Photo by Manu1one29 via iStock
You’ve heard me say it many times - inclement weather is great weather for photography. You simply need to know how to handle it.
The drama and intrigue of bad weather aren’t so fun for you or your gear, though…
Let’s look at how to protect your camera from rain, snow, misty conditions, and wind.
Table of Contents:
- Weather-Resistant vs Waterproof
- The Importance of Easy Access
- How to Protect Your Camera from Rain - A Good Option
- How to Protect Your Camera from Rain - A Better Option
- How to Protect Your Camera from Rain - The Best Option
- Getting to Know GoShelter
- Other Recommended Photography Gear
Weather-Resistant vs Waterproof
Photo by Extreme-Photographer via iStock
The biggest difference between waterproofness and weather resistance is being immersed vs being in the elements.
Immersion requires either a specialty camera designed for underwater use, such as the GoPro Hero 11, a Nikonos film camera system, or an external housing made for a particular digital camera and lens. Weather-resistant is adequate protection from moisture in the air or other elements.
You might put that into perspective by imagining it this way: If you want to go on a day outing to the beach, you need sunscreen, a good hat, and some sandals (you’re weather resistant). If you could somehow vacation on the moon, that would require a NASA-style spacesuit for your very survival (you’re completely sealed up in an external housing).
For this discussion, I’m presenting good, better, and best solutions for how to protect your camera from rain and other weather - weather that might have an impact on your ability to capture the images you want.
The Importance of Easy Access
Photo by NataliaDuryagina via iStock
Cold weather, rain, blowing dust, the mist from the ocean or a waterfall…all of these situations can damage your cameras and lenses. Even cameras with good dust-sealing or weather-resistant construction benefit from not allowing too much weather to batter our gear.
A problem with some methods to protect your camera from rain is that they don’t allow easy access to our camera and lens controls. It’s sort of like trying to operate a camera while wearing heavy mittens. It’s doable but difficult and somewhat limiting.
A better solution is to protect your camera from rain and let you use the camera pretty much as you normally would.
How to Protect Your Camera from Rain - A Good Option
A good solution to protect your camera from rain is the Altura Professional Camera Rain Cover. This is a bag with several sleeves and openings that give you decent access to camera controls while protecting your gear.
It’s not a perfect solution because it is a little cumbersome to operate all of the controls of your equipment from inside the bag. It can also make your viewscreen or viewfinder fog up, making it hard to see what’s going on.
Still, for the low price and small size, it is an adequate solution to protect your camera from rain.
How to Protect Your Camera from Rain - A Better Option
Our better label goes to Camera Canopy Rain Shield. It’s an awning or umbrella that attaches to your camera's hot shoe and is adjustable for different focal length lenses. You have great access to most of the camera controls and the viewscreen.
My biggest nits to pick are that it is useless for shooting in portrait orientation and attaches to the hot shoe, a weak point on many cameras. On the plus side, it works like a charm when using the camera on a tripod, which is what it’s really designed for. Even in a windy rain or snowstorm, the canopy design offers good protection from the elements.
How to Protect Your Camera from Rain - The Best Option
My recommendation for how to protect your camera from rain, wind, salt spray, and so on is the GoShelter Self Canopy. I think of it as a lean-to or an awning that fits on me. It gives excellent protection from all sorts of weather, rain, snow, blowing dust, water spray from the ocean or waterfalls, and even thrown objects such as you might encounter at a ball game or covering a news event.
Here’s how it works: you unfold it from its compact collapsed mode, attach it yourself as you would a backpack, and then take photos as you normally would. It’s deep and offers protection from on three sides and above you without obstructing your view to the front.
Even a heavy downpour of rain is handled with ease by this handy portable shelter. A great feature is that nothing touches the camera or impedes your operation of it. You’re standing inside the shelter and you can use the camera as you normally would in portrait or landscape orientation. It’s good with the wind, too! See the infographic below for a brief overview of features and benefits.
The price is nice, too, especially considering how versatile and effective this is as a method to protect your camera from rain and other weather conditions. This is particularly true right now because you can save $15 with our PT1Umbrella coupon code!
The GoShelter comes in several colors from safety green or orange to two camo patterns or a nice couple of blue and green shades.
Whether you’re headed out in an afternoon rain shower, going to the beach on a sunny day, covering a sporting event, or something in between, GoShelter is a fantastic tool to protect you from the elements - rain or shine!
Getting to Know GoShelter
J. A. Hiddleston developed GoShelter after experiencing the frustration of three days of downpouring rain while on a photo trek of the Appalachian Trail. Since it wasn’t possible to simply buy something to protect camera gear from rain, it was time to design something from scratch.
As J.A. describes, GoShelter is “lightweight, wearable, covers me and my backpack, and uses waterproof ripstop fabric. It allows air circulation, collapses to a flat disk, and keeps my hands free to hold hiking poles, my camera, or to just put my hands in my pockets.”
GoShelter is a fantastic photography accessory and is virtually indispensable for nature photographers but also useful for sports and wildlife photography, street photography, and for imaging or videoing your family on vacation. Vloggers will find it handy as well. I’ve used it with a gimbal while shooting B-Roll nature or establishing scenes to add to a video feature.
I love mine and I heartily recommend it. I’m sure you’ll love yours, too!