[kenyee]

That's hard to look at. Poor K7.

No it's not...they were meant for that...just like when I have my K20D w/ 60-250 soaked in the rain while Canikon users are huddled under a tree w/ their cameras under their jackets

[snofox]

No it's not...they were meant for that...just like when I have my K20D w/ 60-250 soaked in the rain while Canikon users are huddled under a tree w/ their cameras under their jackets

You sure those bulges are cameras?

[LaurenOE]

No it's not...they were meant for that...just like when I have my K20D w/ 60-250 soaked in the rain while Canikon users are huddled under a tree w/ their cameras under their jackets

When I look at a dried-red-clay encrusted camera, with the selection wheels and dials coated, I realize that level of abuse goes well beyond the design of the K5/K7. What you see in that picture, is NOT what Pentax anticipated. Maybe in their Optio WGs, but not in a DSLR.

When I see stuff like that, all I can hear is some idiot saying "Pentax said it was weather sealed" or something like that. There is a design for weather sealing, and that abuse is not it. I am glad I'm not in retail selling to idiots who abuse their cameras like that, and then having to take a "return" when it fails.

If I was Pentax, I would make sure my name was NOT on the camera in that picture. What makes it worse, is that 18-55 is not WR.

Good for Pentax for keeping their distance from that picture. I would be furious if I was Pentax for the use of that image.

[Laurentiu Cristofor]

Not only is that not a WR, it is the original optical design of the DA18-55mm AL, its not even the AL II.

That explains why they could afford ruining it. They probably picked a K-7 instead of a K-5 for the same reason - they were expendable. I wonder if they bothered to try and clean it up.

[Arjay Bee]

I posted about getting mud splattered while using a K20D a couple of weeks ago - about 25% of this bad but the camera did clean up. Wish I had a picture but didn't have two bodies at hand. The DA 50-200 (Non WR) also was grubby. Here is the image at the time of splatter:



I doubt whether I would have been standing that close if I had been holding a different badged camera. An image taken from same location ended up on the front page of the local weekly newspaper with circulation of 2900 copies. Plus a full page spread inside of similar images.

I had the flash shoe guard on but grit got in down the side of that and since then the flash catch randomly releases the flash to open but have done a thousand or so shots since then including immediately after the incident. While not designed for dropping in mud the sealing is still quite capable of this abuse.

[LaurenOE]

Folks - the Optio WG cameras are the *go to* camera for this kind of abuse. I always have an Optio WG in my bag for these kind of situations. In extreme environments there are no DSLR advantages over a ruggedized Optio WG. All I can think about is "bragging rights". If no Optio, then get an Ikelite enclosure. Taking your K5/K7 or other DSLR into situations like this is asking for trouble.

Why should it matter?

If a majority of Pentax users started to send in warranty repair for their cameras - because they think Pentax "advertises" the use of their cameras like the above - then we all would suffer.

How?

Less "Freebie" repairs as Warranty repairs would become more expensive to Pentax.
Repairs would take longer unless they hired more people and increased cost.
Whatever costs would be associated to honor the warranty of people abusing their cameras.

Pentax would then have to make cameras MORE ruggedized and more expensive to combat the use of their cameras. Maybe Pentax would take out the weatherization, so they don't have to warranty something?

I think "weather sealing" must fit within some kind of ISO definition, as caked mud, flung from a mud bog, is not the same thing as a casual splash of incidental rain.

[eddie1960]

Agreed Lauren, if you need a DSLR to be that rugged and want to be sure it survives by one of these

[LaurenOE]

Weather sealing - IP Code - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I would think the K5/K7 would have the following code.

IP24

[Blue]

That explains why they could afford ruining it. They probably picked a K-7 instead of a K-5 for the same reason - they were expendable. I wonder if they bothered to try and clean it up.

They could have a model take a shower with it to clean it up for the next cover!

[Na Horuk]

lol they probably bought a broken one and splattered mud on it to take some shots of it

[Jean Poitiers]

... De quelle partie de France êtes vous? Je l'ai quitté il y a environ 12 ans.

Bonjour mikerigel,

Je suis américain d'origine et à Poitiers depuis 7 ans ... avant à Paris (8 ans environs ...). J'ai quitté les États-Unis il y a environ +15 ans.

Salut, John Frog

[ENicolas]

Would you do that to a K-5?

[Blue]

Would you do that to a K-5?

If it was going to get my on the cover of a National/International magazine, YES! Mud splats for kicks and giggles, no.

[Blue]

I posted about getting mud splattered while using a K20D a couple of weeks ago - about 25% of this bad but the camera did clean up. Wish I had a picture but didn't have two bodies at hand. The DA 50-200 (Non WR) also was grubby. Here is the image at the time of splatter:



I doubt whether I would have been standing that close if I had been holding a different badged camera. An image taken from same location ended up on the front page of the local weekly newspaper with circulation of 2900 copies. Plus a full page spread inside of similar images.

I had the flash shoe guard on but grit got in down the side of that and since then the flash catch randomly releases the flash to open but have done a thousand or so shots since then including immediately after the incident. While not designed for dropping in mud the sealing is still quite capable of this abuse.

BTW, Congrats!

[RXrenesis8]

Weather sealing - IP Code - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I would think the K5/K7 would have the following code.

IP24

Engineer: What do you want to be able to keep out of the camera?

CEO: Fingers... Fingers and other finger-sized objects. Never much cared for the things myself.