There are a ton of posts that'll have you scared to take a DSLR to to a color festival or run. I want to share my own color-proof seal for the Holi Festival of Colors in Utah that managed to keep my DSLR completely clean for under $15.

Shopping List

Lens Filter (I chose a cheap $10 lens filter)

Plastic Wrap

Gallon Ziplock Bags (I chose Freezer since it's thicker than Storage)

Gaffer Tape

Rubber Bands

I wanted to protect the entire camera from all color particles and leave only the cheap lens filter and lens hood exposed to color. I experimented for hours to find the best way to seal my gear, and this is what I came up with -

Take the lens hood off and tighten the lens filter onto the lens. The filter adds a few millimeters to the height of the lens, and you'll want to take a piece of plastic wrap (the length about 1.5x the circumference of the lens, the width being about the size of the lens) and wrap it very tightly in a clockwise fashion right around the frame of the lens filter.

Take a tight, flat rubber band (about the width of the lens filter frame) and snap it over the plastic wrap right where the lens filter frame is. This rubber band keeps this plastic wrap in place, and the plastic wrap makes sure that any color particles coming toward the front of the lens won't be able to make it anywhere near the front element of your lens (they'll get the cheap lens filter dirty but can't make it near the grooves of the lens filter).

Grab one of the gallon sized "Freezer" Ziplock bags and cut a square from one side of the bag. Take this square of Ziplock material and wrap it tightly around the rubber band.

Now it's time to carefully screw the lens hood into place over the plastic wrap and Ziplock. The Ziplock "Freezer" bags are tough and shouldn't tear, but if it does begin to stretch and tear it may be a good idea to give the lens filter 90° of clockwise motion before its maximum tightness, complete the steps above, then screw the lens hood on while simultaneously tightening the lens filter.

Since I wanted to be extra careful, at this point I snapped an extra rubber band over the existing rubber band (now located inside the lens hood), and I stuffed strips of gaffer's tape to fill the space between the lens filter and lens hood.