[Boker]

How many have used their K-30 in the rain or water spray from boating and such?

[SteveB]

There's been a few videos, like
https://www.thecamerastore.com/blog/2012/07/19/pentax-k-30-hands-field-test
And talk with a few images
Field Test: Pentax K-30 | TechHive

[zorza]

Well, did this one at home..
Way better than rain!!!

k 30 - YouTube



ps. the camera and the lens ir working 100% without any problem. Since this bath (done twice. First for trial, and second for shooting the video), I've taken more than 1000pictures and still no problem. SO, it is weather resistant!)

[CP140]

Only had mine for a week and less than 100 shots so far (damn work! ) so I have not yet subjected it to water.

While the weather resistance was one of the prime reasons for moving from my K-r to the K-30, I'm hoping to avoid exposure to the elements. If think it's going to get wet, I'll still be using a rain sleeve... but living out on the "wet" coast means that sooner or later I will end up testing the weather resisitance...but I'm going to try and avoid it!

[Boker]

Well, did this one at home..
Way better than rain!!!

k 30 - YouTube



ps. the camera and the lens ir working 100% without any problem. Since this bath (done twice. First for trial, and second for shooting the video), I've taken more than 1000pictures and still no problem. SO, it is weather resistant!)

Thanks for the video.Am planning on moving up to either K-5 or K-30 and had pretty well settled on K30 because of price but several reports of K-30's dying from small amounts of water was about to count it out.

[SyncGuy]

Hmmm.... Nice... But have anyone actually thought of:

1)taking a picture WHILE being showered?
2)do step 1 WITH the pop up flash?

[mike.hiran]

Put mine in the rain today. Even drove with the window down and the camera out the window (testing the WR on the cam before the store's return window closes). No problem... Pentax's WR has been good to me so far.

[SyncGuy]

Put mine in the rain today. Even drove with the window down and the camera out the window (testing the WR on the cam before the store's return window closes). No problem... Pentax's WR has been good to me so far.

Hi, could you kindly pop up and fire off some shots WITH the onboard flash please?

I'm wondering whether it will still be WR with the pop-up flash activated..

[Boker]

If the K-30 flash is built like my K10 popping up the flash won't have much effect for testing water resistance as it doesn't seem to have any sealing on the flash door but it would let the flash compartment flood a little easier.The seal must be in the wiring bundle

[lister6520]

Hi, could you kindly pop up and fire off some shots WITH the onboard flash please?

I'm wondering whether it will still be WR with the pop-up flash activated..

On Sunday we got caught in a downpour and ended up well and truly drenched, about 20 minutes of driving rain. Fortunately I had a plastic bag big enough to put my big Sigma zoom, my mobile phone and the camera's spare battery in it. The K-30 was afforded no such luxury. Luckily it had the 18-135 WR lens on it.

I took some photos but found out that there are some issues with shooting in the rain besides the survival of the camera. The biggest problem was that I couldn't see a damn thing through the viewfinder (because it and also my glasses were soaked) so I just shot blindly and got lucky on a few shots. I set focus to 11 point auto (which I had never used before) and let the camera guess - it seems to have done a reasonably good job of it.

One would probably need a large eyecup to shield the viewfinder from the rain as the moment it gets wet everything becomes a blur. Live view was perhaps a bit better - but with the heavy rain impacting on it I couldn't really figure out what I was seeing. If I had my left hand free I could have probably shielded the LCD and been able to see it better. It was however not that difficult to read and adjust settings such as aperture and shutter speed (but the smaller text of the menus was impossible to read)

The flash is also a bit of a problem, as you can see from the last photo whic is shot with the pop-up flash. Nothing wrong with the flash itself but the rain droplets sort of ruin the photo. They are not on the lens but in front of the camera. I somehow managed to keep the lens reasonably dry for the first few minutes by keeping it pointed down or away from the wind direction as much as possible but the droplets falling just in front of the camera are impossible to avoid. Note that whether the flash is open or closed makes no difference to the weather sealing. The flash door has no seals - the seals are further in at the hinge. The flash was actually swimming in water when closed, but the water doesn't get beyond the compartment. If it did I think it would have immediately appeared in the viewfinder, which is just below it.

As son as I got home and got myself dry I set to work to give the camera some TLC and also to find out how well the seals held up. I did find some issues but probably I have subjected to worse than it was designed for. I found some ingress of water, on the level of a few droplets, in all the doors. The SD card slot was the worst with the edge of the card being wet. There wasn't enough water to seep into the slot and the rest of the card was dry.

There were also signs of water, albeit minimal, around the edge of the battery compartment (further in from the seal) and even a few traces on the bottom of the battery.

There was on the other hand no water seepage at all into any other parts of the camera that are visible or accessible, such as inside the viewfinder, in the mirror box or the inner parts of the battery compartment. The lens flange seal also appears to have worked perfectly as did the seals on the lens itself as there was no trace of water or even condensation visible.

My guess is that if I had spent much longer in those conditions it could have resulted in damage, the weakest point appearing to be the SD card door. However if I had spent any longer I would for sure have removed the battery. Even if in the process I got some water in, without the battery the water would be unlikely to cause any damage.


One thing I tried to keep in mind (but failed to on several occasions) is to avoid zooming in such conditions. No matter how well the camera is sealed when one zooms to longer focal length physics dictates that the lens will have to suck in air from somewhere to fill up the increased volume. So that air is going to come in from somewhere and if that somewhere happens to be wet then the air will carry that water in with it and I suspect that it is why I got that water inside. The only way around this problem is to use a semi permeable fabric (such as goretex) to allow air in but not water but it seems that Pentax did not do that, possibly because it would add too much bulk to the camera (it has to be quite large to allow air to move quickly enough for an extending zoom lens).


The other thing which many people tend to forget (or to not even know) is that even the best waterproof equipment should be taken care of and properly dried out after being subjected to wet conditions.


What Pentax seems to forget is giving us some guidelines on how to care for the camera in wet conditions. In the manual there seems to be no mention at all of the weather sealing. No mention of precautions (except telling you to not allow the camera to get in contact with water, and to wipe off droplets from it if it does!). There is no mention of how often the seals should be replaced, or whether they need any regular maintenace (such as applying silicone grease or something).

[JinDesu]

Just a side note - the flash illuminates the raindrops much brighter than most other things, and the short burst freezes the raindrop motions. It's a easy way to freeze raindrops, but if you are trying to shoot a rainy scene - you don't want to use flash.

[mike.hiran]

On Sunday we got caught in a downpour and ended up well and truly drenched, about 20 minutes of driving rain. Fortunately I had a plastic bag big enough to put my big Sigma zoom, my mobile phone and the camera's spare battery in it. The K-30 was afforded no such luxury. Luckily it had the 18-135 WR lens on it.

I took some photos but found out that there are some issues with shooting in the rain besides the survival of the camera. The biggest problem was that I couldn't see a damn thing through the viewfinder (because it and also my glasses were soaked) so I just shot blindly and got lucky on a few shots. I set focus to 11 point auto (which I had never used before) and let the camera guess - it seems to have done a reasonably good job of it.

One would probably need a large eyecup to shield the viewfinder from the rain as the moment it gets wet everything becomes a blur. Live view was perhaps a bit better - but with the heavy rain impacting on it I couldn't really figure out what I was seeing. If I had my left hand free I could have probably shielded the LCD and been able to see it better. It was however not that difficult to read and adjust settings such as aperture and shutter speed (but the smaller text of the menus was impossible to read)

As son as I got home and got myself dry I set to work to give the camera some TLC and also to find out how well the seals held up. I did find some issues but probably I have subjected to worse than it was designed for. I found some ingress of water, on the level of a few droplets, in all the doors. The SD card slot was the worst with the edge of the card being wet. There wasn't enough water to seep into the slot and the rest of the card was dry.

There were also signs of water, albeit minimal, around the edge of the battery compartment (further in from the seal) and even a few traces on the bottom of the battery.

There was on the other hand no water seepage at all into any other parts of the camera that are visible or accessible, such as inside the viewfinder, in the mirror box or the inner parts of the battery compartment. The lens flange seal also appears to have worked perfectly as did the seals on the lens itself as there was no trace of water or even condensation visible.

My guess is that if I had spent much longer in those conditions it could have resulted in damage, the weakest point appearing to be the SD card door. However if I had spent any longer I would for sure have removed the battery. Even if in the process I got some water in, without the battery the water would be unlikely to cause any damage.

I've shot in downpours before too, though with the k5, k7, k20 and k10 and never had problems with looking though the viewfinder. The k7 took about an inch of rain over a hour and a half and I could always see what I was shooting. Maybe the k30 is different, but I can't see how it would be. But I don't wear glasses either so perhaps that makes things more complicated.

Regarding water ingress... I wonder how long you waited in a dry environment to open the doors? I've always brought the camera inside, dried it off and then let the camera dry out in a well ventilated area for at least a couple hours before opening the doors. Water tends to linger around the seals and the camera will look dry when it's not dry in the creases. I've yet to find water in the areas you describe in my previous WR cameras.

[Ex Finn.]

I've shot in downpours before too, though with the k5, k7, k20 and k10 and never had problems with looking though the viewfinder. The k7 took about an inch of rain over a hour and a half and I could always see what I was shooting. Maybe the k30 is different, but I can't see how it would be. But I don't wear glasses either so perhaps that makes things more complicated.

Regarding water ingress... I wonder how long you waited in a dry environment to open the doors? I've always brought the camera inside, dried it off and then let the camera dry out in a well ventilated area for at least a couple hours before opening the doors. Water tends to linger around the seals and the camera will look dry when it's not dry in the creases. I've yet to find water in the areas you describe in my previous WR cameras.

My exact thoughts. No experience with K30 but used K7 and K5 in heavy rain before.

[lister6520]

I've shot in downpours before too, though with the k5, k7, k20 and k10 and never had problems with looking though the viewfinder. The k7 took about an inch of rain over a hour and a half and I could always see what I was shooting. Maybe the k30 is different, but I can't see how it would be. But I don't wear glasses either so perhaps that makes things more complicated.

The glasses are surely part of the problem as I was even having difficulty seeing well enough to walk on the rough ground. However I'm not quite sure even if one doesn't use glasses how it would be possible to see a clear image through a soaked eyepiece. I was keeping the camera facing down as much as possible to avoid getting the front element wet so the viewfinder was literally overflowing with water. Of course when I raised the camera to take a picture most of the water drains out but the eyepiece, just like my glasses, remained partly wet and partly fogged up.

Regarding water ingress... I wonder how long you waited in a dry environment to open the doors? I've always brought the camera inside, dried it off and then let the camera dry out in a well ventilated area for at least a couple hours before opening the doors. Water tends to linger around the seals and the camera will look dry when it's not dry in the creases. I've yet to find water in the areas you describe in my previous WR cameras.

The camera had been drying out in the car for about 45 minutes on the way back home with the air conditioning and heating full on which creates an atmosphere inside the car that is uncomfortably hot and dry but perfect for drying out wet clothes. At home I left it standing perhaps another 15 to 30 minutes in front of a fan while I got myself dried out.

I understand what you mean about the water lingering around the seals but I'm quite sure this is not what happened as when I opened the doors the water was only on the inner side of the seals (the part which should be dry). The parts which are outside of the seals and expected to get wet were dry after I opened the doors, so must have been dry even before I opened them.

In other words the parts which one might have expected to be wet were dry and the protected parts that were meant to be dry were wet. I wish I had taken a few macro shots of the wetness, it would have made it so much easier to see what I mean.

As I mentioned above I think what caused this was the zoom lens sucking air laden with water through the seals - the air has to get in from somewhere and if that somewhere is wet the water will also get in. The way the camera is designed and built I don't think it is possible to avoid this - if you extend the lens and there is water around the seals that water can and will be sucked in. I think the only way to avoid this happening is to avoid operating the zoom when the camera is wet (or having a lens with internal zoom).

I don't think it is a matter of poor design or construction. I do however see it as a shortcoming that the manuals do not make any mention of this, or as a matter of fact anything at all about using the camera in wet conditions.

[NVSteve]

Hmm, guess I'll be looking at the K-5 II body instead. I've seen a few posts now, here and elsewhere, that don't paint a truly weather sealed picture for the K-30. Thanks for posting about your experience.