Where Did I Leave My Camera?

[Rodchenko]

The night before last, I got home, and looked in my bag. There was my Canon, but there was a noticeable gap where my Minox should have been. I was worried that I'd dropped it out of my bag cycling home, as I'd been carrying a lot of stuff, and it wasn't properly closed.

Chances of finding a black ERC the size of a fag packet round there was infinitessimally small, so I tried not to worry about it, but, since it's the camera I've had the longest, of course i did fret. And there's no way I could afford another camera right now.

Then, yesterday, I got a text from my wife, who is currently in hospital, who told me that she'd found it under her bed, next to the wheels. Good thing they hadn't decided to move her overnight!

So, I reckon I'm not the only clumsy and absent-minded chap around this forum. Where have you left your camera? Did you get it back (a convoluted route for extra interest)? Were there the greatest photos of your entire life in it at the time?

 

[kshapero]

Rule #1: Keep bags closed. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen folks walking or even running through an airport or train station with their bag unzipped. I can not tell you how many times I have seen all or most of their stuff fall out on the floor either noticed and picked up, but in most cases not noticed and lost, sometimes forever. be careful my friend.

 

[pakeha]

under the seat of an IL76 at Sheremetyevo airport and no i did not get it back. I imagine an aircraft cleaner with a nikon fe2 caused much suspicion at the time.

 

[lynnb]

Had just shot a wedding reception, remembered to grab the digital gear but somehow left my Fed with I-61 in a small camera bag behind a draped table cloth under a drinks table. Next day I was most surprised to get a phone call from client asking if I'd forgotten something! Camera returned to red-faced photographer... there were some good shots on that roll...

 

[Stelios]

I've left my bag with my M6 in a fast food shop, only to realise when I went back home feeling a bit too 'light'. Thankfully it was kept by the kind people who worked there.

There has also been the odd night when I need to get out of bed to make sure I didn't leave my camera in some random pub and it's still in my bag. So far hasn't happened.

 

[Rodchenko]

Realising you were an M6 down must have been a squeaky moment.

 

[Roger Hicks]

. . . There has also been the odd night when I need to get out of bed to make sure I didn't leave my camera in some random pub and it's still in my bag. So far hasn't happened.

Glad it's not just me!

As for leaving cameras... Technika 70 (with 100/2.8 Planar) under a bench outside the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamasala. I found it was still there 20 minutes later when I realized I had left it. Olive drab Bessa R2 (with 35/1.7 Ultron) on a table at a dinner at photokina. Again, I found it still there a quarter of an hour later.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Fraser]

In my first job at a wee local paper I left my camera bag behind my car forgot about it went back into the office came out jumped in the car and reversed over it!

 

[zuiko85]

In 1974 I left a 105mm f2.8 Takumar on the Ravenswood L train in Chicago. Never saw that lens again.

 

[pvdhaar]

Never had this problem in a public place..

It's only when I deliberately put a camera or lens neatly away in a drawer or cabinet that I have these "Oh heavens, where did I leave it?" moments afterwards. In hindsight the logic behind putting it there in the first place is disturbingly convoluted, although it seemed like a good idea at the time. This effect gets worse if I also put it in the original box.. makes gear completely irretrevable.

Now, on the other hand, when I just stash a camera in a random place I'm able to find it in no time flat..

 

[Rodchenko]

I have that too. I make a point now of putting the boxes away somewhere safe so there's no temptation of putting any equipment back in them.

Has the pleasing side effect of the boxes being in usable condition when I come to selling, rather than bashed to pieces.

 

[Richard G]

M5 and Summilux stolen. The only thing of value I left anywhere was in about 1997 when I left my 1986 solid English wooden shafted umbrella on a tram. I later rang the nearest depot and they had found it and hung on to it. I still have it.

 

[kshapero]

Never had this problem in a public place..

It's only when I deliberately put a camera or lens neatly away in a drawer or cabinet that I have these "Oh heavens, where did I leave it?" moments afterwards. In hindsight the logic behind putting it there in the first place is disturbingly convoluted, although it seemed like a good idea at the time. This effect gets worse if I also put it in the original box.. makes gear completely irretrevable.

Now, on the other hand, when I just stash a camera in a random place I'm able to find it in no time flat..

Yes I must admit, I have lost valuable things in my home. Meaning I could not remember where I put them. eventually they show up.

 

[Richard G]

Never had this problem in a public place..

It's only when I deliberately put a camera or lens neatly away in a drawer or cabinet that I have these "Oh heavens, where did I leave it?" moments afterwards. In hindsight the logic behind putting it there in the first place is disturbingly convoluted, although it seemed like a good idea at the time. This effect gets worse if I also put it in the original box.. makes gear completely irretrevable.

Now, on the other hand, when I just stash a camera in a random place I'm able to find it in no time flat..

I have this with papers etc. If it is somewhere in one of the many piles on one of my three desks I will know where it is and get it quickly. If it is filed logically under an appropriate system in a filing cabinet I will never find it.

 

[sanmich]

That's the beauty of these cameras, isn't it?
try this with an RB67...

 

[petronius]

I forgot my backpack twice in restaurants. The first time with a Nikon FM in it, the second time some years later with a mju-II and the exposed rolls of nearly a week. In both cases the staff of the restaurant had found it and handed it back when I arrived in desperate condition!

 

[Murchu]

Under a seat, is usually the main culprit for me! No matter how mindful I am not to leave a camera bag behind, every year or two or three, it happens, prompting an immediate reaction of panic. Under a train seat, and under a seat in the pub were the last two occasions in the last 4/ 5 years.

 

[_goodtimez]

One of my daughters left her VC R3A in a changing cabin at a clothing store in Germany. She realized that after about one hour after having left the store. Luckily a customer picked it up and gently brought it to the store manager.
I don't think we would be so lucky every day.
The other story is I abandonned my M6 and 35 cron in the grass of a campground in the UK. This was after a quite "charged" night during the annual NSCA meeting (National Street Club Association), something to do with custom cars.
I woke up in the early hours of Sunday morning and realized immediatly that my M6 was no longer in the tent.
I rushed out and I saw it laying in the wet grass at little distance from the tent. My legs were truly shaking 🙂

 

[Rodchenko]

It seems there are a lot of honest folk out there handing our cameras in, which is gratifying to hear.

 

[noisycheese]

I am extremely vigilant - have never left a camera or camera bag anywhere.

I am very security minded and have never had any camera gear stolen, either; that is a result of my time spent in the military - security discipline is programmed into you in basic training in the Air Force.
It has served me well for many years.