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Ready for Anything: The Best Weather Sealed Lenses Under $700

Chris Gampat
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06/25/2020
4 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Tamron 24mm f2.8 Di III OSD review build quality weather sealing 1

Weather Sealed Lenses are great for every photographer, but if you’re on a budget then these are the Best.

There are times when photographers demand more from their gear, and some of the Best Weather Sealed Lenses should stay glued to your camera. You probably don’t realize it, but lenses like this can keep dirt and grime out. It won’t affect the sensor at all. And it will also keep things functioning with less fuss overall than if you didn’t use a weather sealed lens. Of course, most of the Best Weather Sealed Lenses tend to be pricey. But you’re in luck today! We went through our Reviews Index and found some of the Best Weather Sealed Lenses on a budget. Take a look.

Fujifilm 50mm f2 R WR

From our review:

Pros

  • It’s $449
  • Weather sealing
  • Fast autofocus performance on the newer cameras (sorry X Pro 1 users)
  • Sharp optics and image quality
  • Nice bokeh
  • Only gets sharper when you use a flash
  • Pretty compact
  • Nice build quality

Cons

  • Not much, honestly.

Buy Now: $449

Rent it: LensRentals

Tamron 24mm f2.8 Di III OSD

From our review:

Pros

  • Small footprint
  • Lightweight (7.6 oz / 215g)
  • Very robust weather sealing
  • Excellent image quality overall
  • Close minimum focusing distance
  • Affordably priced

Cons

  • Plasticky build quality
  • Quite a bit of optical distortion (although correctable in Capture One)
  • Subpar autofocus performance under low light and low contrast conditions

Buy Now: $349

Rent it: LensRentals

Olympus 60mm f2.8 Macro

From our review:

Pros

  • Excellent optics/image quality
  • Lightweight
  • 1:1 Maximum Reproduction Ratio
  • Focus Distance Dial
  • Splash/Dust proof
  • 46mm filter thread (more common than the Olympus 45mm’s 37mm thread)

Cons

  • AF is not terrible, but it is not as fast as Olympus’ other primes e.g. 45mm and 12mm
  • All plastic construction
  • Lens hood not included
  • No image stabilization. This will not matter for Olympus shooters but Panasonic shooters take note.

Buy Now: $399

Rent it: LensRentals

Pro Tip: This roundup of the Best Weather Sealed Lenses is all the lenses we’ve personally reviewed and tested. We wouldn’t recommend them otherwise.

Sony 85mm f1.8 FE

From our review:

Pros

  • Great image quality
  • Fast focusing with the Sony a7r II and in good lighting it will focus quickly with the Sony a7
  • Nice feel; though not as great as the G Master 85mm f1.4 lens
  • Weather resistance built in
  • Compact size

Cons

  • Honestly, not a darn thing.

Buy Now: $598

Rent it: LensRentals

Fujifilm 16mm f2.8 R WR

From our review:

Pros

  • Small
  • Lightweight
  • Weather sealed
  • Fun to use
  • Affordable
  • Good for documentary work and travel
  • Incredibly fast autofocus

Cons

  • Not sure why there isn’t an effective manual focus distance scale for hyperfocal length shooting
  • It’s a wide angle lens with a relatively slow aperture for an APS-C camera system
  • You can get the 16mm f1.4 on eBay or used for good prices. And you also get two stops more of light and weather sealing in addition to snappy autofocus.

Buy Now: $399

Rent it: LensRentals

Tamron 35mm f2.8 Di III OSD

From our review:

Pros

  • Compact (although the Sony 35mm f2.8 Zeiss is still smaller)
  • Lightweight
  • Class-leading weather sealing
  • Excellent image quality overall
  • Very affordable (only $349)

Cons

  • Plasticky build quality
  • Low light autofocus can be a tad slow

Buy Now: $299

Rent it: LensRentals

Pro Tip: The cool thing about the best Best Weather Sealed Lenses is that they can survive being thrown in snow too. Just make sure that the mount is completely locked. Also be sure to keep all the ports completely closed on your camera. Otherwise you’re out of luck.

Fujifilm 35mm f2 R WR

From our review:

Pros

  • Great sharpness
  • Nine aperture blades make the bokeh as good as it can be
  • Small size
  • Weather resistance
  • The fastest focusing lens that Fujifilm has offered as of the publication of this review.

Cons

  • Just f2â€Ĥa refresh of the 35mm f1.4 would have been more appreciated and pushed the system ahead overall.

Buy Now: $399

Rent it: LensRentals

Olympus 14-150mm f4-5.6 II

From our review:

Pros

  • Pretty darn sharp
  • Okay bokeh
  • Weather sealing gives you an all-in-one lens for travel and street photography work
  • Fairly compact size
  • At $599.99 you’re getting a big bargain

Cons

  • Only f4

Buy Now: $499

Rent it: LensRentals

Fujifilm 23mm f2 R WR

From our review:

Pros

  • Good image quality
  • Seriously and surprisingly fast focus. This lens is officially Fujifilm’s fastest.
  • Fast focus on the X Pro 2, X-T2 and even the X Pro 1. The latter completely shocked me.
  • Nice colors
  • Compact size
  • Weather sealing
  • Turning the aperture ring feels nice and smooth until the clicks come in. It’s a tactile experience that’s just lovely.
  • Sharp images
  • Fairly nice bokeh
  • Affordable price point

Cons

  • Something about this lens just simply doesn’t have the magic the 23mm f1.4 R does

Buy Now: $449

Rent it: LensRentals

Sony 28mm f2

From our review:

Pros

  • Very sharp at any aperture
  • Beautiful bokeh
  • Nice, small size
  • Lightweight
  • Pretty affordable

Cons

  • Metal build on the exterior, though almost hollow feeling because it’s so light weight.

Buy Now: $448

Rent it: LensRentals

Olympus 12-45mm f4 PRO

From our review:

Pros

  • Very small
  • Well built
  • Lightweight
  • You pretty much never need to stop it down

Cons

  • Not sure why it’s this pricey

Buy Now: $599

Rent it: LensRentals

Best Weather Sealed Lenses Cameras fujifilm lenses olympus review sony tamron weather sealed
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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