I NEVER THOUGHT THEY WILL TAKE IT SERIOUS
A few years ago while pointing out how illogical "Protective Filters" were on an internet board, I mentioned that since the camera body was just as likely to be stuck by a meteorite from space as the lens, users of "Protective Filters" should do the next logical thing and in addition to going about in safety goggles and body armour to protect their persons, they should also stick their cameras in underwater housings for protection. It was a joke, a sort of Chewbacca Defence, to show how illogical "Protective Filters" were but it seems someone read that and thought "there is money to be made here" and has come up with
"CAMERA ARMOR".
A rubber covering for your camera to protect it from falling meteorites and the like, it can be had from your friendly online retailer to "protect" your Nikon, Canon and even the Sony Alpha 100 DSLR Cameras (How many of those are taken into war zones??). Yep! People are actually buying this ugly sheet of rubber to wrap around their cameras for "protection".
Isn't it time to stop and think for a minute here. I am sure the fine folks that have brought us this product mean well and I am all for entrepreneurship but where does it end? Is this a triumph of marketing over sense? Some genius once said, you will never go wrong appealing to fear and time and time again, he is proven right.
Photographers in particular seem to be fair game. Someone once took a look at the humble UV filter and decided to make it a best seller. How? By suggesting all sorts of bad stuff will happen to your lenses if you fail to get one. I read one guy say that he used protective filters because the very air in Florida erodes lenses and any lens without one there is just doomed. This is what people have had drummed into their heads everytime they make a purchase for sales people thinking of commissions. I wonder how long it will be before the air in Moscow starts to erode camera bodies without "ARMOR".
The funny thing is that is so called "ARMOR" is a skin of rubber that does little armouring, will do absolutely nothing in the case of a hard fall and looks dreadful to boot.
At least an underwater housing will give real protection and isn't quite as ugly.
What do you think? Will you buy "CAMERA ARMOR"?? How about some snake oil???