Keeping your camera equipment dry in the rain

[ianpinion]

When you're out and about on a shoot in the rain what do you use to help keep your camera dry and the rain off the lens, other than a large brolly?

I am going to Chatsworth House this coming Saturday to take a few shots within the parkland and gardens, but the weather is not sounding great so I was wondering what other people used to protect their photographic equipment from the rain. I know many of the top spec DSLRs are weatherproof, but you still can't take pictures if there's raindrops hitting the lens.

I've heard of people putting their cameras in clear plastic food bags but what would you use to shelter the end of the lens from the rain?

[Forseti]

Originally Posted by ianpinion

I've heard of people putting their cameras in clear plastic food bags but what would you use to shelter the end of the lens from the rain?

Probably an UV filter is as good as anything and keep the camera pointing down as much as possible when not in actual use.

[chris-p]

I've "bagged" my camera before and taped the bag around the lens so it was water "resistant" and, as Forseti suggests, used a UV filter for protection, a lens hood to keep as much rain off as possible and tried to keep the front element in the lee of the camera body as much as possible.

If it's windy as well I just don't shoot into the wind if I can help it.

[OldBoy]

The wind is the biggest problem but the length of the lenshood on the Nikon 70-200mm F2.8 helps. Have also used the Nikon 14-24mm in the rain but the lenshood is no good on that, so take a cloth to wipe the front element. A plastic bag and rubber bands work quite well, so I've been told but a waterproof camera bag is a must, and I use my DryZone bag for that.

[Robster]

for about £20 you can get plastic covers designed for a DSLR they have a solid part to but the lens upto, try Jessops, Jacobs or Premier Ink.
Dont know how they perform though.
Robster

[PaulMontgomery]

If it turns really horrible, 'rainsleeves' do a good job. I think I paid a tenner for a pack of 2.

[jinky]

I got a couple of rainsleeves from Warehouse Express which worked fine when I was covering Manchester 10k in loads of rain - that said they worked no better than the freezer bags I used the time before secured with an elastic band.