Canon 5D mark III camera protectors

As I've recently said, camera protection is quite an important factor in nature photography and faith made it that I came across three variants of a camera protector cover for Canon 5D mark III.

At first I was only confronted with two models: EasyCover and Delkin Snug-It . Did the comparison directly in the store and chose Delkin as it showed a touch more refinance with the finishing touches of the moulted cover. I was quite intrigued that my store had two models equally priced for the exact same thing as there are no other differences besides the already mentioned finishing touches.

Then came the third model which is a Walimex pro. Again, no differences with the other two. Strange though was the fact that this also had the EasyCover logo, but the first didn't have the Walimex trademark.

In the pictures bellow is the Delkin variant.

Impressions about it? Well, it's a little bit different from what I had on my old 7D as they don't seem to come from the same manufacturer. The rubber material is quite the same, difference is that time put it's mark on the 7D cover and it appears the material is not homogeneous but rather has a subtle coating that rubs off in time. Other than that, the grip area for the fingers is differently shaped, the buttons have a different shape but can't say one design has an edge over the other.

Bottom line, no matter what you choose for a Canon 5D mark III, there are big chances that you will end up with the same product. All that matters would be to search for the best price.

Nikon hot-shoe protection caps on Canon cameras

Most of my photography so far was done outdoors and most of the times in far from ideal conditions, whether it's -40 degrees Celsius in Siberia or +40 in Dubai, whether it's pouring rain, blistering snow or just plain old dust.

As you can see I'm not the over protective type with my gear and pretty often I put those whether sealing capabilities to the test. Achile's heel is that from my experience the hot shoe is the most vulnerable exposed part that can very easily get hurt. It includes electrical contacts, fine machined mechanics and even an electrical contact that senses the presence of a external flash.

Just when I had the external flash detector contact jammed did I seriously think of the problem and I was quite amazed to see that there aren't a lot of solutions to protect these kind of incidents. I couldn't find anything from Canon that's for sure but I did notice Nikon had their BS-1 and BS-2 hot-shoe protection caps just as I needed. Nikon and Canon body's are quite different when it comes to hot-shoe area design and functioning so I searched for hours an answer to whether Nikon caps will work on Canon bodies.

Given the low investment price I took the leap of faith and tried a BS-1 on my 7D. It's a less than ideal match as the shape of the cap prevents it from sliding completely on the hot shoe. That doesn't mean the problem can't be fixed, all you need are some skills with a sharp blade to remove the extra material and it will work great on any Canon body I think (only tested on the "small" body ranges of 40D, 60D, 7D, 5D mkII, 5D mkIII).

By the time I lost my BS-1 I was already with a 5D mark III so took another shot with the BS-2 which is a far superior cap and even fits perfectly without any modification. While BS-1 is clearly plastic, BS-2 is more like a plastic core with exterior rubber.

You can see above a Nikon BS-2 mounted on a Canon 5D mark III body. Works like a charm even though the "design lines" don't seamlessly blend together. Now the problem is to always be careful and remember where I put the cap when I take it off but even that won't protect from an accidental bump that will push off the cap into the sea of little things that vanish without a trace. Must I say that this is my third cap now.

Alternatives? Well, on my 7D I successfully used a Camera Armor that has an integrated hot-shoe cover. The bad part is that while camera armors are good for scratch and bumps protection they're filled with holes that let dust and particles accumulate between the camera body and the cover. Above all that, the integrated hot-shoe cover has a high tendency to get off it's place. Even so I'll order a camera armor for my current 5D mark III when they'll be available.

Sneak peak into Canon 60D

This summer unfortunately was marked by a few accidents among my friends including my girlfriend that fell from the bike while we were riding together.
Long story short, she had her DSLR dangling around her neck when it happened. Results? She got a broken arm, the camera lost it's battery compartment, back panel buttons functionality and overall scratches and dents, the lens got a broken filter and a scratched front element, luckily it was just the good old 18-55 kit lens.
After she got back on her feet it was time for the camera to be fixed so we went to Canon's only camera service in Romania. We weren't expecting to be a complicated matter as I suspected that during the fall a cable must have come loose or brake. Imagine our surprise when the guys from the service asked for 1/3 of the price of a new 60D for the repair with little further comment on why so expensive.
I had doubts on the price so we took back the camera, not before paying a nice beefy 25 something dollars just for looking at the camera.
After I had the go ahead I seized the poor camera and got her to pieces to see if anything can be done on the cheap.

Trying to remove back panel

In the end it turned out it's easier to take off the back panel and I unscrewed more than it was needed. Inside my assumptions turned right as the back panel film cable connector was torn out of the PCB. It's not a pretty site looking at a tiny millimeter wide connector with terminals thinner than human hair and thinking about a re-soldering job. About half of the tracks were ripped from the PCB with no chance of repair but I took a shot for the other half at least.

Half job done: panel removed

I had access to the latest greatest Weller soldering station with a thin enough tip, used a microscope for vision and took some two hours worth of work trying to suture the wound. First time I almost gave myself a heart attack thinking I messed something up as the camera wouldn't boot anymore but it turns out it has some kind of protection that keeps it dead as long as the back panel is removed and not in it's place. Didn't see any switches of other clear evidence of how this protection was implemented though.

At times I succeeded gaining back 3 buttons and the activity LED but it was still not enough for any real good use. And as I tried and I tried I lost some of them and ended up with only two buttons, Live View and  right arrow from the navigation controller. At least now I know why the guys from the service asked for nearly 250$, they wanted to replace the whole main-board as it's impossible to fix it anyway else.

Other half impossible to do