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Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
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Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Features

Under $1000: 5 Weather Sealed Lenses with Great Image Quality

Chris Gampat
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11/04/2020
3 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Tamron 35mm f2.8 Di III OSD review build quality weather sealing

Last Updated on 11/05/2020 by Chris Gampat

Don’t let the rain get you down, these weather sealed lenses will keep working if you’re rough on them.

Maybe I’m an extremist. But I believe that weather sealed lenses should be a standard these days. Even if you don’t want to shoot in the rain, you’ll benefit. Your camera sensor will be clean. Your entire package will be more durable. And best of all, you’ll have less maintenance. Weather sealed lenses are seriously just the best. And we’ve reviewed a ton of them over the years. So we’ve rounded up some extra special ones here.

Editor’s Note: All of our roundups only include gear that we’ve tested and approve of. We’re completely transparent about it. We also encourage you to click further into the full reviews if you’re interested. We’d never recommend something that we don’t have a full review for. The Phoblographer has always done this. With all the information out there, we pride ourselves on the large database of reviews that we’ve done.

Table of Contents

  • Sigma 45mm f2.8 DG DN Contemporary: A Tiny One
  • Olympus 12-45mm f4 PRO: One of the Most Versatile Weather Sealed Lenses
  • Nikon 50mm f1.8 S: A Small But Solid Entry
  • Tamron 35mm f2.8 DI III OSD: One of the Most Affordable Weather Sealed Lenses
  • Fujifilm 23mm f2 R WR: A Legend Among Weather Sealed Lenses

Sigma 45mm f2.8 DG DN Contemporary: A Tiny One

In our review, we said:

“Overall, the Sigma 45mm f2.8 DG DN Contemporary exhibits very good image quality. If you didn’t know any better, you’d say that this is easily the image quality that an Art or Sports lens in Sigma’s lineup would have.”

Buy Now: Usually for $529

Editor’s Note: The Sigma 45mm isn’t full weather sealed. It’s only so at the mount and the front element. So we wouldn’t take it into the harshest rainfalls. But it can survive most showers.

Olympus 12-45mm f4 PRO: One of the Most Versatile Weather Sealed Lenses

In our review, we said:

“…I don’t have much to complain about with this lens. Of course, I wish it had a faster aperture. But it also focuses closely if you want bokeh.”

Buy Now: Usually $649

Pro Tip: Still afraid of your lenses getting soaked? To add more protection to your weather sealed lenses, use a UV filter. But get a high quality one or else the image quality will suffer. Combine this with the lens hood. The front of your lens will be well protected. Use weather sealed lenses with weather sealed camera bodies or else the effect will be lost.

Nikon 50mm f1.8 S: A Small But Solid Entry

In our review, we said:

“Thanks to the lens design that features 12 elements in 9 groups with 9 aperture blades, the bokeh produced by the Nikon NIKKOR Z 50mm f1.8 S will likely be pleasing to most photographers and does a good job separating your subject from the background.”

Buy Now: Usually $596

Tamron 35mm f2.8 DI III OSD: One of the Most Affordable Weather Sealed Lenses

In our review, we said:

“While bokeh fanatics tend to reach for brighter lenses, the Tamron 35mm f2.8 Di III OSD M1:2 (Model F053) is proof that even f2.8 lenses can hold their own when it comes to creamy bokeh. “

Buy Now: Usually $349

Fujifilm 23mm f2 R WR: A Legend Among Weather Sealed Lenses

In our review, we said:

“The best thing about this lens has to be the color rendition. As always, Fujifilm’s color rendition is second to none in part from the Fujifilm film profiles built into the camera. But then consider that this is a high quality lens and you’ve got a winning combination.”

Buy Now: Usually $449.95

camera filter lenses nikon olympus price review sigma tamron Weather Sealed Lenses
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Chris Gampat

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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