Worst camera demise stories?

[sepiareverb]

Another recent thread has asked about the durability of Leica M's- and several of us have posted 'asides' about other cameras having bit the dust in spectacular or horrific ways- or things that the camera could take without harm.

so...

My assistant tipped over a tripod with his very nice FM2 on it. Lens was fine, prism & mirror were fine, but the rewind knob wasn't able to move at all. We were working in a place with a machine shop, so we went over to the bench and tried all manner of tools to yank up that knob, finally got the camera open, and the shutter worked, the wind went fine, but no way to rewind as that knob was just stuck. He started looking for another body.

I was quite thankful it was his body & lens, but I still wonder how my F4 would have fared. Better I think.

 

[foto_fool]

Years ago I, my dad, brother and a couple friends were stranded in a small boat in the Gulf of Mexico. The Coast Guard towed us in, but the tow rope was tied a little high and we watched as our boat plowed through and under the waves for an hour. My dad's Contax III/Sonnar was stowed, but soaked when we recovered it. Total immersion in seawater is not good for vintage camera gear.

- John

 

[biomed]

Back in 1971 I was travelling by motorcycle through South Carolina on my way to South Dakota. One night I hit a raised edge of asphalt paving and flipped my bike. It flew over me and was in the air for about 60 or 70 feet along with my camera gear. When it touched down it slid along the highway with my SRT-101 beneath it. After picking up everything I noticed that the about 25% of the front of the lens barrel was ground away along with a portion of the front element of the 50mm that was mounted on the camera. The lens and camera were still functional, although the lens only saw about 3/4 of what it used to. I used that body for several more years after the accident with no problems (with different lenses). It fared much better than I - had a terrible case of road rash, a badly broken wrist and a very stiff and sore body. I later sold that kit and bought a Mamiya RB67, but that's another story.

 

[ChrisPlatt]

On eBay I once saw a Nikon FM that had been dredged up from the
bottom of a lake. It appeared to have been there quite some time.

Chris

 

[jobo]

Had a disposable camera in my jacket pocket once way back (like 20 years). Leaned out a bit too far over a stream, and it promptly fell out, merrily bobbing downstream towards the lake. As it was a Kodak, the contrast between the yellow box and the dark water made it easy to follow...

 

[sepiareverb]

Back in 1971 I was travelling by motorcycle through South Carolina on my way to South Dakota. One night I hit a raised edge of asphalt paving and flipped my bike. It flew over me and was in the air for about 60 or 70 feet along with my camera gear. When it touched down it slid along the highway with my SRT-101 beneath it. After picking up everything I noticed that the about 25% of the front of the lens barrel was ground away along with a portion of the front element of the 50mm that was mounted on the camera. The lens and camera were still functional, although the lens only saw about 3/4 of what it used to. I used that body for several more years after the accident with no problems (with different lenses). It fared much better than I - had a terrible case of road rash, a badly broken wrist and a very stiff and sore body. I later sold that kit and bought a Mamiya RB67, but that's another story.

Wow! But that didn't kill it!!
Those old Minoltas are about as bulletproof as anything ain't they?

Interestingly, my assistant went back to his trusty old SRT after his Nikon topple.

 

[jmilkins]

the sticky end to my first GR1s

the sticky end to my first GR1s

I took my brand new, first roll of film, Ricoh GR1s to a picnic. I was running late when it was time to go, and one of my friends "helped" by packing my camera in a plastic bag with an open 2 litre bottle of pineapple juice.

Getting home I noticed the bag full of juice and tipped it out into the sink...along with the submerged camera, cracking the LCD....I opened the camera and small wave of juice flowed out.

Let's see ...$768/ 14 pineapple juice developed photos/ dead camera. Not good economy. :bang: 😡

 

[DavidH]

A couple of years ago we were filming baboons in South Africa...on a rocky peak in the bush. A baboon threw the presenter's Nikon off the top while he was talking to camera. We found it an hour or so later, 40 feet or so further down among the rocks - it had bounced a couple of times on the way down. It still worked! But the memory card was nowhere to be found...

 

[burninfilm]

Yes, I'd agree that the Minolta SRT101's are very durable cameras. My father used one for many years, that he bought new in the early 70's. Several years later, his house was hit by a large tornado, destroying the house and causing lots of damage in the general area. A day or two later, he found the Minolta SRT101 laying in his yard amongst the debris/wreckage from the storm. The camera didn't fare too well cosmetically, but it still worked. He also still has the Rokkor 50mm f1.7 lens that was attached to it, and it still works perfectly even today.

On an added note, I must say I'm highly impressed with what Nikon F's seem to be able to hold up to. I used to have a very early Nikon F (64005XX) which was covered in dents, and ,in fact, I had a repair receipt from 1971 describing the camera as "rough". Fast forward about 35 years later, and with 20 years of storage in a humid basement, the camera was still working (though needed a CLA). On top of that, the camera was used professionally (along with two other early Nikon F's) to photograph NFL football games in the 1960's, 1970's, and 1980's (including a few Super Bowls). Most likely, the damage was aquired while the photographer ran down the sidelines with the 3 Nikons (maybe more), all of them slamming into each other along the way. I'm sure you care much less about cameras when you have about 1000 pounds of human muscle tumbling towards you (something Winogrand discovered the hard way)! Amazing that a camera could take so much abuse and just need a quick trip to a service tech for some minor maintenance.

And the other two Nikon F's? They required nothing after they were recovered from the basement, even with the dents, scratches, and terrible storage. In fact, I still use one of them fairly often, and the other one is being used fairly often by a photographer in New York.

 

[winoto]

my first newly bought FM2 in its maiden voyage photographing the rocks of Maroubra bridge (Australia) fell encased in the tamrac waist bag. i was leaping from one rock to another when my leading leg unclipped the waistbuckle of the camera bag just in time for me to watch the camera in the bag drop 3 meters into a crevice whilst i landed safely on the other side. shutter dial needed repair and it now has few nice dings on the prism as a bitter reminder. needless to say, i now have a harness camera bag which clips just in front of my chest for such outings.

 

[payasam]

At the start of the 1970s I was one of a bunch of three or four taking pictures of an army tank's public trials. Chap from a newspaper dropped his Nikon F and it came under one of the tracks. He'd studied metallurgy, he said over rum later in the mess, and had always thought that metals and glass could not be alloyed.

 

[sepiareverb]

Some great ones! keep 'em coming! any pictures?

 

[oftheherd]

My first TLR was a Yashica 124 MAT G. I loved that camera. One day at a mountain resort in Korea, I stopped and sat down on a rock to change film the camera. The Yashica MAT slipped from my lab and landed on its side on another smaler rock in front of me. The wind lever never rotated all the way past the dented area after that, but since it ratcheted, I still had enough movement to wind to the next frame and cock the shutter. Made me feel real bad since I loved that camera. Before I could find a way to get it fixed, it was stolen from my car. Some slicky boy didn't get as much as he thought from that one.

As an aside, we used to say that the Korean slicky (stealer) boys were the stealthest in the world. They could steal your radio and leave the music. 😀 😀

Although I still sometime wish I had a 124 MAT, an acquaintance of my talked me into a Super Press 23. A love affair that has gone on for over 30 years.

 

[Ken Ford]

I had a Nikon F3 get stomped at a HS basketball game - I was working the sidelines.

While I was shooting far court with another F3 w/180, the body that had the 85 was lying on its back between my knees. A big kid got knocked way out of bounds - crunch. He pushed the lens mount in about an inch.

NPS installed a new mirror box.

 

[Magus]

Post deleted by posters request

 

[sepiareverb]

I had a Nikon F3 get stomped at a HS basketball game - I was working the sidelines.

While I was shooting far court with another F3 w/180, the body that had the 85 was lying on its back between my knees. A big kid got knocked way out of bounds - crunch. He pushed the lens mount in about an inch.

NPS installed a new mirror box.

Ouch.

I've not seen many cameras dented as much as a few of these stories- guess I've been lucky with my stuff!

 

[dostacos]

before I found this site OR rangefinders in general we got my father in laws Leica, I was thinking a M2 or so, it was a III of some flavor so I kind of ignored it, and my wife has packed it away SOMEWHERE that we cannot find!!!!!

 

[mattmills]

I was in mexico, shooting turtles nesting with a pair of d200s. We were riding along the beach on ATV's that night, and at about three AM we got to the end and started to head back, and the drivers of the ATV's (there were two of them) started racing, for fun. I was hanging of the ocean side of the back of one. i look at the spedometer- 50MPH. And out of nowhere, there's a little tidewater, about 6 inches of water. The driver hits the breaks, but far too late, and we all go in the water. ATV lands on me, I land on my camera bag in the water. The D200's are toast, as are all of the lenses I had with them in my bag. I was fine, just had a bruise on my hip.

 

[erikhaugsby]

I was in mexico, shooting turtles nesting with a pair of d200s. We were riding along the beach on ATV's that night, and at about three AM we got to the end and started to head back, and the drivers of the ATV's (there were two of them) started racing, for fun. I was hanging of the ocean side of the back of one. i look at the spedometer- 50MPH. And out of nowhere, there's a little tidewater, about 6 inches of water. The driver hits the breaks, but far too late, and we all go in the water. ATV lands on me, I land on my camera bag in the water. The D200's are toast, as are all of the lenses I had with them in my bag. I was fine, just had a bruise on my hip.

I suppose if I was on pnet I could say that since it was digital the D200 had it coming, but then I might get shot.

The worst damage I've done to my 20D was knock it off of a tripod from ~5 feet. The sound that came from the floor was utterly sickening, espeically since I had bought the camera only a few weeks earlier.
That was two years ago, and its still working fine for me.

 

[flipflop]

Matt,
Did you have insurance on that gear? Thats an expensive crash...