anything bad ever happen to your camera?

[Spangletron]

In May of every year, I go to Florida (or wherever our concept takes us, usually Florida) on a 2 week photo shoot for a large sport boat manufacturer. I'm a graphic designer, so I'm mostly there just to art-direct, but the photographers have started letting me shoot as well, which I LOVE! And this year, with my 2 week old D300, I couldn't wait. These shoots consist of a group of guys from a very cool northern Michigan climate pulling 18 hour days for 2 weeks in the Florida sun. It's incredibly taxing, but incredibly fun.

This year my job was to detail photograph each boat in the company's line-up, which is the job the real photographers don't want to do, but for me it's such excellent experience that I was ecstatic to do it. Basically I need to shoot a product shot of every single part of every boat in the lineup.

About midway through the shoot, I was working with a model, shooting seating from the dock underneath a large silk. As she climbed off the dock onto the boat, she placed her incredibly high priced Fendi Sunglasses by my feet and got ready to be photographed reclining in the luxurious aqua-flex vinyl lounge seat. Naturally, my next move was to knock the expensive (I could have bought a new lens for the price of them) sunglasses into the murky marina.

"Oh no!" she yelled. "Those are my expensive Fendi sunglasses!" or something to that effect. Well, being very attractive, as most bikini/boat models tend to be, and me being fairly typically male, I said, "Don't worry. I'll climb into the murky marina and retrieve the expensive sunglasses."

So I climbed in, skewered my hand on barnacles, felt around in the smelly, boat-fuel-charged muddy, clammy, water until, by some stroke of luck, I actually found the glasses. What I haven't mentioned is that I also took with me, in my pocket, two 4GB memory cards, both luckily empty. When I got back to the dock, I realized that I had completely submerged the two cards - VERY annoying. I went back to my hotel room, changed clothes and laid the cards out, with hope that they would dry...

In case you're wondering, you should let memory cards dry far longer than you think you need to, should you get them wet. The next day, I was in need of a card, and the two wet ones didn't seem wet anymore. They were...

After placing one of the cards into my new D300, some odd things started to happen. First, the camera wouldn't focus. Then, a few seconds later, the LCD wouldn't turn off. After that, things went down hill as I watched the camera fry in slow motion. Suddenly the camera wouldn't turn off. I fired the shutter and it stayed open. Then it beeped and died for good. For the next 2 hours, when I should have been shooting, I found myself on the phone with Nikon. Nothing we tried would bring my baby back to life, take the lens off, put the lens on, remove the battery, put the grip on, and on and on... Finally, one of the photographers on the shoot suggested I give Calumet, where I bought the camera, a call. I have never been so distraught in my life! Calumet, bless them, sent me a brand new D300 before the end of the shoot. In the meantime, one of the photographers let me borrow his back-up Fuji S-something. It made me LOVE LOVE LOVE my Nikon so much. The end.

[dj.bader]

Last summer I switched lenses in the middle of a shoot and put my 17-40mm L series lens inside my camera bag that was lying on a park bench. I though that I had done up the zippers but when I picked up the bag my favorite lens rolled out of the top, bounce off of the bench and landed glass down on the sidewalk. When I reached down and picked it up and all I heard was the sound of glass... Broken glass!
When I popped off the lens cap there was nothing but shattered glass. I turned it upside down over a garbage pail and dumped out the broken stuff and then I saw that it was just my UV filter that had broken.
It took about an hour of cleaning but after I got all the glass out of it, the lens worked like new. I still feel that ugly feeling in the bottom of my stomach everytime I think of it but I replaced the UV filter before using that lens again and it never leaves the lens.

Please everyone, get those lenses protected. Even the most expensive filter is cheaper than replacing a lens.

[Nu2This]

I had my trusty Canon point and shoot and was playing around doing camera tosses. First one is the hardest to let go of. Ha. I'm not sure where I read about that "scary' technique but I was game to try it. I'm not sure I would have tried it if I had a dslr...have to think on that one. The pics turned out really well I thought. Very different anyway. Except for one. I got a lovely shot of the grass about a foot before the camera lens hit the ground. Ouch!! Needless to say it ended up in the repair shop. :-( I have a few on flickr if anyone's interested.

No, I haven't done it since.

[MOo_MOo]

I put my camera on the bumper bar and forgot about it...we were out bush and drove down a very bumpy road and then I realised I didn't have it so we drove back to where we were...on the way I found it. It actually stayed on for quite some time..and luckily was my first digital and only cost $600 but I was without a camera for about three months whilst saving again!

[MOo_MOo]

Originally Posted by Nu2This

I had my trusty Canon point and shoot and was playing around doing camera tosses. First one is the hardest to let go of. Ha. I'm not sure where I read about that "scary' technique but I was game to try it. I'm not sure I would have tried it if I had a dslr...have to think on that one. The pics turned out really well I thought. Very different anyway. Except for one. I got a lovely shot of the grass about a foot before the camera lens hit the ground. Ouch!! Needless to say it ended up in the repair shop. :-( I have a few on flickr if anyone's interested.

No, I haven't done it since.

This sounds cool...may have to invest in a cheapie!

[jamesandype]

These stories makes me more careful now!

I luckily haven't experienced any troubles or problems with my SLR yet (touch wood!) but I know one day it will...

I've only had one bad incident when I was about 8-9 years old. I was given my first film camera as a fun thing to do on a vacation. Surely enough the first few days I was snapping away. Before we got on the road again my dad sent us all to the bathroom so we wouldn't stop every few minutes. I put the camera in my front pocket and as I unzipped the camera fell out and landed in the toilet bowl ... freaked out and fished it out and gave it to my dad who was waiting outside.

I was so gutted

[OsmosisStudios]

I never letmy mother near my SLR since she tried to force the pop-up flash open (instead of using the electronic release) and tried to PULL my grip out of the camera "to see how it was attached".

[jimindenver]

Now that I think of it, I'm lucky my gear works at all. lol

I've had a camera drop off of a lens mounted to a tripod to a dirt road, now I tether them together.

I was wading through the surf to get on a boat for whale watching when a guide thought my camera bag was full of towels and decided to shot put it into the boat, it took two other guides to hold me off as he ran back up to the beach. (no damage)

My brother in law picked up my bag to see how heavy it was and then dropped it from a few inches, no damage.

I was changing lenses and had one in my lap, it dropped to the steel deck of the boat, slight ding.

I was touring some mangrove swamps when the boat driver started to tilt the boat as much as possible to scare the tourist, I had two set ups, one wide and one for tele sitting between my legs. He tilted so much that I had to adjust my position and the whole thing dropped to the bottom of the boat. He didn't speak English, but in a few seconds, he understood to slow down and stop messing around. Scuff to hood.

The last one is when we were broadsided while I was holding the gear. It flew out of my hand and bounced around the truck. I picked it up and took shots of the accident.

Like I said it's amazing my gear works at all.