I think a few of you have been keeping up on my camera issues the past few months. It started when my trusty Sony F717 CCD sensor blew. Turns out it was a recall issue so off it went to Texas to be rebuilt. In the mean time, I thought it would be a good idea to get a new camera capable of near full page magazine photos ... i.e. 10 megapixels. I first bought the Sony R1 only to find it had a very bad maccro setting. Next came a Canon Rebel XTI which I thought was a bit fuzzy so i exchanged it. After a little poking around and adjusting some settings in addition to sharpening the images on my computer, I finally got the sharp contrasty images I needed for my magazine shots. I got all sorts of accessories including new tripod, maccro lense CF card, and camera backpack. Well on my way to work today, i grapped my backpack from the car, eager to review my new photos at work. Well somehow the backpack worked its way loose and the brand new Rebel fell out and onto concrete.... followed immediatly by the maccro lense. Yep, I just dropped $1500 of camera equiptment on the ground. I flew into the station and sat down. After a few minutes i calmed down enough to assess the damage. The pop-up flash had a bad scratch. Thats it. Both lenses tested fine, and all functions worked correctly. Looks like i dodged a very expensive bullet. I am now keeping the zippers togeather with a clip. What a tough little camera this has turned out to be.
Wow! and Phew! Glad to hear that your new equipment survived. I had a 'slam on the brakes' event not long ago that sent my Nikon D50 into the firewall. It survived as well. These digital machines are quite amazing. :teeth:
I once left my N60 behind my car seat in my truck. On moving the seat back after my wife had driven, I managed to crunch the camera such that something in the inner workings was no longer true. The problem was in the film advance, so a digital may not have the same problems, but I'd have it looked over anyway if I were you. The repair on my stupid mistake was $200, half the price of the camera and lense and a rather lengthy trip to Japan for the poor thing.
It's probably fine. Something may wiggle loose later as a result but it seems to have survived in the mean time. I wouldn't call this a testament to the "durability" of consumer DSLRs, however. I'd much rather have a solid metal SLR, digital or film, any day. I've dropped plenty of stuff, from my "cheap" FM-10 to my "brick" FE and a good number of lenses, too. I think the worst that ever happened was a scratch or two on the base plate or the lens hood. (That right there is a testament to having a metal lens, with metal threads, and a metal hood. I'm sure any plastic lens would've cracked had it landed face down.) Besides, you never know when you'll have to bash your way out of a street brawl with it...
I dropped my older Casio EX-S2, two megapixel, no macro, 3 x 5 card size digital camera into the toilet. Rats! :angry: Submerged for about two seconds. I quickly opened it and took the battery and the memory card out. I let it dry for 24 hours; didn't work. I let it dry for another 24 hours; works fine. :giggle7yc: I think I was lucky by powering it up too soon at 24 hours. In the future, better to let it dry 3-4 days before adding the batteries again. Or maybe using a hot hair dryer to clear the water?
I have a Kodak Z7590. 3 weeks after we got it we took a trip to Guam. Sat it on the counter at a hotel and knocked it off right on to the tile floor. (of course hotel counters must be 4ft high) I was SOOOOO mad I could spit!!! Picked it up, only a little chip on the outside of the lense housing. Doesn't bother at all. Great camera!!!! 8 lives to go
I've dropped so many cameras in the last 40 years that I've stopped counting. The worst was not a drop, but a ramming. I was following a herd of protestors down a stairway in 1970 with an Arriflex 16mm movie camera on my shoulder. Yes, we used film cameras for TV news in those days. I forgot to duck. The 400-foot magazine (10 minutes of film) was above my head. The magazine rammed the header under the stairs and broke off. I ended up on my butt on the floor. $2000 1970 dollars, and a badly bruised tailbone. I switched to an Eclair 16mm camera--low-slung, with the magazine behind my shoulder--shortly thereafter. Someone knocked my trusty Nikon F out a third-floor window in 1972. It landed on grass--no damage but a cosmetic dent on the pentaprism. A few years ago, my wife's Nikon N90 was dropped on a concrete runway by a porter. No damage to the camera, but the mounting flange of a cheap Quantaray lens just disintegrated. I bought her a Nikon lens. I dropped it in Alaska in 2003--no damage. You get what you pay for. I've found the Nikon D70 is not good in foul weather, while the older D100 is OK. The trusty Nikon F from 1968 is bullet-proof; we've retired the N90 except for special circumstances.
After using a prosumer point and shoot, I am amazed at how robust these cameras are. I'm glad i'm not alone with the butter fingers.
I have had a Canon S2 IS for a little over a year. I always use the neck strap on it - I am really paranoid about dropping it because I can have real butter fingers some days. I later bought a lowepro bag and I keep it in there if I am not shooting. That turned out to be a good investment. I have had the bag come off the front passenger seat during a sudden stop and the camera is no worse for the wear. It also fit the lens extender I got for it and spare batteries and so on. The only thing I really need to worry about is walking into something with the camera around my neck. I am happy with the setup and I am going to keep an eye out for the next iteration of this series this coming year. I hope I can afford a Canon XTi in 07 or 08.
Ah, it was in New Hampshire in the spring. The grass was soft. If you're trying to make a living as a news photographer, a camera is a tool, whether it be a SLR or an expensive 16mm movie camera. The Arriflex was $16K in 1970; the Eclair about $20K in 1972. That was big bucks, but you could make it back in a few weeks with good assignments, and persistence in marketing yourself. Good equipment is essential once you commit yourself. Persistence is probably more important than equipment, but that's another topic. You have to deliver, and good equipment makes it easier. There is simply no excuse if you are under contract for the big guys. My camera malfunctioned is not an excuse, because you should have had multiple backups. Having a backup--whether it was a camera or an operator or simply a remote radio switch--saved my butt a few times. Example: I was there for Snooks Kelley's 500th win as BC's hockey coach. BC was not expected to win this game. In the middle of the game, I had a crippling migraine. I turned the camera over to a backup operator, a student intern at BC, and told him to save five minutes of film in case BC won. Somehow I drovbe home. BC won that game, and my student captured some of the most heart-rending footage after the game. Always have a backup! Buy the best equipment you can afford--you might be surprised at the return.
While I have not dropped my still camera, my trade mark with video is the old, Kick the tripod and watch it go boom" trick. I'm on my second digital cam corder, and it still works but looks like a battle worn WWII fighter aircraft.
Well a few years ago, right after I bought a Canon Rebal SLR, I was shooting trains and in a hurry, forgot I sat it on the top of my truck while I made a few quick notes about the train that I just shot. Hoped in and drove off only to hear something slide over the roof and saw a quick black flash out of the side of my mirror, and knew right off what it was. Well needless to say the only thing that saved the body was the lens. When it hit the ground at about 25 mph, it landed on the lens and busted it up and only a few minor scratches to the body. Well good thing my birthday was around the corner so a new lens was on the way. Never had it looked at as it worked fine when the new lens got here and still going strong. So as a note to the note-takers, place your camera in the vehicle then take the notes. Could have been a very costly mistake. Only turned out to be about $60 for me.
My wife dropped my digital rebel a few weeks back and it broke the latch on the battery door. Camera seemed to work fine when I tested it but I had to hold the battery in pplace with my hand. It's out for repairs now.
