[mst]

Yet, I never feel the urge to walk around making photos when it poors down

Me neither, but I don't agree that you can limit the benefits of sealed lenses to just 'pros'. Situations I remember I've been in, where having a sealed lens/camera kit was certainly helpful:

- dog sledding race, getting close to the action and ending up with quite some snow on my gear several times (on a very sunny day)
- several occasions where I intentionally tried to capture the mood of mist and fog and ended up with lots of moisture on the camera and lens (no puring down)
- similar to the above: while hiking in the mountains, where clouds easily cover you in thick fog within minutes or even seconds
- shooting on a beach or close to the coast/on a boat with either sand or fine droplets of salt water in the air due to wind (no rain)
- mud and some water/moisture from the action of a downhill bike race or rallye motorsports
- the funny fountains near the UN offices in Geneva (and any similar water installation)
- shooting near a waterfall


Just a few examples of occasions where I took out the camera and shot for fun, not for money (I rarely do the latter). Still, on some of them, having a sealed camera was helpful, but maybe not necessarily required. Most cameras and lenses can handle a small amount of moisture. Like in fog or in a cloud, for example.

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FWIW Nikon had made a very interesting camera Nikon1 AW1 it was weather sealed and water proof, unfortunately the sample Dpreview reviewers failed because of sand issues, can't say it's the sample they had or the camera line itself however the concept was interesting, too bad no new models with such features came out

Yes, that was a nice idea, but also a bit expensive for what you got.

My son has a Fuji XP series compact camera that is waterproof. Of course it has a much smaller sensor than any system camera (with the exception of the Pentax Q maybe), but for occasional use in and under water and also on the beach and in sand, it's great. Also, because it's designed as a tough camera that withstands some mistreatment, it's the perfect camera for a child