Precautions with bodies and lenses at the shore?

For the beach, I generally put the camera and lens in a Lens Raincoat or an OpTech rain sleeve, because of the blowing sand and spray.

But for a seaside town is any of that necessary? Is there any salt content in just the air near the beach or on a wharf? That doesn't make sense to my science mind, but set me straight if I'm wrong.

tvphotog wrote in post #17653895
For the beach, I generally put the camera and lens in a Lens Raincoat or an OpTech rain sleeve, because of the blowing sand and spray.

But for a seaside town is any of that necessary? Is there any salt content in just the air near the beach or on a wharf? That doesn't make sense to my science mind, but set me straight if I'm wrong.

Heya,

I live in Florida and I'm generally beach-side all the time. I also boat & kayak with my cameras and lenses all the time. I don't use any sleeves or covers at all. I also do not use any filters. I'm also not shooting with 100% resistant gear either. My 1D2 is sealed, but none of my lenses are totally sealed. I often shoot with my 5D, different APS-C's and 1D series. I have a vortex storm jacket that I take around with me, but I never use it, it's just there in case a huge rain drops. I do keep my camera & lens in a dry bag when I'm actively moving around in the boat/kayak just to avoid big splashes.

There is salt in the air flying around just like sand. It is in solution in the water, which evaporates, leaving salt crystals just like sand.
There's sand in the air of course.

It will go as far as the wind can carry it before it falls out of suspension due to mass exceeding the wind's force, or when it enters solution (rain, wet, etc).

I still do nothing special. Cameras are not ultra-wimpy.

I never open the camera to swap a lens out in the open, I try to just keep whatever lens on that body and leave it that way until I clean it.
I let the camera dry completely with lens on, before trying to do any cleaning.
Then I blow off the camera and all crevasses with a rocket blower.
Then I wipe it down with a wet wipe.
I clean the lens element with lens cleaner and a wipe.

That's all I do. Takes only a few minutes at the end of the day.

Some people use a clear filter to protect their lens, I don't, the only way salt or sand is going to destroy the coatings on your front element or scratch it, is if you left it wet, or rubbed the element with a cloth real hard with particles on there. I do often use a CPL, but that's for the CPL effect and not protection. That's up to you to decide if it's worth it. Personally I'm not doing it. The front element of a lens is durable and the last thing I want is a stuck filter in the field covered in whatever. I keep a rockit blower with me if something gets on the element. And I've broken a few CPL's already just from banging around in a boat and the ring being warped and the glass busting. The lenses are fine. But it's annoying to go to shoot and have a crack or some junk on a filter in the way that you then have to remove.

Some think you need full weather sealing to be ok. I think it's nice to have weather sealing, but Canon just doesn't seem to be friendly to people who want weather sealing and if you want weather sealing, not all L's even have it (what a joke), and only the 1D series have it, and recently, some newer APSC's and full frames are starting to have some decent weather sealing (7D, 7D2, 5D series to an extent, etc). But I always get miffed about their lenses. Not even all their white L's are sealed. What kind of crap is that? Bleh. Anyhow, this is why I'm always flirting with Pentax systems for most of my water shooting. I've just yet to go to Pentax as a 2nd system (k5iis & 300 F4*), because frankly, years of this has shown me that you just don't need full weather sealing, and I'm quite unfriendly to my gear with how I'm using it. Maybe I'm just lucky right now, but multiple camera systems all the time and nothing has went kaput, thought I am pretty careful, but I'll show you where my gear goes often.

Anyhow, just my take on it.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/t7L4​oq

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/svrj​Ew

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/svrk​zN

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/s4FE​sH

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/ruKQ​Ds

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/pW9h​Pr

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/pEb4​6e

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/qfnd​N3

I do like MalVeaux, i am living at 20 meters from the sea, take boats, walk at low tide in the sea, no filters, dive with it (housing ) but mean it's on boat whatever weather, i took it off the housing after a dive even on the boat, etc ...
I never took particular precautions even when the sea is quite rough, just some times, when i got too much spray, i wipe it with a humidified fresh water cloth when i get back home ... that's all

the camera will probably outlast your lust for something newer.