Avoiding Salt Water Damage

[wls]

I'm currently at the beach, and I'd love to take my digital camera to the ocean and get some great shots. Only someone instilled the fear of God in me when it came to getting my camera anywhere near salt water, sea splash, and wind with sand.

Yet, I also see setups of professional photographers at the beach, and they seem to be throwing caution to the wind, sometimes even getting in the water. What gives?

What's the rule of thumb, especially with an expensive camera?

[Nicole]

One thing that I'd recommend is a kind of cheap UV filter. You want to talk about an area where you can risk scratching your lens, the beach is it. Sand, salt water blowing in the air. I've used my camera at the beach, and what I've done is once I got back home, used a damp cloth to wipe everything down and I washed the filter off. It was no worse for the wear, but that filter was disgusting, so I was really glad it wasn't on my lens!

[Saralonde]

I agree with Nicole about the filter. If you're really worried about blowing sand getting in crevices, put your camera in a large plastic bag or even one of those free shower caps they give you at hotels.

[inkista]

Originally Posted by wls

... Yet, I also see setups of professional photographers at the beach, and they seem to be throwing caution to the wind, sometimes even getting in the water. What gives?

This is probably because they have the even-more-expensive professional-grade cameras and lenses that are weather-sealed.

[Jargon]

Originally Posted by inkista

This is probably because they have the even-more-expensive professional-grade cameras and lenses that are weather-sealed.

Good point! One of the reasons why the L series of Canon lenses are expensive is that they are weather-sealed.

[wls]

There's the rub, though. I've got the L-Series 70-200 lens and a nice protective filter, but the camera is an EOS-5D (which if I'm correct, is not weather-sealed).

Even so, it would seem to me that salt water is a corossive, and just getting on the camera wouldn't be a good thing.

I had no problem taking it on a cruise ship, but then again, that was well above the water level. I suspect the real issue is more of sea splash being carried on the wind.

Thus, perhaps I've answered my own question. It depends on how violent the waves are crashing, how close you are to the water, and how strong the breeze is.

[Jargon]

I guess the pros upgrade their equipment more frequently than the rest of us. So they can afford to take chances with their gear.

[Sime]

Hey there.. Was going to say yesterday (but got busy at work...terrible! where are my priorities) Was on the Malecon in Havana a few weeks back and after taking about 40 photos my uv filter had had enough. I thought i'd been careful and covered my lens between most shots.. What happened was really interesting. It was a Hoya HMC Pro filter which I had read good things about, however, when I tried to clean it with a little lens fluid and one of my cleaning cloths it sortof hazed right up.. like it had combined the salt water / salt and the cleaning fluid and gone weird. Swapped lenses.. continued on.. Later that day, took my filters off and washed them in a sink with some soap and water... came up perfectly. Weird, but hey ho....

[matthewchj]

About the L lenses... not all are weather sealed. And the front of the lens isn't sealed. You need to attach a filter to the front end to complete the sealing.

[Jargon]

Originally Posted by matthewchj

About the L lenses... not all are weather sealed. And the front of the lens isn't sealed. You need to attach a filter to the front end to complete the sealing.

Thanks for the clarification. You're right about not all the L lenses being weather-sealed. But not all the weather-sealed lenses need a filter to complete the weather seal, just the front focusing ones. The internal focusing and rear focusing lenses are completely weather-sealed.