I want to shoot some more in the rain and near the ocean but I have been babying my gear in those situation and not going at all (purposefully) into the rain with my camera gear and I'm hesitant to bring my gear near the ocean even on calm days.
Is it better to use rain covers to protect my gear rather than using bag and maybe use some tape or rubber bands to secure it on my lens?
Is there somekind of solution around for when I'm shooting video and using shotgun microphone on the camera?
What I'm seeing on youtube that most people seems to be using their camera gear "naked" and without protection.
I'm using Nikon Z8, Nikon 200-500mm, Nikon 70-200 f/4, Nikon 24-120 f/4 s (my only Z-mount lens so far)
I have 2 Altura Rain Hoods, but only one has ever seen wet Weather. These are quite large with clear plastic top and back, and hand sleeves with draw strings to each side so you can still operate the camera within. The lens cover tube is quite large and only the largest and longest of lenses will have trouble fitting in it. My Tamron 18-400 mm fits well and only the longest zoom extension of it causes problems, but the end of the lens body, when fully extended, is a smooth tube and the rain hood lens tube has a silicone strip as well as draw string to close the hood relatively tightly around this smooth part of the extended lens. Full zooming is a bit difficult with the hood on, but it can be done easily over about 1/2 of this lens's range before the neck seal needs to be slid back to allow the rest of the full extension. The bottom of this rain hood zips open in both directions from center to allow quick placement over a camera while it's still attached to a tripod, and then zipped back up toward the center to close this tripod opening as much as possible.
The day that I did put it to use, I had a Canon 77D with battery grip on one of my SLIK 212 Pro tripods and we had a heavy burst of rain, so heavy that I didn't stay out in it, but I left the camera there in it's rain hood. Only the end of the lens got wet, and it had a UV filter that kept most of the water from even reaching the face of the lens. I was impressed, as I feared that my 77D would surely get wet, and it doesn't have Weather sealing built in. The camera stayed dry inside this Altura rain hood.
I have carried this rain hood in my camera backpack for years and only used it once before when out in dusty blowing wind. I think it helped, but there was some dust inside the hood when I checked later. It likely came in through the hand sleeves, which, without my hands in place, did not close completely, but I was still impressed with how little dust got in. The camera and lens survived, so that's what mattered.
Anyone ever used a soft, silicone camera body case? I photograph around beaches a lot, these look it would be an additional protective cover for the camera body. I was wondering how easy they might be able to slide on and off? Any issues with buttons, etc.?
This makes me wonder how Weather Resistant WR cameras like Fuji are. I saw a video where fog got into it because of the temperature change. I'd also be worried about sand.
