KEEPING YOUR PIXELS DRY:
Weatherproofing Your Digicam
by Stephen R. Brown

Professional photographers bring back great pictures because they take their cameras with them everywhere and in any weather conditions. If you are planning an outdoor adventure , there's no longer a reason to leave the digicam behind. Many great pictures come in extreme weather conditions and you can protect your digital investment by buying a soft or hard housing. These housings have been available for film cameras for many years and are now available for digital cameras.

EWA Rainhood

Camera housings range from simple and inexpensive "rainhoods" which pack up in your camera bag to to units capable of protectiing your camera underwater. The cheapest and most portable are clever sealable plastic bags with a glass lens cap. They are capable of protecting your camera in the rain, and depending on the model, in the water to 50 feet. If you plan on using your camera underwater on a regular basis, you should buy a sophisticated aluminum and brass housings capable of depths to 200-300 feet. Recently Olympus and Canon began offering inexpensive "weatherproof" housings as part of their camera systems. These units are inexpensive and while not capable of great depths underwater, feature ergonomic handling as they are designed with the camera in mind.

Inexpensive Camera Housings

Ewa Marine makes a wide variety of camera housings ranging from simple "rain hoods" to totally enclosed plastic housings good to depths of 10 to 30 meters. Whether you are snow skiing, boating or subjecting your camera to any unusual situations, you might want to consider purchasing one of these inexpensive products. Not only will the housing keep sand and water from your camera, it will provide an extra layer of "impact protection." I am an avid but awkward snow skier and I like to make sure my camera is better protected than my butt.

The housing on the left is for underwater work and is rated to about 10 meters in depth. The "rain cape" is a general purpose bag for rainy days or skiing and the unit on the right is designed for Pro digicams and allows you to use your pro strobe. Ewa makes a wide variety of these soft housings for almost every still and video camera.

Underwater Soft Housing

Rain Cape

Pro Housing with flash protection

The Ewa enclosures are very inexpensive($12 to $150.00 US), easily stored and perfect solutions for infrequent usage. If you are caught unprepared, you can always get to a grocery stores and use a baggie...it's better than nothing!

Professional Camera Housings

If you are going to be using your camera in extreme conditions on a frequent basis, you might want to have a look at more expensive alternatives which are more durable, aerodynamic, capable of greater depths underwater, and allow you a variety of accessories like multiple strobes.

Ikelite is the largest manufacturer of housing, strobes and accessories for every digital camera manufacturer. These units are capable of tk depths and as you can see in the illustrations below, are capable of handling external auto-synchronized strobe for more effective color saturation underwater. The camera controls are built in to the casing and the units are in stock for Nikon, Canon, Kodak, Sony and Olympus. The bulky handles can be removed if you are using the cameras on land. One of the great features of these clear housings is that you can see your image as soon as you take it. Ikelite also manufacturers a series of wide angle lenses suited to underwater photography.

Ikelite Housing with Nikon Coolpix 950

CAUTION: DO NOT TRY TO CHANGE BATTERIES OR MEDIA CARDS UNDERWATER! While this may seem "obvious", there is a story circulating around about a photographer trying to change film while underwater!!

Olympus Camera working with in conjunction with Tetra came out with the first underwater housing, Light & Motion's "Tetra." Designed specifically for the Olympus Camera, it is probably the most versatile of the housings because of it's small size and easy to use control panel in the back of the camera. The PT-series of underwater housings was recently released for the Olympus Camedia C series cameras and these housings are good to ninety feet. Canon has followed quickly behind Olympus developing a series of "All Weather cases" capable of submersion to approximately ten feet.

Finally, consider buying a Pelican case which will survive the worst of all hazards--handling by airline baggage handlers--and adventures like this rafting trip. These cases are made of a light structural foam resin shell and are capable of protecting your camera down to thirty feet. Many pro photographers use these cases to simply transport their equipment.

Web Sites for Information

There are 2.4 million active scuba divers in the United States and they are an extremely active group of photographers. You can check the following web sites for information about protecting your camera both on land and undersea.
http://www.marscuba.com/uwdigital.html
http://www.divernet.com/photog/photog.htm
http://www.divernet.com/photog/1101cameras.htm
http://www.scubadiving.com/photo/instruction/photomodel/

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Stephen R. Brown is a corporate and advertising photographer and a Professor and writer. He has taught at American University and written for Popular Photography and recently produced "SayCheese.com", a digital imaging website for Lexar Media. He is also an instructor for American Photography's Mentor Series. His article on "Infrared Photography with Digital Cameras" just appeared in the Winter Popular Photography Guide to Digital Imaging