If there’s one thing you can be sure of with Olympus cameras, it’s that they can take a beating with weather-sealing that's hard to match. Check out this amazing video to see how it’s achieved.
Dave Etchells from Imaging Resource sits down with Takao Takasu, Imaging Product Development Manager at Olympus, to find out how the company creates such rugged cameras. While the number of O-rings and gaskets gets a little crazy, what’s also fascinating is the technique used to prevent dust and water from getting drawn into a lens when it is zoomed in and out.
With their smaller form factors, micro four-thirds cameras are typically smaller than their APS-C and full-frame counterparts, and that portability is integral to Olympus. Clearly, the idea that you should be able to take a camera pretty much anywhere is at the heart of much of the manufacturer’s designs.
Admittedly, you can’t take these cameras underwater, but given the amount of serious weather-sealing on the OM-D E-M1X, it seems to come ridiculously close.
Is Olympus your choice because of how much you can trust it to survive tough conditions? Should other manufacturers be taking lessons and making more cameras that can withstand dust and moisture? Leave your thoughts below.
I use the Olympus E-M1X and E-M1 MkII on a daily basis professionally and love the weather sealing performance. Full disclosure; I am as of last year an Olympus Educator for North America, but have been shooting Olympus digital since the E-1 came out in 2003, and before that when my Nikon gear was stolen in 1979, I replaced them with a pair of OM-1 film cameras to complement my medium format gear. I love that whether I’m shooting catalog work for a kite surfing distributor or out a race track in nasty conditions, I never have to worry about my gear. Plus I find them some of the most enjoyable gear to shoot with when I travel.
And olympus is not the only one ... Pentax does an amazing job as well.
I had one of the very first OM-D E-M5 cameras I the U.K. I loved its weather sealing and I could confidently carry it in all conditions. My current camera, a Nikon D850, is probably as good - but I’m not sure and the result is that sometimes I don’t carry it in the worst weather. I have to say, I did consider an E-M1X
"Beat every other manufacturer"? That's a big claim. You have obviously never worked in the rain with a Leica SL2 or S-System camera. I'll not saying they are 'better', hard to prove, but certainly not inferior. The sales reps pour bottles of water over them then shake off the drops.
may be time to put the better cameras to a "wild weather" test --- now which companies will not offer cameras for the test :)
I certainly did not buy my Oly EM D1 because of weather sealing --- by far the best camera I have used (that after around 50 years and far too many cameras for work and play)