Equipment protection

[Colorado Herper]

 Can anybody tell me how they keep their equipment safe in a wet environment?

[Tim]

equipment?  My only herping equiment that can't get wet is the camera and if I go canoeing somewhere to herp I'll keep it in a zip-lock bag in my backpack.  If it's raining I don't get it out unless I find something really cool, then I might catch it and bring it in my truck and photograph it in my truck. lol.  I think you need to ask a more specific question though. 

[Trevor]

I just throw it all in my backpack and try not to fall in the water. It has worked out great so far.

They make waterproof cases for some cameras...

[Jake Seals]

Like Treason said, some cameras have waterproof enclosures that you can buy. I'd check ebay.

I dropped my slr in the water a while back. It sucks! Learn from my mistakes! I'm finally going to be able to pick another one up when I get paid in a few weeks. One of the first things I am going to buy for it is a waterproof enclosure.

[Julia]

Yeah, waterproof enclosures are great, but I don't have one.  Like Treason I just try not to fall in the water and make sure my camera case is always zipped shut when the camera is in it (and if I'm going somewhere wet I do put in a ziplock bag in the case).  Once I did accidentally drop my camera in a creek, and thought it was dead.  Then on a whim, after a few days, I changed the batteries and it magically revived, and hasn't had any weird problems or anything!  I'm never doing that again though.

[smetlogik]

I do the same thing as Trevor, eveything in backpack and try not to get wet.  Been in canoes in the Everglades, walked in rivers, downpours, hail, snow, walked out in the rain with you a while back and so far no problems.  I think Jake (Seals) just pissed off the herp gods by switch his allegence from Indiana to Illinois for the 1st herp comp.  

Although? A few weeks ago, I was videotaping while walking though some gnarly undgrowth and almost fell off a cliff into a pretty deep river.  So...be careful.

[Nate]

And then back to Indiana now back to Illinois.

[Trevor]

And then back to Indiana now back to Illinois.

Yeah, and he calls me a whore!

[Nate]

I know!!

[Dylan]

I have this to keep my stuff safe.

http://www.kata-bags.com/productFRM2HS.asp?p_Id=431&Version=Photo

That is a pretty good camera backpack and it comes with a rain cover that fits over the whole backpack to keep everything nice and dry. It is still not 100% waterproof though and I am not sure how well it would fare if I dropped it into a river or something.

As far as keeping things dry while I am shooting, there is really no way to avoid getting some moisture on the camera. I sometimes have Amanda follow me around with an umbrella but I am pretty sure she hates doing that. Plus it ruins any hope of having decent audio for video shooting with the rain pounding on the umbrella. Luckily for me, the Canon 7D has a really great weather seal on it so I am not too worried about some rain on the camera body. I just wipe it off in between finds.

Good topic to bring up by the way. Keeping your equipment safe and dry is very important. Especially for me and Amanda considering we spent close to $3k on the whole package.

[Joe Farah]

I do like Treason and just toss it in my backpack and try not to fall in the water.

[ßëñ]

We don't have to worry about water where I live. Dust is a major problem though. I keep the lens cap on at basically all times.

[Adam]

I have a small case that goes over my stuff and another larger case that goes over that with mulitple pockets.