How to keep beach sand from ruining tripod and care of.. ?

[supercool2]

We are going to the beach (several hours away) And i just bought a new tripod yesterday, because I needed one. Well when my husband and I filmed his brothers wedding 8 years ago, it was on a beach and he used his tripod. He said the sand got caught inside the leg connectors that extend in/out. And it has never worked ever since. It was totally ruined. I told him we both didn't know anything back then about that so it wasn't any ones' fault. Because he reminded me of this, after seeing me getting my tripod ready to take along to our trip this afternoon. Well we still don't know any better how to prevent the same thing from happening. I don't want to ruin it after only one use. It's brand new,and was not cheap. The reason I wanted to use it,was so I could be in the video too (when recording video of us as a family ) . And during picture taking, I'd like to be able to walk away from the camera (with my husband standing near it) to go play with my kids in between taking pictures, without having to pack it away in the camera bag,and unpack it each time I want to snap some pictures. I don't normally use a filter because I was planning to buy a real expensive one, (polarizer) but haven't yet. I will be stopping at best buy to pick up a cheap filter (thats all they offer) to use mainly to protect my lens glass from sand scratches from any wind. My husband doesn't know how to use my camera,and never thinks to snap any pictures. I will put it on auto setting when/IF he wants to take any,but I've actually tried auto myself yesterday to test that out and they came out awful . I think I don't have the settings right for auto. Because I only use "user1" and Manual"settings,myself. With that said, I am the main one who will be having to take pictures of our family trip,etc... which is why it's important for me to be in some them too. I will also be using a wireless remote with the tripod to take pictures of myself with my husband and kids.

 

[Overread]

Well you can wrap a plastic bag or some cloth around the leg connectors so that sand can't easily get into the joints. If its a good quality tripod you should also be able to find instructions on how to take it apart so you can clean it. Beaches are quite heavy on the wear and tear and taking the tripod a apart and cleaning it with distilled water to get rid of sand particles and salt water can take time but its worth it to keep the tripod in good working order.

Sand on the lens shouldn't be a problem unless there is a very strong wind and light sand to be blown onto the lens - even then a blower and puff of clean air can often remove most sand from the front (its more a case of ensuring that you remove all the sand before using any contact cleaner like a lens pen or lens cloth so that you don't grind the sand into the lens) .

 

[tirediron]

It depends on the tripod, as Overread indicated, better quality units can be dissembled and cleaned. Failing that, once you get home and it's completely dry, just hit the joints with compressed air; that should blow the sand out easily enough.