Tale of camera woes. Post yours.

[Rangefinder 35]

Once I was in Mt. Rainier National Park, photographing a glacial tarn of amazing shade of blue, when my tripod with Nikon F4 and expensive zoom on it slipped from the tarn's bank and landed under water. I pulled it back right away , but the damage was done. The camera started to fire the shutter by itself, till I removed batteries. The zoom was soaking wet as well, but the filter kept the most of the water away from the front element. By the time I got home the plastic distance window on the zoom was fogged and the glass elements of the lens started to fog up as well. Fortunately, I had some silicone crystals which I packed with the camera and lens in ziplock bags and left them for a week. A week later, when I opened the bags there was no more fogged elements, and the body itself behaved like new. It even stopped misfiring in humid weather, as it used to. What's your story of woe?

 

[Lauffray]

I had my F100 and an expensive lens I'd rented in a bag in a canoe going down a river. The stream was a bit strong and carried us towards a big log which we couldn't steer clear of in time, trying to push away from it the canoe tipped over and the bag fell in the river. I was more worried about the lens than the camera, took it apart and dried it out thoroughly. I never heard from the rental guys after and the quote to repair the F100 was more than I had paid for it. I also lost a few rolls of Velvia 50 that were in the bag

 

[Lauffray]

Here's another story. I was in San Francisco for a couple of weeks and this happened maybe a day or two after I had arrived.

I was standing on a street corner trying to find my way, so I put the camera over my shoulder to pull out my phone when I hear a THUD. I turn around and there was half of my 35mm Summicron lens face down on the concrete sidewalk. The camera was still hanging on my shoulder, I look at it and see the lens body had unscrewed around the middle, half was still attached to the body and the other was on the sidewalk.

Fortunately KEH paid for the repairs and the glass wasn't broken, the threads a little bent.
Thankfully I had another lens with me on that trip, but when I later developed the pictures it turns out the lens had been slowly unscrewing over time so they were all out of focus.

 

[02Pilot]

My camera woes have been mostly limited to wonky advance mechanisms, recalcitrant shutters, and similarly common old camera issues. I realize I have now jinxed myself, and fully expect one of my cameras to spontaneously combust at any moment.

One piece of advice for those dropping cameras in water: if you don't have silica gel handy, rice will do the same thing.

 

[Rangefinder 35]

One piece of advice for those dropping cameras in water: if you don't have silica gel handy, rice will do the same thing.

Good to know...

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Like 02Pilot, I have been fortunate... And will now knock on wood. 😉

However, one time, hiking in Costa Rica with my Nikon F100, I slipped and fell. The camera fell on my abdomen, but, oddly enough, it didn't quite want to shoot, and showed something like the mirror hit something somewhere and didn't quite raise itself to let the curtains open and close. I was distressed, to say the least. Once back in my Costa Rican home, I decided to take a look at it, and found that the focusing screen was loose on one corner. Just a careful push with a pair of tweezers did it: the screen clicked securely in, and I didn't have any problems with the camera for the rest of the trip.

 

[PaulCooper]

One time, before the trip to slot canyon country in southern Utah, I bought my daughter (she was 14 then) a digital Nikon with an expensive zoom, hoping that she'd be busy shooting. On the way to Utah she shot hundreds of pictures through car window, but once inside the first slot canyon she dropped the camera which promptly stopped working no matter what I tried. When we returned home I had to send the camera to Nikon, and pay $180 to fix it.

 

[Texsport]

I sent my Olympus OM-4 and OM-4Ti in for a CLAs and overhauls.

Got 'em back, and they worked fine.

Didn't use them for 6 months, then the first time I did, both shutters jammed open.

I changed the batteries, tried every setting, but still no relief.

This is the frustration of using older cameras.

Any ideas for a solution?

Texsport

 

[farlymac]

My very first digital camera was a Panasonic DMC-TZ3. Yeah, basically an overblown P&S, but I got it because at the time it's 35mm equivalent zoom range of 28-200mm was just the range I was after having owned a Tamron SP lens of that length.

Anyway, I'd had it about a week, and was making a trip back to my hometown for the holidays. There was a spot along the highway where a large chunk of the limestone rock had come out in one piece (about the size of a delivery van). So I stopped along the opposite side of the road, and hopped out to get the shot with the little Panny in my right hand...which immediately contacted the side of the door, knocking the camera out of my hand onto the asphalt five feet below.

I was stunned to say the least. All I could think of was the amount of money it was going to take to fix my new camera, which I kind of busted the budget to buy in the first place. I picked it up, and it didn't look too bad, just a scuff on the front of the lens mount. Turning it on, it refused to extend the lens all the way, so I shut it back off. I cycled it through about three times, and it finally extended fully, never to hang up again.

After I got the shot, the first thing I did was dig the still-in-its-wrapper wrist lanyard out of the camera bag, and installed it on the camera. As much as I hate the encumbrance of lanyards and straps, they are worth every penny in preventing another episode like the one above.

PF

 

[C. D. Keth]

Well, here's the most spectacular. Until recently I worked as a camera assistant in Los Angeles on films and TV. We were doing some night driving stunt work downtown. We had a camera rigged to the front quarter of a mustang looking ahead with the wheel in the foreground. Very experienced stunt driver, easy shot. He accelerates, slips a tiny bit to the camera side on some grease or oil and blammo, slams the camera right into another stunt car. The film magazine goes spinning up in the air, bounces off the roof of the oncoming car, pops open, and the 1000 foot roll of film goes rolling down W. 1st St.

 

[Doug]

I was cleaning out my parents coat closet helping with a move and came across the Nikon FG I had bought them as a gift 22 years before. With a Tamron 35-80 zoom. It didn't work, so I brought it to my fav local repair guy who popped the bottom off and we see lots of rust and corrosion. Ruined, lens as well. Maybe salt water, or just the salt air on the shores of Puget Sound. Really a shame.

It may have been taken out on their sailboat, but it seems they didn't use it much, apparently preferring their Olympus FT. Got $25 for it for the parts.

 

[segedi]

I recently bought a D750 that's on its way back to Nikon...

 

[DaveTheWalker]

I was once in a photography class at the local college, and we'd been taking a few test shots before going into the darkroom. I had my Canon A-1 with a long zoom lens attached to a cheap tripod (legs not fully splayed). On top was an oversized, rather too heavy flash. Well, I knocked it with my leg and the whole assembly fell forward, hitting the ground with some force. The flash broke apart at the hotshoe mount and I even managed to get a crack in the pentaprism cover of the A-1! I managed to get home insurance to cover it, but all they could suggest for a new film camera was a Canon EOS-300 (film), which I didn't like nearly as much as the old FD-mount A-1. I finally replaced the A-1 with an F1-N from a friend at work, which I love 🙂

 

[GarageBoy]

My dad's Graflex XL's helicoid focusing mount would freeze in the cold
His friend's Gitzo tripod did the same thing- a whack against a tree fixed that
Dropped and killed my first digital camera (Nikon 4300)