Wet Weather Gear?

[mxbuck]

Hi all,
  I was hiking around town today in our snow storm and cursing the fact that  I had no means of covering my camera except to tuck it inside my heavy winter parka. Eventually it got its fair share of wind driven snow on the casing but not on the lens thanks  to the lens hood.

 I've seen adverts of wet weather covers for SLRs . Has anyone got any experience with this sort of thing and have any recommendations?  Is there also a do-it-yourself  method of coping with this? I thought of crafting a cover out of heavy gauge mylar or polythene and duct tape with a hole for the lens and the viewer. Your shooting hand would come up from underneath.

Ideas?

[JamesC]

Hi Max, Looks like you've stumped everybody with this one. Am I right in thinking that you wanted to capture the snow falling as well as the surroundings? The safe method is to shoot the scene when it's not snowing/raining and then add snow/rain in photoshop using the add noise > gaussian blur > motion blur method. It's difficult to tell it's not real. As for covers I'm not brave enough to shoot in conditions like that .

[mxbuck]

Hmmm , artificial snow - never thought of that  - it's like "coals to Newcastle" 

[NIGDAW]

Hi, Just thought I would add my ideas. If I want to take pictures of bad weather conditions I sit in my car and shoot through the open window. its also good for taking shots of towns etc where you don't want to stand around with all your gear. I am able to set up a tripod on the seat next to me and take pictures, an example of which is the one of the pub in my gallery. I have also used a simple plastic food bag to cover the camera in bad weather. A hole for the lens with an elastic band round it, and you put your hands in the back. The lens hood protects the lens itself.

Regards Nigel.

[mxbuck]

Thanks for everyone's help on thi sproblem.  I'll try out some of the suggestions.  Shooting from a car isn't always possible or the best vantage point, so I'll often get myself "immersed" in the scene and the weather ;-)

[NIGDAW]

Hi, standing in the street with a lot of expensive camera gear where I live is not always a very good idea. I do agree its not always the best vantage point, but it is the fastest getaway!
Regards Nigel

[Bevb]

There are numerous covers you can buy for keeping your kit out of bad weather but some of these can be more of a hinderance than help, i bought one from Warehouse Express and i suppose i have used it once, i now use the cheapest version going and thats the original biodegradible bin liner! they are green so helps when out in the open, they are soft so they dont make a lot of noise (being a wildlife photographer this helps), you can use a couple of elastic bands to keep them in place and shape them to fit whatever body and lens you are using, and they are changeable very quickly, without the use of velcro fastenings and straps.

[mxbuck]

Yep - I've been leaning towards this option myself too. Cheap, effective and unobtrusive (and dark green is a good camouflage).
Thanks for the tip.