Where Did I Leave My Camera?

[nikon_sam]

After shooting at church one Sunday morning I had to leave to attend another meeting...when I got there and was shooting I started looking for my 24mm lens and could not find it...I remembered setting it on a table while changing lenses and unfortunately I had left it there...I quickly text my wife and she replied that she saw it and picked it up...
That's been about it for now and I like it that way...

 

[Contarama]

Camera bag with Nikon F2 and D5000 and several primes...thought I left it at the xray machine getting back on board a cruise ship. After frantically searching the number 1 deck and talking to security and the lost and found people for about two hours I returned to my room resigned to the fact that someone now had a pretty darn good camera kit. Then I spied it hanging on a hook on the wall. Stupid me.

 

[_goodtimez]

Air Force

Air Force

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.

I spent 23 years in the Air force !
Anytime we used to deploy there were lots of film cameras around but we also had to perform our duties. Anytime we left our gear hanging near our activities our wifes had surprises when they picked up the developped film or slides: our colleagues had used them to shoot their arses in various configurations. LOL. I was used to this and quickly learned to pick up my developped films my self and go through them before coming back home.
That was the good old days when digital did not exist.

 

[unixrevolution]

One day while working at the college doing my day job, I had had a K100D and 35mm f/2 lens mounted up and sitting somewhere. I had carried it a few places that day, too.

Come to find after lunch...I couldn't find it! I paniced, emptied my camera bag, ran around the office turning things upside down, and backtracked every single step I had taken all day.

An hour and a half of frantic searching, and my co-worker remembers; he took it off a chair and put it in a box, which got covered over quickly afterwards. Safe in my office the whole time.

The camera briefly belonged to a deceased friend, and the lens is my favorite pentax mount lens. I'm glad I found it.

 

[noisycheese]

That was the good old days when digital did not exist.

The good old days aren't extinct just yet - my M4-P body has a roll of Tri-X in it right now! 😀

The worst thing about digital is all the outstanding cameras (Fuji GX 617, 'blad 503cw) emulsions (Kodachrome, Tech Pan, Plus-X) and printing media (Ilfochrome) that have died as a result. These losses are truly an abomination in my book. 🙁

 

[JohnTF]

Rome

Rome

I had my Domke on the floor at a restaurant in Rome. The tablecloths were down to the floor, and I believe the waiter pushed it under the table so he would not trip on it.

About midnight I was in a bit of a panic, took me a worried next day touring Rome with no camera, -- until it came to me, called the restaurant, they had it, grabbed a taxi, bag was hanging on the coat rack, $20 tip (was 20 years ago), saw all of Rome in 30 minutes in a Taxi (you know how the Italians drive).

In the bag?

Passport, new Swiss gold watch for my mom, cash, travelers' checks, plane ticket, Leica CL with two lenses, Nikon SLR with several lenses, film-- all the usual stuff--

A friend found an M3 with 35mm lens at an airport, he reported it, along with his card, to the lost and found-- no one ever called. Smart move, they sell off the stuff if it is not claimed.

Just Monday, in Dallas, a nice lady brought a wedding ring to the desk at the gate-- someone had left it in the lady's room-- they made an announcement, I did not see anyone claim it-- but there are decent folks in the world that turn things in.

My personal fav is the guy who lost his camera diving and it hitched a ride to England with a turtle-- to be washed up and returned to him a year later with some interesting video recorded by the turtle.

I hate traveling and losing stuff, -- twice I have left jackets in cars, or airports,-- and got them back-- yeah, Monday again, left it in a friend's car -- the porter hung it on the back door-- the hotels now write down your room number and the taxi number-- some nice Taxi driver drove a long distance to return a camera, a security worker found someone's backpack on the beach in Vallarta, camera and Mac book-- brought it to the manager who tracked down the owner the next day- Now, if I can only find my glasses lost on vacation -- and of course, the cameras in various places in the house.

Sorry , long post-- I should not have taken typing in high school. ;-)

Roger, am glad you left your camera (and got it back), if you can forget stuff, the rest of us poor mortals can as well.

Regards, John

 

[t.s.k.]

I've left a number of things in the frig that shouldn't be, a camera being one of them. And yes, the camera was returned by a less-than-impressed wife. 😉

 

[css9450]

Twenty years ago, I left a 70s-era Nikon 80-200/f4.5 zoom on a bridge railing on Halsted Street just blocks from Chicago's Union Station. A couple hours later, I was 70 miles away and looking in my bag for my big zoom. It wasn't there! So it was a very fast and nervous drive back to Chicago, and sure enough, it was still there. Hot from the afternoon sun, but it was there. I got lucky.

 

[RWaldron]

Couldn't find my Adox Mess Golf anywhere. I'm not a tidy individual so I assumed I'd misplaced it somewhere and it would eventually turn up. Weeks when by. I think I actually forgot about it. Eventually it turned up beneath the driver's seat of my car. Happy ending? Sadly, not. My car is a twenty-two year old convertible with dried up weather seals and since I don't own a garage which would keep it out of the rain it tends to get a bit damp inside at times. Yes, this is not the best of situations, and I do resort to a spray of Lysol every so often. It was the hottest days of summer and we had had a few rains so the heat and the damp had the predictable results - fungus in what had been a pristine lens. Cameras do not go beneath the seat anymore.

 

[Rodchenko]

Horror story!

 

[Spanik]

Forgotten my bag with the 300D and Kiev 60 on the bus in Dresden when coming back from visit. Lucky I was just off it when I realised it and the car was parked a bit further. So after chasing the bus a few km to its terminus I got it back.

 

[Richard G]

I got home on a hot Saturday when I should have been home much sooner, but I had been taking some shots of a building near work. I couldn't find the cap for my reversed hood on the tabbed 50 Summicron. I searched my pockets, the bag and the boot (trunk) of the car where I had been working, changing lenses. Nothing. Could I just forget about it? No. I had had this for nearly thirty years and taken it around the world and was not going to do without it. I drove all the way back in even heavier Saturday afternoon traffic to see if it was crushed by car wheels in the road. Nope. Nothing. Searched my pockets again. It was in my right jeans pocket all along. I made my way home again in crawling traffic, fearing a meltdown about my long absence. And the wife amazingly was none the wiser to the whole unnecessary diversion.

 

[Godfrey]

My most recent heart stopping "left a camera somewhere" was when I was down in SoCal last year for a wedding. I went for a walk and a bit of lunch, had a bite in some little dive, and was so engrossed reading my book that when I got up to leave I left the M9 and three lenses in the (open) bag sitting on the bench at the table.. I was a mile away (on foot) when I realized something was missing.

It was right where I'd left it when I got back.

Minox subminis are so small that I never trust putting them into a bag. Minox subminis are always in my trousers pocket when I'm carrying them.

G

 

[feenej]

My XA spent three weeks in a hipster bar in Riverwest, Milwaukee before I tracked it down! The bartender had saved it for me! My phone spent the weekend in the bar next door, to boot 🙂

 

[Rodchenko]

Your camera going on a pub crawl without you?

 

[oftheherd]

Not much mentioned that I haven't been there and done. (sigh)

Most recently it has been my XA. Even with flash in XA case, it is just so small. I've often fretted I left it somewhere out, but I have always found it where I left it, but hadn't remembered leaving it there. In the car, in another camera bag, in the house in an unlikely place, you name it.

 

[JohnTF]

OK, this may hurt, but perhaps a new thread with folks who have put their gear down on top of the car while looking for their keys? ;-)

Regards, John

 

[cosmonaut]

I left a brand new EP-1 setting on a bench at a very crowded water park. By the time I noticed it gone a good couple of hours had passed. But I took off back across the park knowing it probably was gone and it was still there. I was shocked.

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?

 

[ELS]

SWEET Discovery...

SWEET Discovery...

I left a brand new EP-1 setting on a bench at a very crowded water park. By the time I noticed it gone a good couple of hours had passed. But I took off back across the park knowing it probably was gone and it was still there. I was shocked.

SWEET! 🙂 Glad it was there ! 😀

 

[Roger Hicks]

Your camera going on a pub crawl without you?

Uhh... Yeah. What? I dunno. OK, yes, another pint please. No: my round...

Cheers,

R.