How do I protect a camera in rain, cold, sand and heat?

Weather sealing raises the threshold at which a camera fails; it does not remove it, and the failures people actually suffer are rarely the ones they prepare for.

Safety

Step by step

1. Handle the cold-to-warm transition properly.A cold camera brought into a warm room collects condensation on and inside every surface, including within the lens where you cannot reach it. Put the camera in a sealed plastic bag while still outside, bring it in, and leave it sealed until it has reached room temperature — an hour or more for a large lens.
2. Understand what weather sealing means.Gaskets at the seams, buttons and mount that resist splashes and light rain with a sealed lens fitted. It is not a rating, it is not tested to a standard by most makers, and it does not survive immersion. An unsealed lens on a sealed body gives you an unsealed camera.
3. Keep rain off rather than proving it can take it.A lens hood keeps drops off the front element, which is where rain actually ruins photographs. A shower cap, a cheap rain cover or a plastic bag with a hole for the lens deals with most of it. Dry the camera before putting it away, not the next day.
4. Treat salt as the serious one.Sea spray leaves salt that stays hygroscopic and keeps drawing moisture in long after the camera looks dry. Wipe everything with a cloth barely damp with fresh water, then dry thoroughly, on the same day. Salt on a lens barrel eventually seizes zoom and focus rings.
5. Never change lenses in wind, spray or sand.This is the single moment the sensor and the mount are exposed. Turn your back to the wind, get inside a bag or a car, point the body downwards, and be quick. Sand on a sensor is a professional clean; sand in a zoom mechanism can be terminal.
6. Manage batteries in the cold.Capacity drops sharply below freezing and often recovers when warmed. Carry spares in an inside pocket against your body and rotate them. A battery that appears dead in the cold is usually fine an hour later, so do not throw it away.
7. Keep it out of heat.A closed car in summer easily exceeds the temperature at which adhesives soften and batteries degrade permanently. Cameras also overheat and shut down while recording video in direct sun — keeping the body shaded and out of a black bag genuinely helps.
8. Dry a soaked camera the right way.Remove the battery and card immediately and do not switch it on to see whether it works — that is what causes the short. Dry the outside, leave the compartments open somewhere warm and dry for several days, and accept that anything that met salt water needs professional attention.

Tips

• Silica gel sachets in the bag are cheap and genuinely reduce condensation problems in humid conditions. Dry them out in a warm oven occasionally to renew them.
• A microfibre cloth in a sealed bag stays clean and dry; one loose in a camera bag collects grit and scratches lenses.
• In sustained rain a hood plus a cloth over the top of the camera does more than most purpose-made covers, and lets you keep working.

Common mistakes

• Switching on a wet camera to check it still works — Powering a circuit with moisture across it causes the corrosion and short that would not have happened if it had been left alone. Remove the battery first, dry it fully, then test.
• Opening a cold camera bag immediately indoors — Warm humid air condenses on every cold surface, including inside the lens where you cannot dry it. It can take days to clear and it can leave marks on internal elements.

Keeping on top of it

• Wipe the body and lens barrels with a barely damp cloth after coastal or beach use (Same day)
• Check and clean the mount contacts and the sealing gasket (Every few months)
• Blow dust from the sensor chamber with a hand blower — never compressed air (When spots appear in images)
• Renew or dry out silica gel in the bag (Seasonally)
• Charge stored batteries to around half and keep them cool (Every few months in storage)

Questions people ask