Getting ready for bad weather...
 

Hoping someone can help!

I have been looking for a rain jacket/coat/whatever-its-called for my XHA1 and the one I have come across that looks fairly good is the CRC-14 from Kata.

Q1. Does anyone have one of these and if so, are they any good?
Q2. Does anyone have any other suggests for brands and/or models to look out for?
Q3. Is this the appropriate place to ask this?

I await an influx of friendly, information packed replies with eager anticipation!

Yes I bought one a few months ago and...... it hasn't rained since!

Seriously I have never used it in wet weather. I tried it on when I first got it and it fitted OK with plenty of room to access the necessary controls. The LCD screen cane be opened and seen quite easily. I don't know about the mic the cover is quite loose around it which suggests there could be interfering noise from the cover around the mic if you are doing a lot of hand movement with controls etc thereby ruffling the cover.

But it was the better of the two I was shown - can't remember who made the other one.

Hi Graeme

I can fully recommend the Kata rain covers.. they are by far the easiest and most usable of the three makes I've tried... They give you lots of room underneath to handle the camera and are totally waterproof... I've shot for a whole day with one on....

Note though that any rain cover on a small camera, I shoot on a Sony Z1, is a pain in the neck... they ALL hamper the focusing, rustle, pick up loads of other handling noise as well as rain actually hitting the plastic...and just make camera adjustment really difficult...
It has to be really bad and wet before I get mine out, but if it does pour it's your only real option and as I said the Kata is the best I've used...

Cheers
Gareth

me too I bought one months ago and now it hasn't rained on any shoot since!!! Best rain cover ever, it actually stops the rain.
I have tried it on the cam though and it seams a total pain in the arse and I hope I never have to use it!

Well as I said in my post raincovers are a pain in the ass ..period!

But the Kata is the easiest of the three makes I tried...others were too tight, or made no prevision for radio mics, bigger batteries or longer shotgun mics... I can fit the Kata in a couple of minutes and it covers both the G2 receiver, the AT long mic and rycote..

I removed the bottom 'black' skirt as I saw no purpose for it..

One other thing I found useful in the rain was the 'French flag' on a matte box, really helps keep the drops off the front element...

Cheers
Gareth

I bought a Kata almost two years ago and have managed to avoid shooting in rain until last Monday.
It worked really well.
I used the viewfinder and not the LCD (not sure how that would work).
I wasn't recording sound so I don't know about the mic. In fact I had to tape up the mic cover to keep it out of the field of view.
I've never been able to figure out what the black sleeve is for either.
I don't have a matte box but the lens hood kept the rain off the lens.
For the kind of shooting I was doing on Monday I could access the controls easily. I was flipping between auto focus and manual focus using the autofocus button, for focus, and the TV mode and TV mode with exposure lock, for exposure.
A good piece of kit.

Thanks for the input folks! I will then be investing in one of these!