Over in the 7D forum, one guy said he shot outside in the pouring rain for an hour with his 7D. If that's true, then I'm truly impressed...and said Canon should market the 7D as being waterproof.

I also said I'd never do that with my T2i...and I also wouldn't do it with a 7D or 5D! :-)

As for dropping cameras...that sucks...but I'm either lucky, careful, or coordinated (or some combination of the three) 'cause I've never once dropped a camera (and I do a lot of bushwhacking, hiking, canoeing, etc. with my cameras).

Scott

I'd want the weatherproofing of the 7D. I've often shot rallies all day with my Pentax K10D, which is also weatherproofed, in some very heavy continuous downpours. If you work a lot outside then the weatherproofing is worth more than its weight in gold.

The Digital Rebels are plenty strong enough
 

I've been lurking for a while but finally registered to share this story. I do have a T2i, but this story is about the XSi/450D that came out two years ago.

Shortly after I got my hands on then-hot XSi (450D), an unfortunate confluence of events led me to driving off in the car with my XSi perched atop the roof. Long story made short, I got up to about 35 mph (56 kph) before the camera slid off the rooftop and smashed into the asphalt. Attached to the body was the Tamron 18-250mm zoom lens.

Here's the camera after I carefully picked up all the parts I could find:

http://www.hanning-yu.com/photos/867257715_uxjUc-O.jpg

Here's looking at the front of the XSi/450D, with the base of the Tamron lens torn and still attached to the camera body:

http://www.hanning-yu.com/photos/867257772_fvpoS-L.jpg

Eh, "luckily" for the lens hood, it managed to eject itself completely from the lens and survived with nary a scratch, but the lens itself fared considerably worse:

http://www.hanning-yu.com/photos/867257798_QRdV5-L.jpg

Amazingly, the big 3" LCD was spared any scratches or damages... it was close, though:

http://www.hanning-yu.com/photos/867257836_uMFgA-L.jpg

Lots of dings and scratches on all corners...

http://www.hanning-yu.com/photos/867257883_BFdea-L.jpg

... and the flash hotshoe was bent...

http://www.hanning-yu.com/photos/867257921_dMicH-L.jpg

... and the baseplate for the hand grip took its lumps, too:

http://www.hanning-yu.com/photos/867257965_J3KmR-L.jpg

HOWEVER, the camera continued to work flawlessly. The lens was a complete write-off, but the body itself has been working great for the past two years since this accident, some 10,000+ shots later. The flash hotshoe was salvaged with some careful plier action.

So rest assured about the structural durability of the Digital Rebel bodies. They will last a good long time.

Sorry about the accident, but GREAT testimonial as to the durability of the Rebels!
By the way, what kind of hand grip is that? (I'd like to get one!)

Scott

It's a Hakuba baseplate mated to the Canon E-1 hand strap. The baseplate lets you use the excellent and comfortable Canon hand strap without needing the battery grip.

I've also used the Opteka set shown below with great results. The hand strap is not as good as the Canon's, but still plenty comfortable and functional.

Just to be clear, I dropped it on the ground outside. Pretty much hard dirt, no grass - but no rocks either. I wouldn't want to drop it on a hard tile floor for sure.

Couple of things... I thought every camera had to be dropped once. Isn't that the rule?

And Hyun's story is just awesome.

SO no, these things aren't sledge hammers, but they're tougher than you might think.

john

Did you find the Canon E-1 strap (with Hakuba baseplate) better or more comfortable than the Hakuba strap?

Hakuba strap...
 

I did not find the Hakuba strap that came with the Hakuba baseplate comfortable at all. I found the Canon E-1 hand strap to be most comfortable, the Opteka was close second, and the Hakuba distant third.

When members talk about overheating on the T2i (550D), where does this occur, is it felt on your hand when holding the camera?

Brian

A warning flashes up on the lcd display screen, and sometimes the camera will also shut down.

If you could actually feel it, it would probably be hot enough to melt a component or two, and that would be a bad thing!

I've only had my T2i show the overheating warning when shooting outside in direct sunlight on an 85-plus degree day with humidity pushing 90%. Even then it didn't shut down, and a few minutes turned off in the shade got it right back up and running. (was using it as a B-cam with my Z1U, which had no problems with the heat at all...)