Singing in the rain
First, let me start with a disclaimer. I’m not advocating that you use your camera the way that I use mine. You have to do you and let me do me. 
Now, on with the show:
When I had my Nikon D2x, since it was Nikon’s flagship camera at the time, I used to take it out into the rain, and, snow, humidity, whatever. I figured that if they said that it was sealed against the weather, then it dang will better be, and it was! It was a great camera. Unfailing. Well, the D300 comes from good lineage! Nikon says of the D300:
Rugged magnesium-alloy construction: Along with advanced dust and moisture protection and a durable shutter mechanism: The D300 has been tested to 150,000 cycles making it the perfect choice for photographers who demand high performance and agility.
Hmmm: Advanced dust and moisture protection. Well, that sounds like a challenge to me. I’ve seen a few places where people talk about the weather proofing of the D300, but didn’t see where anyone had actually tried it. I saw on Luminous Landscape where Michael Reichmann talked about his experience on his Antarctic trip and how well the Nikon cameras did as a group in some tough conditions, but never had I seen any direct experience.
Three of the last four weekends, it has rained in Charlotte and I took advantage of every one of them. When I say rained, I mean it rained! The type of rain that would have you soaked in less than a minute or two. Unrelenting rain. Downpour! Perfect. I simply put on my boots, went out, found a place to take pictures, and let Nature have its way with me and my camera. I was not concerned about the camera, but was a little concerned about the lens. Both came through the ordeals just fine.
It was quite comical, to me at least, to see people cruising by in their cars, slowing down to see what moron was out shooting in heavy rain. Well, that moron was me. I was happily shooting away. Water was running over and off of my camera in small streams, down my forehead, around and through my eyes. I kept the sunshade on the lens and the camera pointed downward so as not to have to dry the lens … that would have been kind of tough anyway because there was barely a strip of dry cloth on me anywhere. I was soaked. Next time, I could use a rain poncho for myself! However, I’m pretty waterproof.
Anyway, it was a fun time in the rain. The temperature was about 70 degrees (21 degrees C for my Metric friends) and the rain was nice and warm. So, three times in a row, the D300 proved itself under less than ideal conditions … as did the Tamron 18-270mm! Well done, guys!
No. I do not use any type of cover over the camera. I guess that you could say that I trust Nikon’s statement! So far, no leaks and no dust on the sensor in a whole year! Not a speck of dust that I can see! I had thought of doing something about shooting in the rain for SoFoBoMo, but I cannot trust that it will rain a lot in may or June!
When I had my Minolta DiMage A1, it was pretty cool. For the most part, I really liked the camera and it had some nice features, but it was limited in that it was a digital camera, but you couldn’t change lenses. It had a 7x optical zoom, which was nice, but if you wanted to get ultra-wide or zoom in really tight, you were very limited. One of the things that I never really got used to with the camera was that it didn’t a real viewfinder. The viewfinder was one of those electronic viewfinders. After using a film camera for such a long time and having a crystal clear viewfinder, it was very difficult to get used to. I never did.
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