Anyone else had a camera survive a mishap

peter fran

peter fran

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Peter Francis
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Done something really stupid just now.Taking some photos outside and detached my camera from the tripod.Walked inside placed the camera on the kitchen worktop and then walked to close the door.Heard a loud crash and looked to find my camera on the floor.I had left the wired shutter release attached to the camera and slipped it in my pocket when taking the camera off the tripod outside.Luckily I don't think there's any damage.Anybody else had a camera survive a mishap?
 
In 1972, I was using my new Zenit E to take pictures out of the rear upstairs window of a moving bus. I dropped the camera, which bounced down the stairs, off the platform and onto the road. I got off at the next stop (the conductor was not interested) and ran back. The camera was fine but I could no longer fit filters onto the lens.
 
Not a camera but many years ago I left a 'brick' mobile phone on the roof of my car when driving off from a multi-storey car park ... it survived the circular route out of the car park but fell off on the dual carriageway outside. I heard the sound of it falling but took a moment to realise and then turned around to go back ... as I approached where it lay in the road a lorry drove over it, sending it up into the air!
My heart missed a beat and when I picked it up it had a couple of marks on it and wouldn't turn on so I took it back to the shop I bought it from ... they had a look at it and it just needed a replacement fuse!
 
Similar to above, I was driving a Royal Mail van locally and spotted a laptop on top of a car in front of me. It survived the stop at the traffic lights and I drew up beside him.
I honked the horn and furiously pointed to the roof of his car. He looked at me, gave me the V and mouthed an obscenity at me!
As he roared away, the laptop slid along the roof, bounced of his boot lid and fell on the floor, it looked ok-ish, but not after the 8 wheeler ran over it!
I caught him up again at the next junction but thus time his passenger side. I wound my window down and honked again, he wound his window down and
demanded to know What the f**k was up with me. When I told him about the laptop, he went silent and just screwed his eyes up.
Some people just don't want to be helped,
 
john.margetts said:
In 1972, I was using my new Zenit E to take pictures out of the rear upstairs window of a moving bus. I dropped the camera, which bounced down the stairs, off the platform and onto the road. I got off at the next stop (the conductor was not interested) and ran back. The camera was fine but I could no longer fit filters onto the lens.
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I hope you at least offered to pay for the repairs - to the road surface!
 
NO!
I dropped my camera recently and the battery came out breaking the bottom of the camera where the battery cover clip goes. Still, on the bright side I now have a battery grip fitted so my camera looks "Professional" :banana:
 
Suvv said:
NO!
I dropped my camera recently and the battery came out breaking the bottom of the camera where the battery cover clip goes. Still, on the bright side I now have a battery grip fitted so my camera looks "Professional" :banana:
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Yeh, but do your photos? ;)
 
Where shall I start?

D90 and 150-500 Sigma rolled off a sofa. D90 flew off passenger seat into foot well when I braked sharply. D90 and 50mm lens fell onto a slate fireplace. D3S (in a bag) fell out the tail gate of my car, and another time off it's roof. Dropped D750 onto carpeted floor. Then there's the softer landings into mud, sand, and so forth. I could go on...:D
 
Ed Sutton said:
Where shall I start?

D90 and 150-500 Sigma rolled off a sofa. D90 flew off passenger seat into foot well when I braked sharply. D90 and 50mm lens fell onto a slate fireplace. D3S (in a bag) fell out the tail gate of my car, and another time off it's roof. Dropped D750 onto carpeted floor. Then there's the softer landings into mud, sand, and so forth. I could go on...:D
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*mental note, never buy any stuff from you in the classifieds:exit::naughty::runaway::LOL:
 
Ed Sutton said:
Then there's the softer landings into mud, sand, and so forth. I could go on...:D
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I was photographing birds on a mud flat in Norfolk and someone asked about the identity if a bird. I turned around, leaving the camera on its tripod. One - and only one - leg of the tripod sunk into the mud and the whole caboodle went over - onto soft mud. As soft as the mud was, the lens snapped in half as it hit the mud. It is the only write-off I have ever had.
 
wontolla said:
Similar to above, I was driving a Royal Mail van locally and spotted a laptop on top of a car in front of me. It survived the stop at the traffic lights and I drew up beside him.
I honked the horn and furiously pointed to the roof of his car. He looked at me, gave me the V and mouthed an obscenity at me!
As he roared away, the laptop slid along the roof, bounced of his boot lid and fell on the floor, it looked ok-ish, but not after the 8 wheeler ran over it!
I caught him up again at the next junction but thus time his passenger side. I wound my window down and honked again, he wound his window down and
demanded to know What the f**k was up with me. When I told him about the laptop, he went silent and just screwed his eyes up.
Some people just don't want to be helped,
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Good story BUT ... (a) you sould have driven over his laptop therefore you get minus points for not doing that that; (b) you should have laughed when you opened your window on the second approach ... after you called him an ..anker. :ROFLMAO:
 
Mine was a very near miss!
Near Lake Pedder in south west Tasmania a couple years ago, early morning, and trying to quickly drive between a couple spots.
I was using the D600, and had the D750 nearby. Switched to the D750 and put the D600 on top of the car.
Decided to get to the other spot I wanted so jumped in the car, drove 12-13km quickly to the next spot, with some low range needed along rough tracks that went between power line pylons.
Somehow, that D600 was still on the roof when I pulled up, remembered where I'd left it, got out of the car, and looked. How, I don't know!
 
Way back I had a Fujica st605 with a 28-85mm lens unclip itself from the strap as I got off a coach. It landed lens down on the metal lens hood. Mangled the hood (with was a git to get off) fired one frame but was otherwise fine. Still have the camera all these years later and it still worded last time I tried it.
 
john.margetts said:
As soft as the mud was, the lens snapped in half as it hit the mud. It is the only write-off I have ever had.
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A write-off? Really?

I've had at least two lenses snapped in half by customers. Both were repaired by the manufacturers at reasonable cost. I have pictures of them somewhere if you're interested.
 
StewartR said:
A write-off? Really?

I've had at least two lenses snapped in half by customers. Both were repaired by the manufacturers at reasonable cost. I have pictures of them somewhere if you're interested.
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You could have told me that five tears ago! Actually, I did take the pieces to London Camera Exchange (where I bought it) and they said it was past repair.
 
Many years ago (1980 ish) I had a Canon film camera (AE-1) and I had opened the back to put some film in, the camera was on the desk behind me. I turned forwards to get the film, lent backwards to get the camera and pushed the shutter curtains forwards towards the lens with my thumb. A cold sweat litteraly came over me, the camera was a few just a few weeks old and I thought I had ruined it, after pulling the "blinds" out towards the back of the camera with my finger nails everything seemed fine and it worked faultlessly until the day I sold it.
Been with Canons ever since.
Matt
 
I was on a TP meet in the very large and very dark lime kiln near Settle. We wre going to do some orb type shots. Most there were social photographers and had no idea how to use a camera or manually focus in the dark, so I went forward to place a torch shining on a rock at the appropriate distance. Just as I bent down to place the torch I heard a loud crump. Sounds like someone's tripod I said. Total silence. Went back to my place and guess what? Yup, it was my tripod. Fallen over while I was 20 yards away. Anyone say anything? Nope. Complete silence. Everyone said they hadn't moved, but some idiot had. Fallen onto the floor inside a lime kiln so it was baked hard as concrete.
Fortunately the lens hood took the brunt of the impact and the 5D3 was unscathed.
Moral of the story? Don't help newbies - they won't thank you.
 
TLR-330 said:
Good story BUT ... (a) you sould have driven over his laptop therefore you get minus points for not doing that that; (b) you should have laughed when you opened your window on the second approach ... after you called him an ..anker. :ROFLMAO:
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(a) It was on the floor behind me and a car was at the back, so minus points deleted. (b) I never said I didn't laugh or call him a w**k*r (or similar) so no minus points at all! :p
 
Nearly fifty years ago I bought an inflatable protective camera bag for my new Olympus 35RC camera. It was waterproof, and gave the contents fantastic crash protection. To demonstrate to my friends how fantastically protective this wonderful bag was I the camera in it and hurled it violently to the ground. Instead of bouncing back up as I expected it hit the ground with a horrible clanking thud and stayed there. The camera and floor had found the one spot in the bag where there was no protection. The camera was thoroughly broken. It was a very good camera so I bought another :)
 
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Almost killed myself on a Quad bike. Rolled over down a 60 degree slope. The Leica Q had the odd mark, but worked fine.

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I almost lost my 7D and 100-400 combo in to the watery mud at WWT Arundel after the tripod tipped off the boardwalk. By shear luck it landed gimbal-head handle down first and only one small corner of the camera went in to the mud.
 
Watch out for the sellers of dropped gear.:D:banana::p
 
On the last morning of a draining trip, I left the hotel in the dark and packed the cases in the car boot. Missed my camera bag though and reversed over it. Had a Nikon D810, Tamron 24-70 and Nikon 70-200 f2.8 in there. All looked a mess as did I but all were repairable, and for not much money considering. The bag and filters were knackered though. I always check round the car before setting off now!
 
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Yep, a D800 of mine took a submerging in loch achray and stopped working. A hair dryer and being sealed in a rice filled container for 2 days and 1yr on the old soldier still works fine. I wouldn't sell it to anyone in case it failed and use it as a 3rd body
 
This is almost the reverse of the good luck stories.
My first digital camera was a little Fuji A203(?)
This was about 2001 so it was not cheap about £200 but laughable specs by modern standards - still quite good images though.
After about 6 months I had left it on the car passenger seat and it slipped over the edge by the sill.
When the door was opened it fell all of 10 inches onto the road and though it turned on everything was scrambled and it never worked again :bat:
 
Was crouched down taking a shot with my old 40D in Corfu years ago when I dropped it. As I was crouched the neck-strap was long enough for it to practically reach the ground. Fortunately the length was such that the body stopped literally millimeters clear and the lens hood on the Tamron 17-50 took the brunt. All around gasped in horror, the lens hood split and I caught the camera on the bounce before it flipped and landed again. No other damage, £20 quid for a new lens hood.

Lesson learn't, lens hoods don't just minimise lens flare...
 
Yup, D7000 with a lens dropped onto a hard floor. Lens smashed clean off, glass shattered etc.
 
I've had two mishaps

One was when I used an additional power pack for my flash at a Wedding and the pack was fastened to my belt, I put my camera with lens and flash attached onto a table outside and promptly walked off, dragging it all onto the lawn lens first. I just picked it up, scooped the mud out of the lenscap and carried on shooting

My second was when I broke my own Golden Rule that whenever I open my rucksack I zip it back up again immediately after putting stuff in/taking stuff out. Clearly one time I'd not done that and as I swung the rucksack onto my shoulder I caught sight of of something flying by my head - it was a D750 with 20mm lens on which hit the concrete lens first. I picked it up, saw that it had a couple of scratches and carried on shooting

They are generally tougher than we all seem to think aren't they :)

Dave
 
Dropped my Rollei TLR off Bognor pier into 10ft sea water.
It's still there now as far as I know if anyone wants it? £10.00, buyer collects.

I'd like to think a once over with a damp cloth would sort it.
 
Was in Corrour in the Highlands a couple of years ago, walking back to the train station and instead of stopping and doing things properly, I decided to swap back to my 17-50 f2.8 lens from the Tamron 70-300 USC I had on the camera at the time while still walking, took the 70-300 off and almost instantly, it flew out of my hand onto the gravel road.. rather surprisingly, it still works and doesn't have a mark on it!
 
F4s and 80-200 f2.8. On helicopter duty for the Class 1 powerboat racing. Coming in to land after first practise session and the pilot suddenly banked hard and swung round. Camera and lens went off the seat beside me and out the door. We were about 80 feet up. It landed in soft grass beside the cropped helipad area. The bayonet into the body wasn't brilliant, 2 of the screws had pulled out, but the lens was fine. Sent the body in to Nikon, new bayonet mount fitted, minimal cost. The lens worked perfectly and was used for the rest of the weekend on second body. It meant I was down to one body but I got through.

Not so lucky on Winderemere. D5 and 400f2.8 doing waterskiing pictures, from aft of boat looking aft, stood up. We got done and the skiier was back on board, on the way back to the Low Wood Hotel jetty the helm decided it would be fun to suddenly excercise a sharp turn to port. I got flung from one side to the other, broke a couple of ribs and dropped the camera and lens, which went overboard in about 200 - 300 feet deep water. That was the end of that. I go the Police divers to use it as a search exercise (they need training excercises) but they didn't find it, the silt is pretty deep and it was a small target to find from only rough location directions. Helm lost his job and I had to make a claim.
 
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soupdragon said:
Dropped my Rollei TLR off Bognor pier into 10ft sea water.
It's still there now as far as I know if anyone wants it? £10.00, buyer collects.

I'd like to think a once over with a damp cloth would sort it.
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I understand Neil left a couple of Hassleblad with 80mm f/2.8 lenses when he was off exploring back in '69. Should still be there if anyone wants to collect them for him ... Elon? Dennis? Any takers?
 
DG Phototraining said:
They are generally tougher than we all seem to think aren't they :)
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I think that (like a lot of electronic equipment) they are tough enough when they land in most ways, however hit the floor even quite likely in a certain way then they break easily.
 
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