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

[_goodtimez]

I dropped my 35 summicron on to a concrete hangar floor while swapping lenses. It apparently landed on one corner of the sun shade and bounced like a golf ball and rolled. No damage apart from a small flat on the sun shade where it first touched the floor.
Apart from that I was able to rescue a number of camera gear during their fall. Most of the times I just deploy my foot just below the predicted impact location and it dampens the shock pretty well.

 

[jsrockit]

Around the same time, back in the 90s, a few things happened. I fell in the lake with a Leica CL and the meter broke. I also dropped a Contax T2 on its main switch / dial and had to get it repaired because there was no way to turn it off or on (or change modes). On the same day I got it back from repair I dropped it again and had a similar result. This time, I sold it as is.

 

[karlori]

I dropped my 35 summicron on to a concrete hangar floor while swapping lenses. It apparently landed on one corner of the sun shade and bounced like a golf ball and rolled. No damage apart from a small flat on the sun shade where it first touched the floor.
Apart from that I was able to rescue a number of camera gear during their fall. Most of the times I just deploy my foot just below the predicted impact location and it dampens the shock pretty well.

Apart from that, this proved as a 100% way to almost always kill my mobile phones when i dropped them, not once did i manage to dampen the impact but managed to kick them in the nearest metal object or wall... :bang:
Hell only mobile that did survive this treatment was my trusty Nokia 3310 :angel:

 

[ChipMcD]

Dropped my YashicaMat LTM from only about 2.5 ft, but it landed squarely on a corner and broke the shutter button right off, deforning the lens carriage in the process. It was $40 used in 1970 and lasted until the mid-80s and didn't owe me much, I guess.

 

[unixrevolution]

I have dropped more camera gear than I care to recall, but never actually killed anything by dropping it.

The closest is the 150/5.6 lens for my Polaroid 600se, which now works perfectly except for one shutter blade that doesn't move.

 

[Lauffray]

My F100 took a plunge when I went kayaking down a river once.
My R3M had its shutter frozen solid after I took it out in -40 weather
Last and most spectacular, the optical element on my 35mm summicron asph suddenlt detached from the rest of the lens body and collided with the sidewalk.

 

[Talex]

I fried 2 cameras with seawater:

1. I once fell into the Andaman Sea (near Phuket) while clambering over some rocks along a sea shore. Unfortunately, I had an Olympus Stylus in my pocket when I fell. That killed the camera. (Fortunately, my F3 was in the top part my backpack which miraculously stayed dry. I am still using that today).

2. Last year, I flooded my Panasonic P/S camera in the Philippines when my underwater housing leaked during scuba diving. In between dives, I had to open the housing to change batteries, and I think a small salt crystal contaminated the O-ring when I opened the housing. All you need is a little piece of grit on the O-ring and the camera floods. Lesson learned: rinse off the housing in fresh water and dry it before opening the housing. At least I still got some nice shots before the camera got flooded.

 

[Snacks]

Whilst I was cycling through some woodland the zip on my rucksack failed. When I took a corner quickly my D40X (in case) and Fuji S2500hd (wrapped in a jumper) obeyed the laws of physics and bailed out as rapidly as possible. They were fine but for some cracks in the flash housing of the D40X.

Personally I recommend that Lowerpro start a new line of protective camera jumpers.

 

[wolves3012]

I've been lucky, so far and not killed any camera, film or digital. I do have a tip for those that try and drown them though: rice!

A guy at my workplace drowned a P&S digital by photographing a passing bus whilst standing by a large puddle. The outcome would have been predictable, had he noticed the puddle. Apparently even the screen was full of water. The camera was drained as far as possible then put in an airtight jar, submerged in rice (uncooked, obviously).

After a few days the batteries were re-instated and everything worked perfectly. Rice is, apparently, an excellent dessicant. I'm not going to put this idea to the test but I'll be trying it, should I ever be unlucky enough to dunk a camera.

 

[boffen]

When I was fifteen I was riding a bike and someway or another, the front wheel turned 90 degrees and I went flying face first to the asphalt. The 18-70 kit lens got destroyed, but the camera was fine, apart from now having something (I think it might be some sort of splinter) in the viewfinder.

 

[Vilk]

Last and most spectacular, the optical element on my 35mm summicron asph suddenlt detached from the rest of the lens body and collided with the sidewalk.

i guess that settles the old filter/no filter debate, at least on leica lenses 😎

my FM2 fell out of my backpack and landed on the concrete sidewalk in front of my home once. they have poured out new sidewalk recently so no trace of the affair remains (the FM2 never blinked; i changed the strangely shaped top plate and it was good as new)

 

[Bob Michaels]

Back in the mid 50's, I managed to accidentally kick my Argus C-3 off the dock into the lake. We left it in the oven on low warm overnight and it dried out and worked like new.

First total was in the 70's when we overturned a canoe and my almost new Canonet GIII QL 1.7 went to the bottom of the river. The water was running fast and it was not recovered. I replaced it 35 years later.

Most recent was a mountain bike crash with an Olympus Stylus Epic in my jersey rear pocket. I landed on a rock and smashed it gathering a nice bruise. I still have at least one of these that I use.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

My first good camera was an Olympus OM-G (OM-20 outside the USA). I got it when I was 11 yrs old and broke it in a car accident when I was 16, when I also totaled my first car.

 

[RFH]

I'm walking down the street somewhere in southern India. Some guys across the street wave at me, I raise my arm to wave back, and the leather strap holding my Nikon FE suddenly breaks. The fall screwed up the timer mechanism beyond repair. Dang.
Luckily the death of the FE sent me on the Leica path, so it was almost worth it.

Many years later (two weeks ago, actually), I'm at the Roskilde festival, drunk and zooted out of my mind in the middle of night going to the toilet. You see where this is going?
Something on the door - a sticker or some graffiti - catches my eye, and I decide to take a photo of it. I open my pocket to take out the camera, but decide to flush the toilet first, and suddenly I see my beloved Ricoh R1 fall into the bowl. Thanking my maker for letting me flush first, I plunge my hand down there and grab the fully submerged camera. Battery out, discard film+lost memories, leave to dry for a few days. Believe it or not, it still seems to work. Not much hope for the LCD, though.
So if I ever post a Ricoh R1 with a broken LCD in the RFF classifieds, I suggest you don't buy it.

 

[RFH]

A brief follw-up on my story above: After a few weeks, the LCD came back to life. And the first post-incident film I developed looked amazing as always.
+1 for the Ricoh R1.

 

[dave lackey]

Weird. Never broke, lost, fried, stolen or otherwise....😛

 

[Chris101]

I can only answer this pictorially:

A tiny spring broke, but I have been unsuccessful in replacing it... 🙁

 

[batterytypehah!]

A brief follw-up on my story above: After a few weeks, the LCD came back to life. And the first post-incident film I developed looked amazing as always.
+1 for the Ricoh R1.

So should I half-flush my R1 down a Danish toilet now? Its LCD has been dead since before I got the camera. 😀

Haven't killed any of my cameras yet. Clearly I'm not trying hard enough. Many years ago my Apple QuickTake (anybody remember those?) died a quick death when a friend of mine hooked it up to an incompatible power brick, though.

 

[rogerzilla]

My Minolta X-300 just died one day and the shutter would no longer fire. The only camera I've actually killed was a Minox 35GL bought for peanuts with a sticky shutter (no surprise there) just to get its cute leather ever-ready case. I tried to free off the shutter operating mechanism with isopropanol and it stuck even worse; I guess some of the lube was dissolved out and got onto the leaf shutter blades. No loss though, since I never expected it to work in the first place.

On the flipside, I later got an excellent Minox 35GL in "untested" condition for about 15 pounds which just needed a fresh battery. It's better than the 35ML that I paid 70 quid for.

 

[tunalegs]

I had a petri 7s, that fell out of my backpack while I was riding a bike.

Ridiculously the fall didn't kill it, but the lens barrel was wobbly after that so I never used it again.

Also had a Canon AE1 that died from old age - no fault of mine!