OK How did you fry your first camera(film or digital)

randolph45

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So far my film gear is still intact,however I did fry my first digital camera in a trout stream in Montana when I slipped in the current. The Canon S20 3mp was a thrift store purchase that was replaced by a use Canon G5 which i still have and use.
 
I think I told this story already, but... I was walking along a sidewalk holding my F3 by the 105 lens while talking to friends. I swung my arm up in some kind of gesture only to see my F3 body become airborne, the lens still in my hand. Slow motion... followed the trajectory down to the hot concrete and then the sickening sound that a flying F3 makes when it collides with a sidewalk. The good news is that the tough Nikon F3 sustained a dented top but worked fine for the next 20 years. Don't try this with your new DSLR.

David
 
I think I told this story already, but... I was walking along a sidewalk holding my F3 by the 105 lens while talking to friends. I swung my arm up in some kind of gesture only to see my F3 body become airborne, the lens still in my hand. Slow motion... followed the trajectory down to the hot concrete and then the sickening sound that a flying F3 makes when it collides with a sidewalk. The good news is that the tough Nikon F3 sustained a dented top but worked fine for the next 20 years. Don't try this with your new DSLR.

David
😱 Did this too,but it was an AE-1 program with ma motor that fell off the pit wall at Vegas speedway.no harm no foul, landed on the corner of the top plate and never stopped working Still got it🙂
 
I think I told this story already, but... I was walking along a sidewalk holding my F3 by the 105 lens while talking to friends. I swung my arm up in some kind of gesture only to see my F3 body become airborne, the lens still in my hand. Slow motion... followed the trajectory down to the hot concrete and then the sickening sound that a flying F3 makes when it collides with a sidewalk. The good news is that the tough Nikon F3 sustained a dented top but worked fine for the next 20 years. Don't try this with your new DSLR.

David

I did a similar thing 2-3 years ago with my 5d. It landed heavily on it's rear from shoulder height, with a big 17-40mm lens attached. Worst sound ever.

It's got a slight impression under the LCD on the body where it made impact, but otherwise is undamaged. Has worked without a hiccup to this day.
 
I haven't killed any cameras unintentionally yet. The closest I've been is when I fell of a chair with my 10D. I had to straighten the hotshoe with a hammer (it had a speedlite on) and the screen turned purple, but I just turned it on and off and it has worked fine after that. That same 430EXII Speedlite took a fall while I was hiking and forgot to lock it. The batteries fell out, and it got a couple of scratches, but it's still working perfectly. I've also shot the 10D under heavy rain and it's still rocking on. That 10D is a tough camera for sure.
 
I dropped my M4 with my Zeiss 28mm Biogon attached onto a concrete floor from about 5ft. I thought it was attached to my tripod but not so. I picked it up and thankfully the lens didn't have a mark on it. The camera hit on the bottom corner and crunched in the bottom plate and bent the body pretty bad. It needed a bottom plate and body shell plus some adjustments. I ended up trading it on a LTM body and lens and got a big discount on the LTM stuff. I wanted to sell the camera before I dropped it anyway so it worked out for me. Jim
 
I bought an original Canon Digital Rebel in 2005. A light leak appeared, there was a rainbow effect on the images when I shot outside in direct sunlight. I sent it in and they replaced it with a Rebel XT.

It wasn't until later that I realized you never blow off the sensor with canned air. I cleaned the sensor off before the "light leak" and it must have left propellant behind as residue, causing the rainbow pattern.
 
I've come close. I have a Panasonic TZ-3 that, when it was two weeks old, I dropped it onto the asphalt while getting out of the truck to take a picture of a rock fall. It hesitated on start-up, but has worked fine ever since. Well, as fine as a TZ-3 is.

I dropped a Fujica GER while loading it, so the door needs some realignment.

But I haven't done what happened to this guy:

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/07/canon-5d-mkii-sensor-zapped-by-lasers/

At least now he can keep his horizons straight.

PF
 
I was shooting in Acadia National Park when I got splashed by a wave. Over the next two weeks my FM2 started rusting apart. I did managed to save the lens by soaking it in a bucket of distilled water.
 
I was scuba diving in Indonesia in 2008 at a resort called Wakatobi Dive Resort. Back then I was using a D70S, my very first digital camera, for underwater photography. The housing for that camera can be seen in a gallery at pbase (the link is in my signature). Anyway, I hadn't assembled the camera, lens, housing & strobes correctly so it flooded soon after I entered the water. My D70S as well as my 105 macro lens were both fried, having been exposed to salt water, a medium not friendly to electronics 😱

Fortunately, I had brought along a backup camera, a D70, and I'd insured all of my underwater photography equipmentg before the trip. I ended up using my backup D70 the rest of the trip and was reimbursed for the fried camera and lens after filing a claim when I got back home. So, it didn't turn out too badly except that I didn't have the use of my 105 lens the rest of the trip and had to use my 60 macro lens instead.
 
I have found a much easier and less traumatic way of killing cameras. Simply place them in a dresser drawer, leave them for six or eight months or so, take them out, and some of them won't work. No effort involved at all!
One I really liked was the Fuji Discovery mini dual panorama plus (QD). You had a lens that switched between 28mm and 45mm. You could shoot full frame or panorama, but no switching in mid roll. Lots of folks love the Olympus XA4 which is 28mm scale focus. The Fuji camera had 28mm autofocus plus another focal length and panorama and QD. I found it had a lot to like. I miss it.
Also similarly deceased is my Canon MC. A cute little autofocus that I don't think was particularly popular. It's claim to fame--it's the only autofocus P&S I ever owned that had a separate, dedicated, detachable flash. However, I won't really miss it.
Who knows, in a few more months I may have more cameras to report on. Sad.
 
My Yashica T4 Super went for a swim in the Colorado river during a rafting trip down the Grand Canyon. Fished it out, dried it in the sun and it worked! I killed it the next day when it went in the water again. Had an air-fluid level in the viewfinder window and when I opened it up yellow water poured out (guess it was from the film emulsion).
R.I.P.
 
well, there was that time I slipped and my M2 hit a rock... and then there was that time it was in my bike bag and the bag fell off... and then there was that time I tried to hold it between my knees and it fell... and then there was that time I dropped it on the bus and that other time I also dropped it on the bus.

just a few of the reasons why I've put 40 or more hours into getting the stupid machine to work right.
re-aligning a RF= huge waste of my life.

but I do it anyways because I kind of like my M2.
 
I haven't blown up any bodies but I did drop a Nikon 85mm 1.4 AF lens...it was only from a height of about 4 or 5 inches off the sidewalk but it was enough to do something inside so that it stopped talking to the camera...I had to send it in for service...they repaired the connections in the contacts...
 
A few years ago, I went to an abandoned house, walked around the property, taking photos with my F3, had my D40 in the pocket of my hooded sweatshirt the entire time, but when I walked by an 7 or 8 foot well outside, it decided to fall out of my pocket..
 
Sea... No need to tell you anything more than salt corrosion, it was a Canon 400D with the sigma 10-20 nothing from the kit was salvageable...
 
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