Anyone out there tried Camera Armour?

http://www.camerarmor.com/camera-armor.html

While I think the things are pretty ugly, I'm wondering if anyone has real experience that says it's worth it. Esthetics would mean nothing if it really worked.

Alright, so after a bunch of views on this post and no response, I gather there's interest but maybe no one has taken the plunge. So I bought one and I have to say it's better than I thought.

I'm using this on an XTi and I love the instant improvement the armor adds in terms of grip. I can now properly wrap all four of my fingers around the camera, giving it a feel of heft and grip similar to something more like the D80. This is awesome. Don’t know however if this might be a negative for larger bodies (30D, D80, 5D, D200, etc).

It’s also great that the armour comes with a clear plastic piece to protect the LCD screen. The plastic goes on the inside of the armor and is held in place without sticky tape. I heard that in the D80 version of this armor, this plastic piece is not included since a Nikon cover piece ships original with the camera. If this is true, I think that’s stupid. D80 owners shouldn’t get short-thrift just because Nikon paid more attention to detail.

I’m also pleased to say the armor still makes memory cards, batteries, and USB ports accessible. All indicator lights are visible and buttons work like normal. For XTi users, the infra-red sensor that shuts off the screen works like normal.

There are a few gripes however. Putting the camera strap back on was a pain. You have to take the straps off to add the armor and the armor’s extra thickness means strap holes are now smaller and harder to threat through. I used a thin and blunt object to push down on the armor to create more wiggle room. By the way, the armor’s strap locations were bang on.

I read the armor makes it harder to put lenses on. I found this true to some extent, although the work around seemed to be flipping back the armor that covered the lens mount. I found it easiest to this for the area around the bottom of the lens mount.

Depending on how you shoot, you might also like to know I found my XTi mode dial to be very stiff in operation now. The armor fits snug against the dial, making it much harder to turn. I’ll have to try later whether I can re-fit the armor in such a way so it doesn’t touch the dial and relieves this problem.

The biggest problems for me are to do with the built-in flash. First, the armour around that area is a bit flimsy and doesn’t fully insert into the hot-shoe. It’s not that I’m concerned the armor will break, but it becomes dislodged a little too easily and flaps around.

The second bigger problem is how the armor inhibits the pop-up of the flash unit. The pop-up mechanism now needs to push the flash through an opening of sticky rubbery material. Pop-up was delayed and being a bit paranoid, I wonder whether this might create bad strain on the mechanism. When I remembered, I used my fingers to push away some of the armor around the flash so pop-up could be normal. Not sure if only my armor is doing this. You’ll need to let me know if you give this a try.

I also didn’t use the lens hood or lens cap strap thing. I’m sure they’re fine, but I just didn’t bother. And XTi users who have battery grips, I have no idea how this works with the armor.

And the million dollar question in terms of how it looks? Again, not as bad as I thought! A camera always looks best just bare, but I have to admit in black armor, it was ok still. Yes it adds a definite outdoors feel to your camera, which is less “pro” and a bit odd in some shooting environments. But the armor can be removed with decent ease and again in black from a distance or in the dark, it wasn’t that noticeable. Call me vain, but looks mattered because I’d prefer not to get weird stares while shooting. Nor do I want to attract unnecessary attention during travel, which is why I wouldn’t personally buy any of the other funky loud colours available. I don’t want to be remembered as a tourist touting a red camera who shot something he shouldn’t have.

So the verdict is, if you care about maximum protection for your camera, this is a pretty good extra little piece of gear. It’s not going to protect from major falls or waterproof, but overall I find I prefer to have it than not, especially on a plastic body like the XTi. I’ve accepted it enough that I can see myself leaving it on the XTi most of the time.

However since I’m quite a careful person to begin with, I personally feel a Canadian retail price of roughly $60 CAD is a bit steep. But I’ve seen it listed for much less from US retailers and with current exchange rates, it would be worth it.