Dropped my first camera!

About two weeks ago, I was in a coffee shop and had set my RD1 with my 35 'cron down on the table. A young lady hurried by and neatly brushed it off the table with her purse. I literally caught the camera with both feet extended falling to the ground in the process. While I felt like an ass, I saved the camera and lens. The only consequence was a very sore butt and bruised back and neck for a few days. I've found that I don't seem to recover as gracefully from falls as I used to. :D
 
My Minolta SRT200 tumbled out of the back of my SUV when I opened the hatch. I didn't notice any damage until a few months later when I tried to attach a flash, the hot shoe was smashed down on one side.

I recently bought a Yashica TL Electro X for $3 because it wasn't working. Along with the dead electronics, it had some dents from being dropped. The counter was stuck and the filter ring was smashed in. I still need to get the meter working, but the dents have been repaired, and the shutter now has more than one speed.
 
tightsqueez said:
...you've dropped it 10 times inside of a 25-ton armored vehicle. The M8 I currently have has been dropped, and I mean from a good elevation, about 20 times or so. It's not my fault the Army fitted the vehicle with shocks that were made for a 1/2 ton pickup.

Guess it makes perfect sense why I have never had any dust on my sensor. :D

P.S. Do not try this at home, as I do not support this method.
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My dad has a Sony P&S with an annoyingly dusty sensor. Maybe I will suggest a road trip with you to give it a good cleaning (or an excuse to actually replace it with a better camera).
 
I hate that feeling... And as someone said, I remember two cases in slow motion... But you were lucky...

Let's hope you won't see it happen again!

Cheers,

Juan
 
Destroyed my Olympus RC about a year ago from a drop off my bike bag. Destroyed my XA a few months ago dropped from the bleachers at a Chester French concert - the parts went flying off.
 
i've dropped nearly all of my cameras (save for my new to me M4-P and Hasselblad 501CM, touch wood. though i do baby the 501 a little).

i've dropped a Nikon D50 and broken part of the body chassis off, some duck tape and it was good to go. ugly, but still 100% functional).

dropped a D200 onto the 50mm F1.8 from 5 feet (onto a wooden floor at a concert) afterwards the lens had an interesting tilt/shift look to images with the top left of images being noticably softer. I still used it for quiet some time (cheap lens, not worth the repair).

dropped a D3 (well had it knocked from my hands at a gig) it bounced off of the foldback speakers a good metre away and straight back in to my hands, probably one of the most bizarre things i've ever seen. it still functioned fine and had no blemishes what so ever.

dropped a jacket which had my IIIc in the pocket, the fleece of the jacket luckily shielded the camera though, but when i heard the thud i did feel quiet sick until i had checked the camera over.
 
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Not sure if this counts, but my evil slr N90 got knocked around a bit inside my saddle bag when a car turned in front of me while I was traveling 60mph on an R100RS. Nikon claimed the lens mount was off and needed readjusting. Luckily I was ok, though the bike was totaled.
 
I have had a couple of unpleasant incidents - years ago as I walked thru a doorway with a cute little Pentax MX slung over my left shoulder (carried in its leather eveready case) it must have banged the pentaprism against the door jam resulting in an ugly ding. While I noticed the bump it was very very light and I was shocked to see the deformation on the camera. Those little M series Pentaxes were pretty but less than robust. How I loved that camera but after this I just had to get rid of it, I could not face looking at the results of my clumsy idiocy every time I picked it up.

Then I bought a nice M3 - a good user with a couple of small marks on the body. Again I often carried it slung over my left should inside an original eveready case. As I stooped to get into a cab one day it slid off my shoulder onto the ground. Could have only been a foot or so. The camera was wearing an M meter and both the meter and the top plate of the camera ended up with ding. Damn. Again I was shocked at the damage done by a smallish fall albeit onto pavement.

So later still I had an M4P. It was carried in a camera carry bag but loose within one of the padded compartments. I placed the bag on a low bench (at a bus stop) only to have some fool knock it to the ground - I turned around and when I turned back it was on the ground. Result one small ding in a corner - moral of the story, do not buy cheap camera bags with flimsy cushioning. Damn again. They should not let me near cameras.

I must admit modern polycarbonates are much more robust - you can bump those suckers till the cows come home and they do not ding up like metal bodies although of course if you hit them hard enough they will no doubt break.

Now I sometimes use a Nikon D200 when not shooting a rangefinder camera. Its great but the lenses I use (like a 180mm f2.8) stick out a mile and it seems to me everyone bumps them as they walk by me. It seems that when strangers just see a camera they will walk form the other side of the road just to bang against it. I am now distinctly paranoid about the lens coming off and hurtling to the ground.
 
I remember dropping a cheap p&s when i was younger. It was my pride and joy at the time, so when it slipped from my hands all I could think about was stopping it's fall.
In that split second my reaction was to put my foot out to try and catch it/minimise the impact. However, I must of been a fraction of a second too late, because I ended up drop kicking the thing about 10 metres into a rose bush.
Luckily I havent dropped anything since. But i've learnt if a camera slips from my grip I should avoid breaking it's fall with my foot!
 
I was on assignment one time and was in a hurry to get out of my car. I pulled my mini trekker backpack from my back seat ooops it's open........camera with lens (DSLR), lightmeter, another lens, flash and other small items came tumbling down the pavement. The 28-70 lens needs to be repaired as the AF clutch got damaged and won't AF anymore. I know the feeling heart actually over my throat. You're not alone Keith.
 
AzzA said:
I remember dropping a cheap p&s when i was younger. It was my pride and joy at the time, so when it slipped from my hands all I could think about was stopping it's fall.
In that split second my reaction was to put my foot out to try and catch it/minimise the impact. However, I must of been a fraction of a second too late, because I ended up drop kicking the thing about 10 metres into a rose bush.
Luckily I havent dropped anything since. But i've learnt if a camera slips from my grip I should avoid breaking it's fall with my foot!
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Oops... very funny, and some good advice!
 
had a 2x teleconverter fly out of my camera bag and down a 500 ft ravine :(

also crashed while skiing with my canonet still in my pocket. no harm done. I saw a person drop a D2xs with tamron 28-75 straight onto the lens from about 5 feet. Broke the hood and messed up the rubber on the zoom ring, but everything still worked fine.
 
I managed to partially mount a 90mm Hex on my M2 and caught it as it popped off...I was standing at the end of a fishing pier shooting an incoming ferry. Once I calmed down I put both camera & lens into my bag and went for coffee.

Bob
 
the previous posts makes me wince :)

Twice for me

Once I put a Trip35 on the top of my car. Drove off, it stayed put for quite a while and then I heard a scrape and then clanging as it went down the road. A few scrapes and dents, but it worked fine afterwards.

The other was last summer, I always wear a wrist-strap and let the camera drop on it when required. Unfortunately My M2+CV35/1.2 didn't have one on when I decided to do this....

The hood took most of the damage, just needed the RF adjusting on the M2 and nothing to the Nokton other than reshaping the hood with some pliers..

The first one was 'whoops', the second one made me sick to the stomach.
 
Over the years:-

Canon Ae-1 fallen on whilst fell walking a few times - a bit battered but works fine

Canon 5D, slipped on ice and dropped down a bank with 50 1.4 and L-brackt on it. no damage

Ricoh GX100 - dropped repreatedly onto various surfaces. Corners are now all scratched, but works fine.

Zeiss Ikon - dropped 4 feet onto very hard floor. RF out of alignment. Fixed by Zeiss very reasonably.


Am I just clumsy and lucky?

Mike
 
As a teen, I dropped my father's IIIf while being super-careful not to drop the lens I was removing. Being a hockey goalie at the time, I made a sprawling, juggling save.

Then I realized that I had put my thumb into the lens mount and ripped through the shutter curtain, top to bottom.


Car related - I had a friend drop his Sousaphone (tuba) in a parking lot behind my car after a very long, hot parade. Another band member soon ran over it with a Saab convertible; very unique sound and visual.
 
Some years ago, I grabbed my camera bag and headed out for some shooting; unfortunately when I got to the top of the stairs, I discovered that the top of the camera bag wasn't zipped and the whole time I was carrying it, it was hanging open at an angle. Just as I reached the top of the stairs, my Nikon N90S chose that moment to roll out of the bag and down the stairs, a couple steps at a time. Thump, thump, thump, all the way to the bottom. This was in a big old 1927-vintage house with high steep steps and no carpeting, so there was no padding whatsoever. Camera had some scratches on its plastic housing but continued to work perfectly.
 
I've never dropped a camera, but I did drop a brand new and expensive (for me) flash on its first outing. Luckily Canon builds their stuff very well and it only got 3 small scratches. I had to look around for the batteries though since i was in a mountain and didn't bring spares.
 
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