A very sad day in my M history

Joshua

Joshua

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Was riding in to the city (SF) this morning on my motorcycle when my trusty bag came off on the freeway @ 75mph. I have about $10k worth of gear in the bag ... including my beloved MP & lens. So much can change in 20 seconds.

Was able to circle back around a couple times and the Highway Patrol helped slow down traffic so I could run out and grab what I could find, but all that was left by the time I got back in the area was the shredded bag and a shredded jacket from being run over so much. All the expensive stuff (MacBook Pro, Camera, headphones, sunglasses, etc...) was nowhere to be seen. Best we can figure is someone saw it fall, stopped and took out all the expensive looking things and then dumped the bag. Funny the jacket they left in there is worth around $1k.

Out of all that I lost though, the MP hit me the hardest. The stories I've shared with that camera ...

It was one piece I was really excited to hand down to my son one day. It's been worn in quite a bit, a black MP that's so far brassed it looked like it was 100 years old. I loved that thing to death. Of course I'll buy another one, but it just doesn't really feel like it can be replaced. Still swallowing pretty hard tonight.

Anyone else ever lost some treasured RF gear?
 
Like losing a dog. You'll think it irreplaceable, but then the new puppy will take over your world. Fills me with fear, given that I move about on a motor scooter with my camera bag.
 
What bag was it? Backpack or messenger bag? Did the strap rip or did it slide off?

I wear my domke shoulder bag messenger style when on my scooter. I used to keep it in the underseat storage. But the vibration literally shook one of my lenses apart and the rewind lever off my M7 loose on a long day trip. I learned then to keep my stuff in a bag when riding. I don't mean to be insensitive about your loss. I'd be crying myself to sleep if I loss my camera that way. But how it happened could benefit other photographers who travel on two wheels.
 
Thanks all for the sympathy.

@Gregoryniss, well yes, there's that, except that I didn't really have any GAS before this happened. I was really perfectly happy w/ my setup and wanted to keep it forever.

@swoop, It was a messenger style bag with just one shoulder strap. Normally, I wear a backpack which of course is much smarter (2 straps) but today I just needed a few things and they all fit in this one bag I have perfectly. It's made by Acronym, a german botique technical apparel brand ... they're really quite something. After retrieving the bag it looks like the shoulder strap where it's attached to the bag on one end just came undone from the loop style buckle. It's a hard lesson for sure, but from now on if I need to carry any gear with me while riding I'll be doing it in my backpack and I'll be making sure the ends of the straps are sewed off so there's no way they can slip through the buckles.

Right after the shoulder strap came off, the pack was actually just sitting on my back seat for a little while kind of caught in the wind tunnel my body creates. I didn't grab for it because I figured the strap had just gotten looser, not disconnected, so I figured at some point it would just fall off the seat and my shoulder would catch it again and all would be fine ... but then 30 seconds later I could tell there was nothing back there any longer. It all happened at a pretty congested part where traffic was slowing from 75 to 20 pretty quickly, so I'm glad I kept my head on straight and payed attention to my driving rather than worrying about my stuff ... it could have been much worse. But still, after it's all over ... it was a sad day.

@all ... if any of you have a good lead on a used black paint MP, I'd appreciate the link. Doesn't matter how worn in it is.
 
Sorry, to hear about your loss Joshua. We all seem to get attached to those little boxes.
However, the thread title is little bit misleading. When I saw it, I panicked a little bit...I was expecting to read something like: "Leica stopping production of film M cameras" or something similar..
 
oh, that's really unfortunate. Glad you're OK after hunting for your stuff on the highway.

You might want to check whether your home insurance covers such mishaps.

This makes me think about my mesgr bag too, but its strap end loops into a friction buckle.
 
That is a bummer! Sorry for your misfortune. Hopefully you have insurance for it. It's especially good you weren't hurt. Precious as they may be, cameras can be replaced. Husbands and daddys cannont.
 
Good that you're OK.

Remember that it's only a camera. It's much more easily replaceable than some other things. Hope you got backups of the stuff on your laptop, for example.

This kind of event is why I try to avoid photographic equipment that costs more than a month's disposable income.
 
Was there no security cams on the freeway. If someone stopped and picked it all up, they may be on cam with a license plate. What's wrong with people who pull that kind of cr@p.
Makes my blood boil.
 
I had a mint black Canon VI-T with a mint black Canon 35/2 stolen back in the 60's and I still haven't fully recovered from that loss. Oh, and a pair of Leica Trinovids, also. It still hurts. Check with your insurance company....maybe some of your loss can be recovered. Good luck.
 
@binky The friction buckle is exactly the part that came loose. I'm still not sure how, whether the fabric of the strap is just too slick, or whether somehow the doubling part of the loop had come undone before I left so it only had to go through the 2 straightish loop part (if that makes any sense). But yeah, one end of the strap was sewn in and the other end with the friction buckle is where it appears to have detached.

@rxmd Luckily I'm pretty good about keeping backups. I had just got the computer that ate it today a couple weeks ago, so I hadn't backed up since then, but I'm pretty sure at most I'm set back about 2 weeks worth of stuff. Not too bad considering.

@nobbylon That's a good point. CHP and Caltrans is aware of the location and what happened so I'm sure it'll be part of their investigation.

@kkdanamatt Yeah I have a feeling it will be just like that, that I'll never really *recover* from the loss so much as just move on from it. Cheers.

As far as insurance, I just relocated to CA in March and so right now my company has me in corporate housing ... so I'll have to contact them and see what they can do, but I doubt anything. Luckily for me, the computer was purchased by my company, so they're going to be getting me a replacement.
 
Very sorry to hear about your loss. Glad you didn't get hurt trying to grab it. Kudos to you for keeping a cool head.

I have the exact same thought about my MP, hoping to one day hand it down to my son or daughter...whichever is more into photography. They are 6 years and 11 months old, so it will have a lot of brassing by the time that "one day" comes
 
@akarin Cheers. That's very cool about handing your MP down. It's funny, I never even considered giving mine to my daughter … thought just never crossed my mind that she'd be in to photography some day … maybe because my wife isn't or something … but it's a very cool thought. Maybe she'll love it and he'll have no interest in it or something. My boy is 3 and my daughter is 2, so I guess that's one good point is like you I have plenty of time to use a new one and get it worn in before I hand it off.
 
Joshua - reading your post gives quite an image, that hits.
Sorry, you lost your stuff, but good, nobody got hurt.
Such a bag indeed could have made some devastation on the road with following drivers.

Wait some time and then get a new one.
I would get an unscratched one, rather than a pre worn. You will make it yours alone better this way.

This comes too late of course, but I always ride Messenger bags with an chest strap attached and locked.
Not because of redundancy, but because of slipping around and interfering with riding.
 
ohhh man, gutwrenching 🙁
best of luck with replacing the gear Joshua, those backups are probably the most important though, so it's good to hear you have those. You can't replace memories.. of course you have special ties with your intensively used gear, but consider it more like a way of doing things, a lifestyle, that you can pass on to your kids, even with a newer camera.
 
It's a real salutary tale you tell about your bag. First thing I'm going to do after this post is to go check the strap on my camera bag. I know the stitching is OK because that's one reason I chose the bag I have but hadn't thought to really check out the slickness of the strap.
Might really have something on camera as to what happened. Sometimes it can be quite un-nerving for the guy behind when something falls off the vehicle in front. You might get some feedback on that from someone who saw it happen - keep your fingers crossed. I've seen ladders, cardboard boxes, and big garbage bags come off in front of me. Worst was a spare wheel lying in the path of my car - luckily I managed to straddle it and it didn't foul the underneath either. Bloke behind managed the same too. I couldn't have avoided hitting it if I had been on a bike.
By the sound of your experience a lot of really bad things could have happened and didn't. I guess the loss of the camera hits really hard but it could all have been very very much worse. The good thing that comes out of it is that we are all checking our camera bags and thinking about how we cope with our bag when riding our bikes - pedal now in my case.
Don't think too much about what happened - it happened and its history now. Try to enjoy today, and what happens tomorrow is something of a mystery for us all!
Best wishes
jesse
 
@menos Yeah that's the bummer is that I only used this particular bag because I wanted to take my camera today. Normally I either use a messenger bag that has a chest strap (and the main strap is sewn, not buckled) or a backpack that also has a chest strap that links the two shoulder straps.

@Renzsu That's a really great perspective. I love it. Cheers.

@jesse1dog Yeah, I definitely learned a hard lesson and if others do so as well, even just to not take bags for granted and double check their carry gear before rides, etc… then all the better. The stories about almost hitting stuff in the road scare me. I maintain a really far distance while I'm on my bike, but I don't *need* to ride all the way in to the city, I can commute on the train just as easy … so after today's experience I think I'll just stick to shorter rides off the freeway for awhile. Definitely hit my nerves a little.

@rover Yes, well it's 4:30am here and I still haven't slept yet, so while I'm telling myself it was no big deal and trying to look past it, it still hurts. I just keep telling myself that in the scheme of things, there were probably so many people today that got bad news, cancer, lost job, lost babies, whatever … real tragedies. Makes feeling down about some lost manufactured things seem trivial … but they were still a part of my story so it's still somewhat sad that they're gone.
 
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