Well, it seems Michael Reichman's recent Antarctic Trip is causing quite a stir on the internet. You can read about MR's account
here and read a sample of the resulting discussions
here. What all this is causing is that Canon is going to have a PR disaster. How long can Canon afford to ignore this? As one poster wrote and I paraphrase, "Why didn't Canon just put in proper weather seals like the 1D Series and be done with it?". Another poster wrote that theres no definition of what "weather sealed" means. Most people will take that to mean rain, but it can also mean sun, wind, hot, cold etc. In the absence of a definition those claims mean nothing.
Its also interesting that at the time the 5DII was announced, there was some quote from Canon that the camera can take rain up to 10mm per hour for 3 minutes. I can't find the source to the quote. But it was from official Canon marketing material at the launch of the camera. So it seems "weather sealed" means at least light rain to Canon.
Don't you see where all this is leading? All their "cutting corners" over the past few years is all coming back to bite Canon in the behind. The focus shifting 50mm 1.2 L they are trying to sell for top dollar, the noisy and banding 50D, the clearly false claims of "weather sealing" in their 5DII and 50D cameras, not to mention the false claims of the 50D being a good sports camera with its ancient and unrealiable 9pt focusing system. Also lies by Canon's top executives about "having no space" to put in a pop-up flash and a new AF system and last of all, that Canon's worst year is due to the economic situation rather than Canon's own poor behaviour. If Canon doesn't change its going to go downhill all the way. It's already started.
Meanwhile Nikon will be charging much more for its cameras knowing that Canon is now beset by poor and incompetent leadership, much like Nikon was in the years prior to 2007. What happens next we can only wait and see.
