A product like Boeshield might help but you will still have to clean the tripod when you are done. Boeshield has a thin carrier that evaporates and leaves a wax residue when it dries. This might keep your tripod working smoothly longer than if it was bare. It will still need the hot soapy water treatment when you get home.
Just a thought...something that came to mind while I was reading this thread. If you don't have spikes on the end of your tripod legs (or if you can hide them), how about putting each leg into a separate trash bag and cinching the bag tightly at the top? If you're careful, I'd think you could get away without getting the legs wet.
Of course, you should have a source of distilled water handy just in case...but I can't think of any reason why this wouldn't work if you were careful.
Oh well...someone tell me I'm all wet.
I figured out how to deal with this. Sorry, no trash bags! They wouldn't last a minute on sand, rock or earth.
I obtained some PCV pipe which had an ID that would accept the last section of my tripos leg, maybe 1.5" diameter or so. I glued a PVC cap to one end (to be the bottom), and drilled a .25" dia. hole through the walls of the other end. The length is about 20" or so. Through the two holes I put a piece of small diameter shock cord (like thin bungee cord material) leaving a loop that can be hooked over the lever that clamps the tripod leg section. When the leg is fully inserted into the tube, the cord must be stretched a bit to reach the clamp, thus forcing the leg into the bottom of the tube at all times. If you use a Gitzo or a tripod with rotating ferrules, the cord will not be easily hooked on to anything. You may have to wrap some wire or plastic around the area just above the ferrule to create a hook for the cord to be put over. With three of these attached, I don't worry about putting the tripod right in the shallow surf. I've been able to make some fine images of surf and sand this way, and the tips of my tripod are not corroded. Remember, sea water is very corrosive to most all materials over time. and the sand and salt water getting into the threads of the manfrotto type of spikes is no fun at all.
We use CORROSION-X on the aircraft. Look it up on the net, it also has a mil-spec. You can purchase aerosol cans and it works great!
HERE'S THEIR SITE
http://www.corrosionx.com/
Ive used my Bogen 3021 in 3 feet of salt what many times. I hose it off with fresh water while I flush the outboard on my boat. There is evidence of some corrosion on the springs that lock the legs but it still works fine, going on ten years. If i had paid a lot for it I probably would submerge it in the bayou but I figure its a small price to pay to get the shot.
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