What have you just DROPPED?

[Brian Legge]

I've only dropped one non-lens cap photography ten... and it was an M4. I usually wear a camera bag across my chest. I quickly threw it over my shoulder once and it slipped off 5 minutes later.

It landed on the corner of the rewind knob and bent it. Fortunately that spared the rest of the camera. 20 minutes with a screw driver and pliers to remove and straighten the knob (to the point of not grinding against the body while rewinding) and I was up and shooting again. Big picture, it was a cheap lesson.

 

[skucera]

Many years ago I sat my Canon EOS 650 on the dining room table with the strap just barely over the edge. One of my kids, at toddler back then, pulled the strap and I watched from three feed away as the camera slipped off the table and fell in slow motion at the floor. It landed right on its lens, split the plastic lens barrel, and broke the focusing screen. I couldn't afford to repair the camera, not with two little kids and a third on the way, so I simply packed the camera away for some day when I could afford to repair it. I finally got around to fixing it this summer. It sat in boxes for 17 years, moving from house to house since that drop.

I've still got to replace the 50mm f1.4 USM lens that broke... someday....

Scott

 

[kaydee]

Dropped my Hassy because I'm a moron with butterfingers. The door now won't properly "close." The XPan has auto rewind that starts when the door is closed, but the dent seems to have messed up this mechanism. Not a big issue tho since the latch clip can be still be pressed down to activate it. A little annoyance, but better than having a 2 grand paperweight. Everything else still works.

 

[Pentode]

Last week I dropped - and caught! - my Retina IIa. It was like a juggling act, but I did manage to keep it from hitting the ground... barely.

I just dropped about 100 bucks on film. Does that count?

 

[Timmyjoe]

Shown this before. Dog leash caught camera strap on my pristine M3 SS, camera flew thru the air and crashed down on cement sidewalk.

Painful. Don (DAG) was able to fix everything so it works fine, but it don't look fine no more.

Best,
-Tim

 

[igzabeher]

Back in September my wife and I were in Trapani. On one of the beaches there's a jetty of uneven rocks with a great view of the city, the Ligny Tower, and the Sun as it was setting. As I am wont to do, I set myself up on two tripods. On one, I had my IR modded Panasonic GH3 and I don't remember what was on the second. Long story short, I somehow managed to bump the tripod with the GH3 on it and sent it careening into the (thankfully shallow) depths of the jetty. When I retrieved it, I had cracked the nameplate that houses the pop up flash clean off. Other than that, works like a charm. My first, and thus far only, major casualty.

 

[jarski]

dropped early Leica II. there was normal loss of paint on it, but no dings or scratches, before me. was angry to myself for a good while after 🙁

 

[sara]

Ok touchwood I haven't dropped anything just yet HOWEVER, I did nearly at one point when I was carrying my M2 with the strap on my shoulder and it slipped off and I managed to catch the strap with my legs before it hit the ground.

That was an awful moment.

 

[stompyq]

I keep dropping my phone. Does that count? Last camera I dropped was my Ricoh GR. dropped it straight down onto concrete. Dented side and a giant crack running lengthwise on the screen. This was last winter. It still works perfectly

 

[oftheherd]

Several years ago, I dropped my Sekonic L28c2 on a carpeted floor which had concrete below it. I still worked, but I had to rotate it horizontally so one side was up and the other down. I was pleased that it still worked as I had used it a lot and liked it. About two years ago, I dropped it again (in about the same place). Now it words fine.

About 3 years ago, my wife was trying to show me what she was convinced was a better way to utilize our closet shelf space. I had a Vivitar 500mm cat lens there. The funny tinkling sound when I picked it up removed any desire to use it anymore. It slinked away in apparent embarrassment.

 

[Out to Lunch]

I dropped my CV 15mm viewfinder for the Epson R-D1...a total loss. One day, the CV 1.4/40 -a very fine lens, dislodged from the camera and fell from a height of one meter on a marble floor... the lens hood absorbed the impact and the lens survived. Looking at some of the incidents listed above, I've been lucky...

 

[KarmaToBurn]

Dropped my Kodak Retina IIa. Rangefinder now needs a vertical adjustment. The Horizontal still lines up properly and everything else is still great.

 

[MadsJaeger]

Oh my God, such horror stories! Dropped my Nikon FE2 on the concrete floor at the Centre Pompidou in Paris with the Zeiss 2/35 zf.2 attached. FE2 was totalled while I had the Zeiss - which I love dearly - repaired at considerable expense. Luckily, I also brought along an FM2 along as a backup

 

[Aristo]

Four years ago I lost a Contax T3. My last guess was, I left it on the car roof while fiddling with other stuff. Off it went...
Was able to by another one here on RFF for – yes!, 300 Euro. Impossible nowadays.

 

[Stelios]

Where do I start.. Leica M6, several times, coming out of the car on to the pavement, from my hands to the pavement many many times, from my shoulder on to the floor, I've fallen on ice with the camera on my back (that demanded a viewfinder replacement). It mostly knocks the rangefinder off, sometimes badly, others not so bad. It's slightly off now but not worth the repair just yet. Touch wood, the lens is still ok. I can't be trusted with the thing but still works flawlessly. Decided it's time to put it in a half case...

 

[ferider]

Do NOT carry your iPhone in your jeans' back-pocket.

Last year I had to fish one (not mine) out of the toilet and - when researching the issue - iphone => toilet drops happen frequently. Newer iphones even have a device that will show water damage when you bring the dried phone for possible repair/exchange to the Genius bar.

The last big thing I dropped was my K1600GT. Basically from standing though, so - besides a couple of scratches - nothing serious happened and I was happy to be able to lift it myself (bike weights ~700 lbs).

 

[mooge]

Once I was riding my bike and dropped my Olympys Pen EE3 out of my mouth (I was trying to get my hand out of the strap).

That and I've dropped my Leica M2 a bunch of times. But what really gets me cheesed is that last year I bought two "good" light meters (Gossen digital something and Sekonic something with one of those blue silicon sensor deals) and had both of them crap out on me within months, with no abuse necessary. And I bought a Bessa R2 as a backup to the M2, and its meter died as well!!!! Absolutely dreadful. Mechanical stuff I can (attempt to) fix, electrical stuff not so much...

 

[Jake Mongey]

I had the canon 7 mounted on a tripod and my dog came flying over and in one soul - destroying charge tripod goes flying. Huge dent in the 50mm f/0.95. Then on another trip somehow the same lens manages to dent the side of the camera even with a good pad in the bag separating it. My bad luck i suggest but also taught me to not only use the pads, but also wrap all items in socks.

Saving up for repairs now.

 

[coelacanth]

I broke my phone display once in my life: Nexus 5. It was in my shoulder/arm pocket which was not fully zipped, and I was lifting my mountain bike on to the roof rack of my car. The phone fell to the very rough parking lot pavement to its doom. Credit card benefit replaced it for free. 🙂

Directly camera related: It didn't happen to me, but someone who bought an M2-R from me. It was a beautiful example, fully working. About a month or two later (maybe more?) the buyer texted me just as a heads up that he dropped the M2-R and the VF area was destroyed. The picture he sent me almost brought tears to my eyes. He talked to a tech and was basically told the camera was beyond saving. She was beautiful and still was too young to die. 🙁 🙁 🙁

 

[Fotobot]

I have dropped three lenses, though none recently. Two Canon zooms and the lovely Canon 50mm f/1.2L. All were repaired by Canon. One of the zooms was smashed pretty good and bent out of shape.