feenej
Well-known
Has anybody whitnessed one first hand? I have a Konika C35 that looks like it was whacked wth a hammer. I'm trying to picture how this dent may have been formed.
Paul Luscher
Well-known
Well, I can tell you how breaks happen. Put your camera on a tripod, forget to lack it down, and watch it fall off onto a stone-paved surface.
R
rpsawin
Guest
Generally when two objects atempt to occupy the same space at the same time something has to give...timing is everything. LOL
Best, Bob
Best, Bob
gekopaca
French photographer
When you must hit the head of a man with your M2.
And when that man have glasses.
And when that man have glasses.
valdas
Veteran
Putting on a backpack and... ooops... unzipped... and Rolleiflex flies and hits the ground - small dent on the back, but it's Rolleiflex after all, so no big damage, only cosmetics...
nikon_sam
Shooter of Film...
I don't know...I dropped my Spotmatic once and I can't for the life of me find any mark from that fall...It did have a rubber lens hood on it and that may have cushioned the fall...
KenR
Well-known
Hiking in Glacier National Park, one trips on a tree root. Mamiya 6 suffered only minor damage (a few dings) but my front tooth required a root canal.
Roberto V.
Le surrèalisme, c'est moi
Forgot to secure my (then) brand new Canon 430EX II Speedlite on my 10D one day when I was hiking. Took a huge fall and fell on some rocks. Just a couple of tiny scratches.
On the other hand, I have managed to give my M4 and my Contaflex a small ding on each, but I have no idea when that happened, I've never hit them hard against anything as far as I remember.
On the other hand, I have managed to give my M4 and my Contaflex a small ding on each, but I have no idea when that happened, I've never hit them hard against anything as far as I remember.
SimonSawSunlight
Simon Fabel
the question is: will it blend?
Keith
The best camera is one that still works!
And in our next episode we'll be asking the question that evreyone wants to know the answer to:
"Where do baby cameras come from?"
"Where do baby cameras come from?"
ruby.monkey
Veteran
Frustration and a good throwing arm.
Pfreddee
Well-known
Gravity takes over when you drop something.
Inertia takes over when you swing the camera and it hits something.:bang:
With best regards.
Pfreddee(Stephen)
Inertia takes over when you swing the camera and it hits something.:bang:
With best regards.
Pfreddee(Stephen)
Mackinaw
Think Different
Dropping a camera will usually result in a dent. I dropped an old Canon F-1 on a bunch of rocks once that put one hell of a dent in the camera. Broke the rock though.
Jim B.
Jim B.
Landshark
Well-known
Gravity takes over when you drop something.
Inertia takes over when you swing the camera and it hits something.:bang:
With best regards.
Pfreddee(Stephen)
There is no such thing as gravity. Things go earthward because the earth sucks!
peterm1
Veteran
Its one of the facts of life that metal camera bodies are much more susceptible to damge than polycarbonate ones, which are pretty resilient to knocks, scrapes and bangs.
There are some special vulnerabilities in my experience. I have dinged the top of an M3 while it was wearing a lightmeter. A bang against the meter caused it, in turn, to dent the flat part of the top plate of the camera slightly. It was not a heavy bang. But then again annealed brass is soft.
SLRs are known to be particularly susceptible to damage in the prism cover department. For example one often sees vintage Nikon Fs with non metering prisms where that unit has been dented at the apex of the prism or elsewhere. Same with the old medium format Pentax cameras that are built like 35mm SLRs. Partly to do with the way pros treat their kit I would say - but also a design weakness that has been repeated year in year out till cameras started being made from high end plastic.
Lighter cameras are even more weak in those respects. I had a mint Pentax MX with a lovely 50mm f1.2 lens that I was oh so proud of. I was wearing it over my left shoulder on a shoulder strap when it banged lightly against a door frame as I walked through it. It seemed barely more than a touch but it still left a nasty dent. The old Olympus OM1 etc models are said to be similarly vulnerable.
As an aside, I think that wearing a camera strap over only one shoulder must be a cause of a lot of damage - the camera can swing about as described above and sooner or later it will bang against something or someone. Or it can just slip off the shoulder onto the floor. I have done both.
I have also managed to ding a Leica M4P that was in a cushioned camera case that somehow slid off a low bench onto the ground. Again I would have thought it should not have done any damage - but guess what!!!
So there you are. If there is a way of denting a camera, I have done it. Its just too easy.
A friend was travelling recently when his new Nikon slid off a cafe counter top onto a hard floor in Amsterdam. The camera did not work till he got it home and after having a technician check it out found that the mirror had jammed. He flicked it and it returned to its proper postion. No lasting damage, ding or dent. It was a modern DSLR.
I have learned the hard way. If a camera is on the floor it is unlikely to fall any further. And so this is what I now try to do whenever the need arises. Balancing an expensive M8 or something on a chair is just too risky, even if its in a case.
There are some special vulnerabilities in my experience. I have dinged the top of an M3 while it was wearing a lightmeter. A bang against the meter caused it, in turn, to dent the flat part of the top plate of the camera slightly. It was not a heavy bang. But then again annealed brass is soft.
SLRs are known to be particularly susceptible to damage in the prism cover department. For example one often sees vintage Nikon Fs with non metering prisms where that unit has been dented at the apex of the prism or elsewhere. Same with the old medium format Pentax cameras that are built like 35mm SLRs. Partly to do with the way pros treat their kit I would say - but also a design weakness that has been repeated year in year out till cameras started being made from high end plastic.
Lighter cameras are even more weak in those respects. I had a mint Pentax MX with a lovely 50mm f1.2 lens that I was oh so proud of. I was wearing it over my left shoulder on a shoulder strap when it banged lightly against a door frame as I walked through it. It seemed barely more than a touch but it still left a nasty dent. The old Olympus OM1 etc models are said to be similarly vulnerable.
As an aside, I think that wearing a camera strap over only one shoulder must be a cause of a lot of damage - the camera can swing about as described above and sooner or later it will bang against something or someone. Or it can just slip off the shoulder onto the floor. I have done both.
I have also managed to ding a Leica M4P that was in a cushioned camera case that somehow slid off a low bench onto the ground. Again I would have thought it should not have done any damage - but guess what!!!
So there you are. If there is a way of denting a camera, I have done it. Its just too easy.
A friend was travelling recently when his new Nikon slid off a cafe counter top onto a hard floor in Amsterdam. The camera did not work till he got it home and after having a technician check it out found that the mirror had jammed. He flicked it and it returned to its proper postion. No lasting damage, ding or dent. It was a modern DSLR.
I have learned the hard way. If a camera is on the floor it is unlikely to fall any further. And so this is what I now try to do whenever the need arises. Balancing an expensive M8 or something on a chair is just too risky, even if its in a case.
Last edited:
Keith
The best camera is one that still works!
That has to be the common dent you see on M3's ... that damned Leicameter has a lot to answer to!
Ronald M
Veteran
I just have to agree with the floor storage.
Change lenses over grass or sit down and change them over your camera bag. Unless you like to replace lenses of course.
I had a Leica fall off a tripod and hit the cement because it was not properly fastened.
Also had a Billingham Hadley slip off my shoulder and hit the cement before I could stop it. Must have hit the 28 2.8 with some force because it destroyed a filter and wrecked the focus helical.
And watch the tree roots first spoken about above. Trust me, nasty things specially covered by leaves.
The D200 behind it was undamaged. The lens was repaired and is still in use. The Hadley was retired and I bought a big bulky well padded LowePro.
Change lenses over grass or sit down and change them over your camera bag. Unless you like to replace lenses of course.
I had a Leica fall off a tripod and hit the cement because it was not properly fastened.
Also had a Billingham Hadley slip off my shoulder and hit the cement before I could stop it. Must have hit the 28 2.8 with some force because it destroyed a filter and wrecked the focus helical.
And watch the tree roots first spoken about above. Trust me, nasty things specially covered by leaves.
The D200 behind it was undamaged. The lens was repaired and is still in use. The Hadley was retired and I bought a big bulky well padded LowePro.
presspass
filmshooter
Re the clunking someone on the head with an M2 - that's not the way it should be done. If you're going to clunk someone, use an F-3 with an MD4 and a variable rate firing converter. You will never dent the camera and the guy you clunk will probably have no memory of the event. As to the rest of it, there are two ways to dent a camera - drop the camera or have something fall onto it. I managed to prove both work and equally well.
Crazy Fedya
Well-known
I put my Vitessa without case in my inside jacket pocket, and went for a walk with my family. Daughter goes running, daddy goes ducking, camera goes falling and dinging.
Never again!(Vitessa without case in jacket pocket, I mean).
Never again!(Vitessa without case in jacket pocket, I mean).
Last edited:
ZeissFan
Veteran
Remind me to never loan any cameras to any of you.