# Rain Photos - Wet Camera Photos/Stories



## TexPhoto (Oct 31, 2011)

OK, so I keep seeing articles where the camera body and lens are photographed covered in water, and forum posts where people gush (pun intended) about how water proof thier DSLR is. Maybe I'm the last person who puts thier camera into a nice waterproof camera bag when it starts to rain. 

So lets see some of these photos taken in the rain. Seriously. If you keep on shooting when it starts to rain, lets see some of those photos. 






Photo by http://blog.larrymcneil.com/category/film-camera/


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## neuroanatomist (Oct 31, 2011)

I usually use my 7D + 100-400mm for shooting birds, but when the rain comes, I switch to the 70-200mm II with a TC and keep shooting.




EOS 7D, EF 70-200mm f/2.8L II IS USM + EF 1.4x II Extender @ 280mm, 1/2000 s, f/6.3, ISO 3200




EOS 7D, EF 70-200mm f/2.8L II IS USM + EF 2x II Extender @ 400mm, 1/160 s, f/5.6, ISO 3200


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## zackck (Oct 31, 2011)

I don't have many photos, but I do have a video on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFwKh1e89us

I trust Canon weather sealing since then!


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## Kernuak (Oct 31, 2011)

The 5D MkII tends to go back in the bag when the rain starts (although it has got wet a few times and the wet filters/lens elements are a bigger problem), but the 7D carries on, although I am a little wary. This was with a 300 f/2.8 with 1.4x extender.




Whooper Swan Family in the Rain by Kernuak, on Flickr


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## AprilForever (Oct 31, 2011)

Got my 7D soaked in a pouring storm. Did two weird things: 1. Joystick wouldn't work for a few hours. 2. The auto-exposure went completely haywire. Even with the lens cap on, it thought the pitch black should be exposed at f22 ISO 100 SS 5000. Solution? Shot manual until I got home. Final solution: hair dryer into the mouth of the lensless camera. Dried out the exposure area, God answered my prayers for it, and all was well!

Will have to see if I can find any pictures...


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## jmac1 (Oct 31, 2011)

Two summers ago, seemed every other wedding I shot, it rained. The day I shot this outdoor wedding it absolutely poured, down poured in sheets all day long. Shot outdoors with an unprotected 5DII with 70-200mm f/2.8 IS attached for about 2.5 hours. Camera did stop working after I took this shot and then proceeded to use a 40D backup. It got wet between camera mount and lens, once it dried out at reception it was fine.

B/G were drenched by the time we got the the reception, I suggested that we go down to the dock at the location before going into reception and convinced them it would make a good picture. 

The picture is my main photo on my site www.macleanphoto.com (sorry not on flickr)

John


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## blueridge (Oct 31, 2011)

jmac1 said:


> The picture is my main photo on my site www.macleanphoto.com (sorry not on flickr)
> 
> John



That is a great shot, John!
[pat]


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## lol (Oct 31, 2011)

Just to clarify, this thread is for photos taken in the rain? Not photos of wet kit? 









These two were taken on a rather wet summer's day. Heavy showers kept coming, and I kept shooting with the 7D+100-400L unprotected. This was fine until I noticed the contrast in the viewfinder dropping. No problem I though, just a bit of condensation on the viewfinder. Wiped it and... didn't help. Oh dear. Looking closer, the 100-400L had a load of condensation in it. The tiger was one of the last photos I took of it before I gave up. Switching to another lens fixed the visibility, but the AF felt a bit off. Possibly there's condensation in camera too...

It happened again on another trip, when I decided to get the 70-300L as my wet weather kit. Also considered the 70-200 II but it didn't seem worth it for this application. So far the 70-300L has held off the rain. The 100-400L's weakness I think is its extending part of the body, when exposed and zoomed a lot it lets moisture in. Sealed lens mounts seem unnecessary to me as water ingress there has never been a problem. Just need the lens body to be sealed primarily.




Can't remember if I was using the 100-400 or 70-300L for this one. Was only lightest rain at the time and no bother to the kit.

Side note: On the 7D, I've also had the rear joystick play up if used in the rain a lot. Clears up after drying out.


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## Edwin Herdman (Nov 1, 2011)

Love the rain on the owl's left cheek there!

I have a few images shot in rain, the usual T1i + 120-300mm OS combo. No problems there - I actually went out shooting that day because it was raining, and it paid off rather handsomely. The T1i didn't get really wet because of how I used it (had a wide-brimmed hat for shooting, and I had the camera upside-down when not in shooting orientation because of the 120-300mm's handle/tripod mount orientation directly downward, and no rain seemed to get in the battery compartment, although it was dying down not long after I got there). I'll have to go see if I can find something worth posting later on.


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## ianhar (Nov 1, 2011)

Last spring i went for a boar trip in tasmania. A huge wave crash on our boat. My 7d was soaking wet. I turn off the camera. Wipeout the water on the camera turn it on and amazingly nothing happen. Since then i trust my 7d to do anything in any weather


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## bornshooter (Nov 1, 2011)

at leuchars air show 2011 heavy downpour with my canon 60d and 70-200 f2.8 L is usm mk2


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## TexPhoto (Nov 1, 2011)

Here is one of mine:


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## 100 (Nov 2, 2011)

I try to keep it dry but if you live in the Netherlands like I do, that's just wishful thinking.


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## herbert (Nov 2, 2011)

Shot with strobe flash on a 7D to pick up falling raindrops.


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## TexPhoto (Nov 3, 2011)

lol said:


> Just to clarify, this thread is for photos taken in the rain? Not photos of wet kit?



Yes, mostly. My point is that people talk up the waterproof qualities of their gear, show photos of wet gear, and then show photos taken in nice sunny conditions. Lets see the photos you took when you got your camera wet. And tell us why you kept shooting.


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## dr croubie (Nov 8, 2011)

I was taking shots about an hour ago, of a nice Garden Orb spider setting up for the night in my garden. Camera on a tripod, speedlite on a gorillapod on the ground, directly underneath pointing upwards so it didn't fog the shot or light the background.
Then I decided the web would show up better if it were wet, so I grabbed a mist-spray-bottle from the kitchen and sprayed it everywhere to dew-up the web. Took nearly half the bottle until it looked good.
Then took the whole lot inside, and took this shot of the speedlite. 430EX isn't sealed is it? oops.


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## Tim Adams (Nov 8, 2011)

Grand Am, Road America.


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## dr croubie (Dec 18, 2011)

Biggest quick-downpour here that I can ever remember. Was driving when the worst of it hit, wipers couldn't go any faster and we still couldn't see so were only doing 40km/h.

When I got home, I couldn't *not* go out in the rain to see how the neighbourhood was faring. Kept my camera inside my arctic-parka as much as I could, pointing downwards because the EFs 15-85 isn't sealed. Still, the lens held up fairly well, but the joystick 'right' didn't work once I got it inside. Took the lens off, battery and CF card out, blew around the joystick as much as I could and left it. After a while, moving the joystick right worked as if I were pressing it in the centre. Then a few hours later it all worked perfectly fine again.
Nothing wrong with the 15-85 at all, I zoomed in/out and wiped a few times to get all the water away from the moving barrels, it's perfectly fine now.


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## kitaoka (Dec 18, 2011)

Rain? So what!

So lets see some of these photos taken in the rain. Seriously. If you keep on shooting when it starts to rain, lets see some of those photos.


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## friedmud (Dec 18, 2011)

I'm away from my computer or I would post some of the last photos taken with my XSi in the rain on the coast of Oregon. The shutter froze up on it later that night (just got it back after a $200 round trip to canon and all seems well again).

However, I had to post to applaud kitaoka on the awesome street photos! Seriously compelling shots!


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## kitaoka (Dec 18, 2011)

Thank you friedmud for your kind words. My first love is street shooting, but alas I have little time to be out there anymore.


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## jerome2710 (Dec 18, 2011)

I once got my 16-35mm mk II killed during a trip into a Thai jungle. 
It was holding a B&W MRC UV SLIM filter, but the humidity was SO high, it killed quite a few parts in it..


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## handsomerob (Dec 18, 2011)

Nice captures, thx for sharing. I like umbrellas.jpg


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## JR (Dec 18, 2011)

Kitaoka, nice capture with the umbrella, you are giving me the urge to shoot in the rain! Only problem is now is the snow season up north over here


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## unruled (Dec 18, 2011)

jerome2710 said:


> I once got my 16-35mm mk II killed during a trip into a Thai jungle.
> It was holding a B&W MRC UV SLIM filter, but the humidity was SO high, it killed quite a few parts in it..



sometimes these things failing appears so random. I spent 2 months in thailand and surrounding countries with my 40d and tamron 17-50, neither which are sealed and I had noissues at all. Use them in rain often actually.


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## kitaoka (Dec 19, 2011)

Thank you.


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## niccyboy (Dec 19, 2011)

unruled said:


> jerome2710 said:
> 
> 
> > I once got my 16-35mm mk II killed during a trip into a Thai jungle.
> ...



I agree, i worked in Chang Mai and Bangkok for a long time with my whole kit and never had problems.

I had a few in Berlin last winter going from shooting in the snow back to my apartment and the temperature change caused a lot of condensation.... but never had one fail.


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## Flake (Dec 19, 2011)

Rain shots are good, but it's very difficult to catch the rain in the shot, backlighting with bright sunlight will do it, flash hasn't got a chance, and if you do want to light it then you need some really powerful kit. Adding the rain back in post production works really well, and will reproduce what you actually saw, it also looks to the eye more natural than a shot with loads of splashes & no rain.


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## nismohks (Dec 19, 2011)

rainy days. by doritouge, on Flickr


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