Sigma Contemporary Weather Sealing- a different kind of question...

[jiggyb21]

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I hope some of you will humor me because I have not found this question asked.  This is pretty long-winded for what I think is a rhetorical question in the end.  I have seen so many replies on the forum from people much smarter than me so I want to make sure I am not missing something.  I know these Sigma lenses can be a bit decisive and maybe there's a better place to ask this question but this is literally the only forum I am a member of and I have no social media accounts to appeal to.  I shoot an SL2s, an SL3 and a Q2.  I enjoy  a wide variety of photography and do a little bit for pay and as such I own a variety of lenses of which some have value, either sentimental or earnings related.  I'm going to break it down just a little in hopes in may help inform a more thoughtful reply.

I switched from Canon to Leica two years ago and the one thing I took for granted was that every lens I owned previously was weather sealed.  Right off the bat I'll say my focus is landscape photography.  That said, I have a Sigma Art lens for Astro, another one for my very occasional dabble in wildlife photography and long lens landscape, a Lumix zoom for the paid stuff, and an adapted Canon lens for Macro.  But for pleasure, I AM a prime shooter. It's just how my brain is wired.  For that I own the Sigma Contemporary 35 and 50 and it mostly comes down to size, feel and performance. While I really do like these lenses quite a bit, they are only weather sealed at the mount and they just so happen to be the two lenses I have no sentimental attachment to and they don't earn me money.  I recently purchased an M adapter and a couple of M lenses but that is a moot point because they're not weather sealed at all.  That leads me to my question.

If I go out and shoot in the rain or snow for an extended period of time with a lens that is not weather sealed internally, but is at the mount where it marries the camera, is it safe to assume that even if the lens is compromised, the camera will be protected?  I tend to believe so, and why else would a lens be sealed at the mount and not elsewhere if it wasn't intended to be the failsafe.  I have no idea how these things are built but doesn't stand to reason that the lens could take on an extreme amount of moisture before it made its way backwards into the camera body itself?  

Thanks for any input.

 

 

[jaapv]

In the conditions you describe, nothing should be compromised. Use common sense, keep the camera under cover when not in use, wipe it off when extremely wet and just take your photographs.

Bear in mind that weather resistant gear is NOT waterproof. In fact, only few cameras and lenses that are advertised as weather-sealed are in any way waterproof, rarely carry an IP rating, and if they do it is only something like IP52 (10 l/min spray coming in from no more than +15º to -15º).  Despite this, reports of moisture damage to lenses and camera are rare. The word failsafe does not exist in this context.

Nor will any camera maker extend guarantee to a camera the has moisture damage, despite advertising it as "weather-resistant" or "weather-seald".

Even M lenses do pretty well in the rain, because they have narrow tolerances, are protected by grease and have no electronics that are moisture-sensitive.

Even so, the main moisture danger to electronic cameras and lenses is internal condensation. Taking a camera into condensation-prone conditions and leaving it there for a period of time can certainly kill it off.

I have used an M240 in the tropical rain forest of the Congo with the optical viewfinder completely fogged up,  a dripping Canon 10D in the spray of Victoria Falls, an M8 sitting in a puddle after a wave crashed over our boat on Lake Nyassa, a CL in tropical downpours to the extent that I had to wipe the sensor dry  a number of times with the hem of a spare T-shirt; none came to harm. 

[Virob]

I find this interview with Roger Cicala from lens rental  on the topic very enlightening. There are probably few others that have taken apart as many different lenses and have this kind of insight. Sigma art and contemporary lenses are mentioned specifically.

https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2022/04/the-lensrentals-podcast-why-you-cant-trust-weather-sealing-w-chris-gampat/

[jiggyb21]

14 hours ago, Virob said:

I find this interview with Roger Cicala from lens rental  on the topic very enlightening. There are probably few others that have taken apart as many different lenses and have this kind of insight. Sigma art and contemporary lenses are mentioned specifically.

https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2022/04/the-lensrentals-podcast-why-you-cant-trust-weather-sealing-w-chris-gampat/

Awesome, thank you!