Sounds like?...

[Stu :)]

What makes this sound?

'tink'... Whack... "Fuuuu... <an eternity of deathly silence> KRUCWALOP! "....ck..."

Give up?

The retaining screw that holds my tripod head to the tripod legs snapped three weeks ago with my Linhof Technika IV and Nikkor 300mm attached. Camera, lens and tripod head teetered off the tripod legs, hit the car park hand rail and then for some reason decided to tip over the edge to a two story plummet to the pavement below, rather than go the other way which would have been a nice metal-field-camera friendly 3 foot drop to car park floor.

She's a total write off. Two camera techs have humored me with taking the body to an auto panel and paint shop for repairs and the last one wants it as a novelty paper weight/door stop. The only thing parts that I may be able to save is the ground glass screen/grafloc film holder (sans ground glass), but that too appears to be warped. Assorted thumb screws, lens board, 150mm cam, bellows and the two Linhof badges are all that the camera techs reckon I can salvage.

So I've been sulking in my misery since then.

Stu :'''(

 

[FrankS]

Could you make an insurance claim? The camera may be covered under household contents. (I don't know about damage by dropping though.)

 

[BJ Bignell]

Dude, that sucks. Keep your chin up...

If you're lucky, your household insurance coverage is good and it'll be replaced. My insurance covers everything up to and including forgetting something valuable (like a camera) on the bus.

Maybe you'll have a little time to catch up on some darkroom work, or organising slides, or even doing some editing; is there anything you've been putting off? If you keep busy, you'll get over it faster.

 

[Pherdinand]

Oh man, i'm really sorry to hear this!

 

[peter_n]

Terrible... 🙁

 

[cp_ste.croix]

that totally sucks, i am really sorry to hear that. every time i do something like that i feel like barfing for days.

 

[Goodyear]

I cried. I did.

 

[Fedzilla_Bob]

OH Geeeeeeeeeze... Sorry to hear it. While its not your health, it is pretty hard to take.

 

[rover]

Oh my god.

I would have to remove all sharp objects from my house to protect myself.

 

[denishr]

Stu, I'm at a loss for words....

There might be some comfort in the fact that things can be replaced...

 

[Doug]

Ouch! What a ghastly fate for an innocent Technika. Sorry to hear of its passing.

 

[taffer]

Argh !!! Painful. Sorry 🙁