Has anyone ever broken one of your cameras?

Here's a rather dramatic story...

Here's a rather dramatic story...

An ex-girlfriend of mine nearly pushed me off a cliff and broke my Rollei 35S in the process.

Back when I was living in Norwich, England, I used to go the the Norfolk coast quite often to take in the sea air and stroll around (with a camera of course).

Well, on August 2nd, 1997 I took a daytrip to Sheringham with my then-girlfriend E. We strolled around, arm-in-arm, passing along the boardwalk area and then east along the coastal cliff path to the Hill (those of you who know the area will know the spot...).

At the top of the hill, which is bounded in the seaward direction by a precipitous cliff to the shingle beach below, E and I encountered K, my previous girlfriend (we had broken up a couple of months before after a short, intense, manic relationship. I knew after a couple of weeks being with her that she was a somewhat unstable person, but we did the goat dance very well...)

When K saw me with E, she came quickly over, pushed E away and yelled "Don't you know that today is my birthday!"

She then latched on to my right arm as tight as she could and started pulling me towards the cliff edge. In that hand I was holding my trusty little Rollei 35S.

K pulled me, I pulled her, we yelled at each other, she hit me, I was tempted to smack her in the face (but didn't), we yelled some more, and were quite a spectacle. Meanwhile, E was very cool and tried to comfort K and calm her down, but that only made K more enraged.

All this while K was latched on to me like a barnacle to a rock, trying to pull me closer to the cliff edge. Finally I had enough and yanked my arm away and pushed K away as hard as I could. I managed to get her off me, but in the process something bad happened to the extended lens of the Rollei, and the shutter never worked again.

How's that saying go - something about wrath of a woman scorned?

Anyway, here's the last picture I took with that camera earlier that day:

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bmattock said:
Somebody broke one of my cameras once. He claimed it was my fault, just because I was hitting him with it. I had to, I could not get to my tripod fast enough. The nerve of some people.
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LOLOL , cracks me up, i can just imagine this in a movie, classic

but then again, thinkng about it, you would really have to hate the guy, incremental to how nice the camera is. a brownie box camera or modern point and shoot you could pretty much hit any passer by with you didnt like, ..smash smash

a 50's folding camera would be suitable at the pub for any bloke that said he was leaving before paying for his shout... Bang Bang!

the cheating wife (or husband) gets the 70s slr right in the kisser POW POW! ...your honour i was just experimenting with macro photography

Russle Crow hit some hotel room service guy with a phone so a DSLR should be adequate for poor room service...hurl hurl

for the really bad guys in a dirty harry voice you say , well punk ...i lost count how many frames i shot...and hit him with the hasselblad BAM ! straight between the eyes hehe




EDIT; just incase its not obvious to the humorous impaired, i am kidding and dont advocate bodily harm with fine cameras in any way....get your hells angels mates to do it instead!
 
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sleepyhead said:
An ex-girlfriend of mine nearly pushed me off a cliff and broke my Rollei 35S in the process.

Back when I was living in Norwich, England, I used to go the the Norfolk coast quite often to take in the sea air and stroll around (with a camera of course).

Well, on August 2nd, 1997 I took a daytrip to Sheringham with my then-girlfriend E. We strolled around, arm-in-arm, passing along the boardwalk area and then east along the coastal cliff path to the Hill (those of you who know the area will know the spot...).

At the top of the hill, which is bounded in the seaward direction by a precipitous cliff to the shingle beach below, E and I encountered K, my previous girlfriend (we had broken up a couple of months before after a short, intense, manic relationship. I knew after a couple of weeks being with her that she was an unstable nutcase, but she cooked well and was great in bed...)

When K saw me with E, she came quickly over, pushed E away and yelled "Don't you know that today is my birthday!"

She then latched on to my right arm as tight as she could and started pulling me towards the cliff edge. In that hand I was holding my trusty little Rollei 35S.

K pulled me, I pulled her, we yelled at each other, she hit me, I was tempted to smack her in the face (but didn't), we yelled some more, and were quite a spectacle. Meanwhile, E was very cool and tried to comfort K and calm her down, but that only made K more enraged.

All this while K was latched on to me like a barnacle to a rock, trying to pull me closer to the cliff edge. Finally I had enough and yanked my arm away and pushed K away as hard as I could. I managed to get her off me, but in the process something bad happened to the extended lens of the Rollei, and the shutter never worked again.

How's that saying go - something about wrath of a woman scorned?

Anyway, here's the last picture I took with that camera earlier that day:
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Dam, just saw this, thats almost a very sad story, thats no fun, heck! woman scorned =beware

i wouldnt hang onto that last picture, bad memories, besides the pole in the center is distracting 😉
 
Andrew, yes I agree that it's not a great picture - the pole IS distracting, and I wish I'd framed it so that the three people sitting on folding chairs on the lower tier had their heads showing...

O well, the picture reminds me of that day. Now, over 10 years later, I can look back on it as no big deal, but I remember feeling kinda shocked and angry (not about the camera) afterwards.

Also, surprisingly, my respect for K went up after that day.
 
My friend Florencio is fearless, but did break a Nikon F swinging it by a strong strap into the head of someone in a group jumping him in Mexico. I can only imagine the damage, that is to the guy, those F's were solid and heavy.

One of my photographers quit the paper after a Mounted Cop hit his Nikon with a night stick aimed at his head on May 4, 1970.

I can see a plot on CSI TRIX in the future.

"By using advanced IR/UV techniques, we can bring out the make and serial numbers of the camera used, and detect the latent image reflected by the green pocket laser due to the EV glass... with the second, fatal, blow from a Uranium containing lens detected by the faint afterglow of the alpha and beta radiation..."
 
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dmr said:
I would have gone into total b*tchmode!
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Denise, that just cracks me up 🙂

Kyle, chin up, that kind of behavior is not worth your time to even remember about. Just concentrate on which camera would be the replacement 😉
 
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shadowfox said:
Denise, that just cracks me up 🙂

Kyle, chin up, that kind of behavior is not worth your time to even remember about. Just concentrate on which camera would be the replacement 😉
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it cracked me up as well, i thought it was hilarious (kinda takes me back to kindy garten when some kid messed up my finger painting lol) until i read about taking it further to small claims court. i thought crikey this girl is really serious....

i mean i understand it, but i couldnt be bothered with going that far
 
"Instead, my father broke my family, the army tryied to break my spirit and since then time and again life put me to test by trying to break my dreams and my values."🙁

I like your style ruben 😉
 
I had my Canon G-1 video camera for about a month, and you know they are expensive. My now Father-in-Law (He wasn't then) wanted to look at it. I handed it to him and he put it up to his eye and said, 'am I supposed to see something here?". It puzzled me, so I took it back and looked. The camera was dead - had happened just in the second I handed it to him. He felt so bad, but he hadn't done anything, it just happened.
Canon fixed it under warranty, no problem. It still comes up though. He'll remind me of the time 'he broke my camera'.
I would never worry about handing him a camera - he and my Father were avid photographers for about 70 years and never broke a camera.
 
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Off the bridge

Off the bridge

We still tease my son about the time 20 years ago, when he threw one of my lenses off the George Washington Bridge. He was in a stroller, so I handed him my second lens to hold while I took some pictures with the other lens. Like any other cranky three year old he said "no" and tossed the lens over the side. As I looked over the edge to see the splash, I envisioned the headlines in the Daily News the next day - "Boater Killed by Spoiled Child." Luckily no one was passing under the Bridge; we made it back to car without any other temper tantrums (his or mine) and I got to buy a new lens.
 
Off the bridge

Off the bridge

We still tease my son about the time 20 years ago, when he threw one of my lenses off the George Washington Bridge. He was in a stroller, so I handed him my second lens to hold while I took some pictures with the other lens. Like any other cranky three year old he said "no" and tossed the lens over the side. As I looked over the edge to see the splash, I envisioned the headlines in the Daily News the next day - "Boater Killed by Spoiled Child." Luckily no one was passing under the Bridge; we made it back to car without any other temper tantrums (his or mine) and I got to buy a new lens.
 
I almost caught my Nikon Coolpix 950 on the first bounce. I was shooting close-ups of a spider and web on the back porch. Never broke one till then, slow motion was how it happened. Broke my heart even if it was a digital, it was a great one. Broke the stop point on zoom and focus, ugh.

I have to admit that I'm a bit warped about letting either of my sons use my S3, money is too tight to replace or fix anything these days.

B2 (;->
 
I once was in a sour mood after rushing to catch a quickly moving shadow against a wall for a self-portrait. The sun was about to set on a windy day, and I was on top of a parking garage. I was frustrated with my assistant, who was not a camera user, and just after I lost the sun the wind blew and took the tripod down.

Luckily, it was a Sigma lens that broke the fall for my Nikon SLR perched on top.
 
shadowfox said:
Kyle, chin up, that kind of behaviour is not worth your time to even remember about. Just concentrate on which camera would be the replacement 😉
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I agree that the jackass is not honourable. But you will waste your time and energy dwelling on the jackass. Other than approaching the jackass only once to buck up and be accountable, instead focus on the replacement M2 😉
 
I've had someone break one of my cameras a couple of weeks after he had bought it from me....He put a big dent in the bellows. I thought it a bit of a shame, but he had already paid for it, so....

Someone tried to close the lens on my Retina II while it was not focused at infinity. he pushed some parts out of their guide rails. A problem easily corrected, but I yelled some sense into him nonetheless.

I wince every time I accidentally knock one of my cameras around, let alone someone else his gear...
 
The only way they will get my cameras is when they take it from my cold dead hands!
hmm haven't I heard that before?

I hate giving my cameras to anyone to look at. A few treat them with respect - but many do not.


EDIT: I have toned this post down - I was very upset and angry when I wrote it and said some things that I meant but which should not be published here.

My present wife is chronic in this respect.....................

Recently, I was laying on bed watching TV and casually wiping down and checking my Panasonic L1. While doing this I made a point of carefully checking the rear LCD on the camera which was pristine. I put the camera down in what I thought was a safe spot beside the bedside cabinet near the wall, where no one should walk as its not a traffic area (I am fearful of knocking the camera off the bedside cabinet which is why I place it on the floor instead ) and at some point she came in and stood exactly in that spot to talk to me. No reason she should do so - its just the spot she chose. I said nothing right then as I was 3 parts asleep. In the morning when I picked the camera up I found a nice scar in the LCD. I know it was not there the night before as I specifically checked it for scratches. She denies all responsibility. (As she always does when she breaks something of mine, unfortunately.) She is 40 years old but I think I could use a good book on child psychology.
 
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shadowfox said:
I would have gone into total b*tchmode!
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Denise, that just cracks me up 🙂
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"51% sweetheart, 49% b*tch, don't push it!" 🙂 🙂 🙂 LOL!

But seriously, this thread raises some thoughts and feelings that we don't often consider. It has me thinking about in the future, if I'll continue to gladly hand over my camera to someone who is curious about it.

Thinking about this from the other side, another thing almost gives me the creepies when I think of what might have happened, was one of the few times I've ever ran into a fellow RFFer in real life and I was "allowed" to touch an M8 and even {gasp} take a few shots with it!

As I think back, it was dark in there and everybody there had at least a couple adult beverages. Had I dropped that thing, I would have been incredibly ashamed and embarrased, and yes, I would have been obligated to make things whole, as in full repair bill, profuse apology, jeez! At the time I never thought of the fact that I was holding an easily-mishandled thing that's a good portion of a monthly salary in value!

Even if I had paid the total repair or replacement cost, I still would have felt like 10 pounds of doodoo in a 5 pound bag about it! 🙁 🙁

This thread really has me thinking about things like this.
 
my old boss was visiting Peggy's Cove in Nova Scotia (picture a lighthouse surrounded by acres of granite), another tourist asked if he would take a picture of their family with their nice SLR. After snapping the pic, he tripped walking back to the camera owner and dropped the gear onto the granite. Ever since hearing that story I have been doing the extended arm self portraits. If someone offers to take our picture I generally decline and tell them these shots are a tradition.
 
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