Originally posted by sebberry If Pentax advertises the camera as being WR, then it needs to perform as such.
It's WR as in Weather Resistant. WR performance is resisting the negative effects of weather (basically atmospheric moisture and dust, although you could add UV and extreme temperature exposure to that short list) better than a similar product that isn't advertised as WR.
Originally posted by sebberry Nobody in their right mind designs a camera with 70+ seals... then goes and says "Careful now, if you get it wet it might not work..."
What they have done is make it clear that they are not guaranteeing that the camera won't get wet inside, even after installing 70+ seals. No manufacturer can guarantee that their product will successfully resist the negative effects of
all and any user operations. Everything is breakable, but some products are harder to break than others. If breaking it is getting excessive moisture or dust inside the camera so it doesn't function properly, then a WR camera system should be harder to break than a non WR camera system. If those 70+ seals didn't make it harder to break a Pentax WR camera system, Pentax wouldn't put them in. Common sense, reason and logic can't be completely disregarded.
Originally posted by sebberry To have so many people suffer problems with weather sealing is unacceptable
Based on inconsistent anecdotes from anonymous posters on an Internet discussion board, with no idea as to the actual number of people who have perceived this to be a problem, their significance relative to the total number of users, the actual severity of their perceived problem, or even if their perceived problem is the result of defective or poorly installed seals and nothing else?
This kind of self-perpetuating hysteria only harms the users who buy into it. It prevents them from properly defining real problems in order to have a reasonable chance of getting real problems resolved, and it destroys any personal benefits they might have obtained from their purchase, because it creates inappropriate expectations that are never going to be met. If you go looking for unhappy customers to reinforce your own unhappiness with a product, you will find some, guaranteed, no matter how awesome its weather seals are.