It doesn’t take much rain to get a 10 year old boy outside but to get a 13 year old girl to put aside her iPod and get off the couch to go out and play in the rain takes an impressive downpour.
Well that’s what we had last Sunday night, a very heavy downpour and what better time to test my home made camera raingear.
Now while most photographers were looking outside I was out there taking pictures and getting wet, really wet.
The camera raingear worked perfectly and in fact outperformed my worn out raincoat. It was raining so much, perhaps too for a first test. It kept the camera dry but I could not keep the front lens dry which made photography a challenge.
The Design
I’m a canvas sewer hobbyist and designed and sewed the raingear myself with the following features.
Seal – The rain gear seals around the lens with a pull cord and the bottom of the cover seals up with velco so that I can seal it around my hand.
Window – I put a clear plastic 
window so that I can look in the viewfinder and see the LCD display. With my right hand inside the cover I can adjust any setting.
Fabric – Lightweight water repellent black nylon.
Size – The fabric is collapsible for my 50mm lens and extendable for my 80-200.
Version 2
I give t
his design 100 % for normal rain, wet or snow conditions. However, for torrential rain such as in this test, the nylon fabric eventually became drenched. No water got through but I could begin to feel the dampness on my hand. This was undoubtedly more rain than I had ever imagined testing this gear. It was raining so much that pouring buckets of water over the covered camera would not have been any worse. That said, I've made a second version made out of 100% waterproof marine canvas. This on is fully sealed model and you must operate the controls from outside the cover. I made a 1/4" hole under a sealed flat for a tripod mount or the adapter of my fantastic Rapid-R strap. This unit designed for extreme conditions and I can't wait to try it out.
VERSION 2
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Pierre
