filter off. The filter should cut, or mostly cut a lens sized hole in the bag. Take the hole you just cut out, if you need to, you can carefully use scissors to clip the parts that might still be hanging on. Then, place the camera back in the bag, and screw down the filter again. The bag should stay in place. You should also be able to put a lens hood on through the bag, which will do two things. 1) Help hold the bag securely. 2) protect the filter from rain spots.

I live in Sitka, AK which just so happens to be one of the rainiest places in the entire U.S. Using this method, I've never had a leak and always had a dry camera. Just always kept a box of 2 gallon ziplocks with me.

And for those who like trivia and want to understand my experiences with rain, Mobile, AL is considered to be the rainiest city in the US with an average rainfall of about 67in. Sitka, on the other hand, gets around 85in a year. We get, on average, about 180 days of rain per year. If you can't adapt to the rain here, you'll have a tough time being a photographer.