slr camera body for under $600 that is weather-sealed?

<p>Does anyone know of a digital SLR camera body for under $600 that is weather-sealed? Any brand. Am curious as I do not know if this is a feature on cameras under $1500.</p>

<p>The 10MP Pentax K200D, still available direct from Pentax for $599.95 (body only), is weather-sealed. The 14MP K20D, which is out of production, but still available new, is $699 from Pentax, less from other dealers.</p>

<p>Even the recently announced 14MP Pentax K-7 (now shipping), is $1299, with a magnesium body and weather-seals.</p>

<p>So, yes, weather sealing is available on affordable cameras. That is one area of the market that Pentax has tried to stake out for themselves. Pentax has the lowest priced weather sealed cameras on the market. Pentax even has a weather sealed kit lens.</p>

<p>Paul Noble</p>

<p>The K200D uses AA batteries and gets 1000 shots on a set of lithiums. The K20 has a better finder. I have both and weather sealing is why I chose Pentax. They are well made too. :-)</p>

<p>Just remember that you need at least the new Pentax WR kit zooms to complete the sealing... weather resistant body isn't much use alone. K7 + both lenses makes just about $1500.</p>

<p>K20D offers some serious value at the moment, body + 18-55 kit lens goes for 625€ here in Finland and it's leagues ahead of entry level models.</p>

<p>If you're in the U.S. and don't mind refurbished products, BestBuy has refurbished Pentax K10D cameras on their web site for $399. These are fully weather sealed and built like a tank. In terms of features, the K10D and the K200D are very similar. The main difference is that the K10D is somewhat larger and heavier, somewhat more rugged, and has a somewhat larger/brighter viewfinder. On the other hand, the K200D has better JPEG output, which is nice if you don't want to mess with RAW. Either way, you get a high quality weather sealed camera for a great price.</p>

If you don't mind older tech, you can get an Olympus E-1 and 14-54mm lens for about $600. Both body and lens are sealed.

<p>this is great info. i will have to check these out. how are they on noise? i had a Canon 20D which wasn't great above 800 ISO. It stopped working in the Irish rain, too!<br>

thank you to all!</p>

<p>K7 seems to have rather nice noise characteristics.<br /> Pentax tends to go easy on the noise reduction so their cameras may look a bit noisier than, say, Canon but there's plenty of detail left.<br /> I think all newer crop bodies are very much usable up to ISO 1600.<br>

(But I'm not allergic to some noise, especially not in prints, and tend to use most high ISO shots in pretty small size, at 4x6/web you can shoot ISO 1600 color neg and see no grain... ymmv, as always.)</p>

<p>You can get a Nikon D1x for $600 or less. The image quality and size (5.5 MP) is a little dated, but capable of excellent results and fully compatible with the latest Nikon lenses.</p>

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<p>If you don't mind older tech, you can get an Olympus E-1 and 14-54mm lens for about $600. Both body and lens are sealed.</p>

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<p>I agree , and you will be pleased with the noise and other features of the camera. Besides the fact it has <strong>ISO</strong> 100 - 3200.<br>

It is designed as a prefessional camera and has lots of pro fetures. Only complaint one could have is that there is no built in flash, but then again pros have many flashes and seldom a need for a built in one.</p>