I have a shoot coming up on the beach. My client wants me to shoot the sunrise, that's easy enough, since we'll be off staying on the beach.

I'm already going to order a http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=372373&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation
to cover the camera

I also want to get a clear lense to protect the camera lens incase sand kicks up or something.

So here are my choices.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=60764&is=REG&addedTroughType=search

or

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?ci=1&sb=ps&pn=1&sq=desc&InitialSearch=yes&O=product.jsp&A=search&Q=*&bhs=t&shs=TIC72&image.x=0&image.y=0

or

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=398379&is=REG&addedTroughType=search

I initially just want something to protect the camera lense. So these were some that the BH guy suggested.

Does anyone here have experience with adding a UV lense to thier Z1u/Fx1?

Thanks in advance.

What type of situation are you shooting in. You make it sound like a warzone where people will be trying to load your camera full of sand. I shoot sunsets here on the westcoast every chance I get off the beach and I have never had a grain of sand enter my camera.

What type of situation are you shooting in. You make it sound like a warzone where people will be trying to load your camera full of sand. I shoot sunsets here on the westcoast every chance I get off the beach and I have never had a grain of sand enter my camera.


This is a total wedding party of 3, ok 5 if you include myself and my wife with cameras.

I was just thinking of the wind surf floating sand.

This is a total wedding party of 3, ok 5 if you include myself and my wife with cameras.

I was just thinking of the wind surf floating sand.

I have never been to the beatch where it just awful like that. I would get mabye a bag to just wrap around but I dont think all of it nessiscary.

When shooting outdoors (stills, as my z1u just arrived today) I always use a good quality Clear or UV filter in front of my lens. If that front optic gets a grain of sand on it and you wipe it or something you're SOL. I've had good experiences with tiffen myself and the price is right but B+W with MRC (to minimize reflection at the filter surfaces which reduces flare and ghosting) are better and more expensive. In my experience a UV filter in most outdoor settings will only help the quality of your shot and get rid of the haze with no perceptable color shift. Hope this helps!

Also, don't wipe salt off your lens until you first dissolve it with water or alcohol. Salt crystals are not as hard as sand, but they will still do the job on your lens.

I have never been to the beach where it just awful like that. I would get maybe a bag to just wrap around but I dont think all of it necessary.
Clearly beaches vary dramatically. In the UK "sand" is what I would call stones. Here in most parts of Australia the sand is very fine. Depending on the beach, slight wind can cause significant amounts of sand to blow through the air. This can get in every nook and cranny of a camera, in spite of rain covers, so bound to cause substantial damage.

I absolutely refuse to video anything on or close to a beach under any circumstances, and refuse to give refunds if a wedding is moved to a beach.

...This can get in every nook and cranny of a camera, in spite of rain covers, so bound to cause substantial damage.

I absolutely refuse to video anything on or close to a beach under any circumstances, and refuse to give refunds if a wedding is moved to a beach.
Colin, if the conditions are so bad, you should get yourself an underwater housing and charge your customers more for this service. This way, both your customers and you, will be happy at the end. Actually, you'll be double happy because you will not have bad referrals that can lead to loose other customers -because customers are *always* right.


Salt is also dangerous in a very wavy sea. I was close once without a rain cover and the salt that was in the air, finally got into the tape mechanism of my previous HDV camcorder (JVC-HD10U). The playback was full of noise lines. To clean it, I empted one full can of compressed air, and used the dry head-cleaning cassette too -which I replaced after this of course.

I think in normal conditions a rain-dust cover is adequate. For UV I recommend the HOYA Pro1 Extra Thin which is made for wide-angle lenses (glass= 1mm, frame=3mm ) and has multiple antireflection layers on both sides. Of course it's not cheap and requires the same care in cleaning as your lens, but won't decrease your image quality.