RobJ wrote:
How do other people with non-sealed DSLRs (and lenses) deal with bad
weather conditions, particularly rain and dust?

I used to hike a lot in the Grand Canyon with medium format gear and
used two "dry bags" to carry it. These are what we use on river
running trips, rubberized bags that seal up pretty well. They are not
totally waterproof if submerged for a long time but are very
water-resistant and kept out sweat, rain and dust on over 1,000 miles
of GC hikes. You can buy them at most sporting goods stores like REI
in various sizes, the ones that look like they hold a loaf of bread are
about right and go for maybe $10-12 each ... these are for carrying the
gear, you need something different for protecting gear if you're trying
to actually shoot in rain.

Is the pro gear (1D) completely bullet-proof, or is
there really only a marginal difference between what the pro stuff can
handle vs. the 10D/20D/30D kind of gear under harsh conditions?

If you're talking about shooting in light rain, you have the wrong
lenses for it. The more recent Canon L series lenses have gaskets over
switches and at the lens mount so if you use these with a 1D class body
(which also has gaskets) you can shoot in light rain for hours, though
I try to keep a cover over the gear as much as possible. One problem
with both rain and dust is changing lenses since moisture or dust can
get in then.

Here's a shot from Alaska of two bears rasslin' in the rain (note the
drops hitting the water) ...
http://members.aol.com/bhilton665/bear_D3037.jpg ... on a week-long
camping trip it rained some every day and for 4 days it rained like
this or much harder most of the time (the campground flooded). I was
shooting a 1Ds and a 1D M II and the guy I was with had two Nikon D2x's
and one of his D2x's died after three days, so he quit shooting in the
rain ... but all my lenses had gaskets too. I would prefer not to
shoot in rain or dust but sometimes you have no choice, especially with
rain in Alaska and dust in Africa. We had fearful dust in Tanzania in
January and appreciated the 1D bodies (though we did have one backup
10D on that trip and it didn't die ... didn't get used much, but it
didn't freeze up from the choking dust).

If I were you I'd keep what I had until you're able to upgrade the
lenses as well since you won't be able to shoot long stretches in the
rain without the lenses with gaskets, I feel.

Bill