Dropped cameras & other tales of woe

[Jaans]

I don't know if this topic has been dealt with before, but no time like the present. Anyway, is there anyone else out there who also shares my nasty habit of dropping quality rangefinder equipment?

I have done it on several occassions and although the camera/lens still operate, I have literally shed dollars of my potential resale prices. What's worse, on two different times that it happened I was ready to sell them (two lens, camera) to try something different. Now I am in effect stuck with them because the resale value is diminished substantially.

No doubt someone will chime in that its just a camera its there to be used and abused. But my accidents seem to happen at the worst times. In effect it is like losing a couple of hundred dollars out of your pocket. I have seen the photo of that Leica that was dropped from a plane over some mountains and was discovered intact - also the one that was lost for years by expeditions climbers in snow mountains. But hell, I'm no aviator/explorer.


So this thread is for all of you have suffered palpitations as your beloved one hits rock hard granite. Lets hear those tales of woe:

1) I was in Beijing for a two week trip and eating at a restaurant after a pleasant day of sightseeing and a few shots. I had my camera sitting next to me, Leica M6 with strap and all. Suddenly the waitress appears motioning me to move my camera for the hot dumplings that were on the tray . In a panic I quickly picked up my camera but the strap had caught on the corner of the table, so it sling shotted back, then down. The 50mm summicron lens took the brunt of the hit, damaging the filter rind and smashing the filter. The lens doesn't accept filters as it is also bent. The Leica M6 then took a nice hit on the corner with the secondary impact leaving a nice signature.

Moral of the story: stay clear of dumplings.

2) Shopping in London in the supermarket. I had a Minolta CLE with rokkor lens dangling on my shoulder. I was weighed down on one side with groceries and it slipt of my shoulder, landed on the the corner that houses the rangefinder prism smashing the glass in the process.

Moral of the story: don't pick up spam in your left hand.

3) I was shooting with my old nickel elmar attached to my M6. It was raining but I was caught without filter (super stupid I know). There were some good opportunities for shots so I was standing under an awning that was protecting the camera. Just then someone walked under the same awning from the street and pressed the button on their umbrella that splashed water onto the lens. I didn't have lens tissue either so I figured that my soft shirt could give the lens a quick wipe (ultra stupid I know) and in doing so left a terrible wipe mark on the front element. I now realise how soft those older lens coatings can be.

Moral of the story: stay clear of guys in black bowler hats brandishing black umbrellas.

Anyone else care to share similar tales of woe??

 

[35mmdelux]

I put a cherry Nikon F3 HP on a short wall not realizing the top was slanted a little and slippery. The camera hit the concrete floor on its HP viewfinder crushing it like a pancake, a $250 replacement at the time. On the bright side, since the VF housing took the major hit, the camera body was ok.

 

[Paul T.]

I feel for you. In a period of financial drought, this spring, i have watched my 8-yr old son

1: catch the strap of my M3, to knock it down a step where it was sitting. Result: VC 28/35 vinder glass cracked, with bits of a lens or mirroring rattling around inside.
2: knocked the same bloody camera off a bench in Cambridge, for it to land on its top, adnd shatter both the VF and prism'd glass.
3: worst of all, I couldn't shout at him because on the same trip, I somehow mislaid my VC 28/3.5 lens. I've spent three weeks in the certainty I must have put it safely in the car boot, or my wife's handbag. No sign of it.

Still, my faithful CL has returned from Peter at CRR, who's reconnected the meter wiring, and re-attached the VF glass, whcih was loose after yet another drop. (THe CL is partiuclarly prone to this, so I'm waiting for Zhou to make a new run of cases, which will prevent another drop on its side).

So. You're not the only clumsy, impoverished klutz in the RFF world.

 

[gavinlg]

Funny, and I know it's not a film camera or even a rangefinder, but I dropped my Canon 5d and 17-40 f4L today.

Was mounting it on the top of Manfrotto tripod at a height of about 1.5meters or 5.5 feet and thought it was safely clicked in - wrong. Slipped and fell the whole distance onto hard concrete and bounced. Point of impact was on the rear under the LCD screen on the magnesium shell, and when it bounced it hit the lens hood. The lens was unscathed, hood had a few scratches, and the point of impact on the body there was just a small mark which I rubbed off. No cracks, no dents, no missing paint.

Felt like an idiot but man was I happy that there was no damage. Picked the camera up and used it for the next 2 hours with the client.

The 5d is a way underrated camera as far as longevity goes - they just seem to take an absolute knocking and keep going. This would be my second one, and both have been well and truly knocked around - never falter though.

 

[35mmdelux]

My 5 year old has grown up around my cameras and he is careful, bless his heart. Still, I panick when he lifts my M7/MP to take a picture of daddy. One drop and there goes my 50mm Summilux asp.

 

[januaryman]

Not an expensive rangefinder, no, but a few months back I was trying to wrestle a binder of negatives from the top shelf of my closet. It seemed stuck on something, I yanked hard and a huge black something flew into my face, making me release the binder and whack the object down and away from my face. It hit the hardwood floor with a bang.

There, at my feet, were many loose pages of negatives from the binder, and underneath it was my Canon IS S3, a plasticy P&S that I was sure was doomed.

I picked it up and saw no immediate damage. Nothing fell off, no chips. I turn the switch and it powered up. I tried it out and it focused, and the exposure was right on. After a fall of greater than 6 feet onto a non-carpeted oaken floor, the damn thing was just fine. If that had been one of my really expensive (to me) rangefinders, no doubt it would be in pieces.

Three hours later I was done re-sorting the negative pages and hooking them back into the binder, completely clueless about what I'd been looking for originally.

 

[dmr]

Two words: Wrist strap. 🙂

Two other words: Use it. 🙂

 

[dfoo]

I was taking some pictures of waves, and to make a long story short, I slipped on some slime and dropped a fairly new Canon 5d and 17-40L into a rock pool. The camera was destroyed, the lens stayed dry and suffered no damage. That was a day into a long hike. Carrying the dead camera after that sucked alot.

 

[Sparrow]

This is a refreshing change from those macho “how tough is my Leica” threads

 

[bmattock]

Nothing too horrible here, I'm generally not too clumsy, but I have my moments.

The worst for me was that back when I first started 'collecting' old junky cameras on eBay, I won and auction, paid, and had a nice little email conversation with the seller. German camera, his father had brought it back from WWII, been in the family all this time, still took great shots, etc. I was looking forward to it.

Got the package - it was well-packed in bubble-wrap. Tore through it, and promptly dumped the camera out onto the floor. Even though most German cameras of that era could handle being driven over by a tank, this one landed funny somehow and that was the end of it. Nothing worked right after that. Winder, focus, shutter; all messed up. Dented like I had tossed it up in the air and smacked it with a baseball bat on the way down. I lied to the seller and told him how happy I was to have it. I fumed at myself for quite some time. Finally bought one like it that didn't work but looked great and paid to have the innards from my self-monstered camera transferred to it. Paid too much, but felt better.

I also managed to lose a very expensive (at the time) digital camera right after I bought it. Left it on a restaurant table, walked out, realized I forgot it, walked back in, nope, gone. And nobody knew nothing, of course. Sigh.

 

[bmattock]

Not an expensive rangefinder, no, but a few months back I was trying to wrestle a binder of negatives from the top shelf of my closet. It seemed stuck on something, I yanked hard and a huge black something flew into my face, making me release the binder and whack the object down and away from my face. It hit the hardwood floor with a bang.

OT, but I was getting off a flight in Colorado Springs once and the flight attendant was telling people not to open up the overhead bins until the plane had come to a complete stop. One guy was in a hurry and he jumped up and opened the bin above his seat anyway. The plane lurched as it stopped at the gate, and his luggage cratered his face, but hard.

Then we all had to wait for 20 minutes for the paramedics to arrive while he sat on the floor of the plane and held his leaky face together with his hands. I've been in law enforcement, I've seen a lot of busted-up faces, but he looked like ten miles of bad road. I have seldom seen so much blood from someone who didn't die.

Sorry, your statement about the camera being overhead and coming at your face just jogged my memory...

 

[Pherdinand]

I smashed my small digital soapbox once. We were hikingin the Drakensberg, there wasa beautiful small waterfall and my friend decided to get under it -naked. I just HAD to record the event so i climbed on a wet rock to do it and i slipped.
The camera got a dent on the lens, doesn't zoom in/out anymore, and when i switch it on i need to pull the lens out by hand otherwise it just whines and whirrs. But it still makes pictures 🙂

 

[Sparrow]

I was walking along the marble paved esplanade in Corfu town a few years back with that cv 12mm mounted. Somehow, that big rounded glass finder fell out of the shoe; I tried to reduce the impact with my foot but only succeeded in kicking it maybe 30ft across the cobble stones, it made a horrible noise as it bounced along

 

[Spleenrippa]

OT, but I was getting off a flight in Colorado Springs once and the flight attendant was telling people not to open up the overhead bins until the plane had come to a complete stop. One guy was in a hurry and he jumped up and opened the bin above his seat anyway. The plane lurched as it stopped at the gate, and his luggage cratered his face, but hard.

Then we all had to wait for 20 minutes for the paramedics to arrive while he sat on the floor of the plane and held his leaky face together with his hands. I've been in law enforcement, I've seen a lot of busted-up faces, but he looked like ten miles of bad road. I have seldom seen so much blood from someone who didn't die.

Sorry, your statement about the camera being overhead and coming at your face just jogged my memory...

I bet he tried to sue, too 😛

As far as cameras go, if you're really out there then a ding or dent is probably inevitable.
Cameras are like sports cars in that regard. One of my coworkers told me to go put the first scratch in myself- it's less painful that way 😱

 

[ethics_gradient]

I used to have a problem with my Tamrac Adventure 9 - I'd leave it face up with the flap closed but not zipped when I was getting stuff out, then go to pick it up and have everything try to flop out. It was almost impossible to tell if it was zipped or not from a casual glance. When it happened I'd either grab the flap and save my stuff, or it'd just be a few inches on to the floor. I tried to be careful about it but it happened 3-4 times over the two years I'd owned it, so I decided to order a different style bag to circumvent my absentmindedness.

2 days before it arrived, I was at a national park and set it down on some rocks to go take a picture. Went to pick it up and my 70-200L f/4 and 50mm f/1.8 both tumbled 2-3 feet on to the rocks. Busted the front element and focusing mechanism on the zoom (repair wasn't worth it), the front element assembly of the 50mm actually came completely off but was actually pretty easy to re-seat, and it still functions great to this day. Pretty much never touch the Adventure 9 except as an airline carry-on now.