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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
How rough are you on your equipment?
Dianna Russell, Photographer
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Daniel Berman, Student/Intern, Photographer
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Seattle | WA | US | Posted: 2:40 AM on 04.09.11 |
| ->> Never gotten a camera that dirtied up but I have definitely dropped a few pieces of gear over the years. It happens. You move too quick, a bag moves the wrong way -- you grab your camera by the lens and hit the lens release button on your D2H with your knuckle. It happens. Whatever it takes to get the picture though, in any event... |
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Kent Nishimura, Student/Intern, Photographer
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Honolulu | HI | USA | Posted: 6:27 AM on 04.09.11 |
->> Timothy Allen's gear got pretty dirty while shooting the BBC/Discovery show "Human Planet"
http://humanplanet.com/timothyallen/about/
The first week of my first internship i was shooting some weather art (south shore swell coming in) on Oahu's South Shore and a freak wave crashed up against the portion of the wall i was standing on and sea water drenched myself, as well as the Nikkor 400 + D2x's and 70-200 that I was using. Salt water is not fun! |
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Stew Milne, Photographer
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Providence | RI | USA | Posted: 8:17 AM on 04.09.11 |
->> Why would you do that to your camera? After reading the photogs post on how it happened, I wondered why he didn't protect his gear better. So he had to crawl in the mud to get to his blind. I would have wrapped up the camera in a bag, an extra shirt, almost anything, to protect it on it's journey through the mud.
For myself, I'm pretty nice to my equipment. I was using a 15 year old lens until just recently. Treat your gear well and it will be around awhile. Unless Canon makes it obsolete by making it not focus with their new cameras. ;) |
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Alan Look, Photographer
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Bloomington/Normal | IL | United States | Posted: 8:47 AM on 04.09.11 |
->> 30+ years ago I dropped an almost new canon body with a 50mm attached about 2ft to a concrete floor. It barely scratched the body but broke 3 internal meter connections. I've been shooting Canon ever since.
Ok, apples to apples... all that camera had in it was a meter. No auto frame advance, no AF and needless to say it wasn't digital. I do still have the camera and it is still in working condition and other than the scratch in mint condition. |
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Angus Mordant, Student/Intern
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Sydney | NSW Australia | Australia | Posted: 9:31 AM on 04.09.11 |
->> I dropped my 1D MkII with an old Canon 17-35L on it down a roughly 2 meter (~6.6 feet) drop on to concrete. It landed on the lens cracking a fair bit of the internal plastic parts and obviously stopping the Auto Focus but not glass was hurt and the camera body was fine, checked out by Canon and I am still using it today as a back up/remote camera, Not a single scratch on the body from that instance either.
Other then that I try to treat my gear as well as I can without going too far out of my way for it. Pretty much I will shoot in light rain etc with it uncovered and never had an issue, even in a few fairly heavy rain storms without a cover handy. |
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Mark Peters, Photographer
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Highland | IL | USA | Posted: 9:35 AM on 04.09.11 |
->> Saw this on Miranda a while back - I have no way to vouch for its authenticity.
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/845602
Canon Rebel XT, 3000 ft. fall (skydiving, mounting plate gave way)- reported to be still functioning. Read through to page 4 and 5 for the physics discussion between the doubters and the believers (if you're really bored). |
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Mark Peters, Photographer
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Jeroen de Jong, Photographer
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Waalwijk | _ | Netherlands | Posted: 9:56 AM on 04.09.11 |
->> Forces on equipment are so depending on several values.
I work at a center where I'm responsible for high-speed recordings of, most of all, crash testing with cars.
We work with camera's that will survive a crash with an impact of 100g.
But what's 100g? Yes it's a lot of time the normal gravity. But saying that 100g will kill you, is depending on several things. The duration of the force, the size of where the force is applied (a finger tip or a complete body makes a difference) and the time (1/10 of a milisecond has different results than for 3 miliseconds)
I've seen things gone broke with lower g's than 50. I have seen forces applied that would kill you before you realise (if you react in 0.2 seconds, all your internal organs can allready be ripped to pieces) and camera's survived such forces
If I read the storys above, in some stories the guy is lucky, in some he isn't.
I'm a guy who paid for his own stuff (when freelancing) and I'm treating it as normal tools; they have to do the job, but taking care of your tools give the most out of it. I don't swing a 300/400mm on a monopod over my shoulder. I don't go swimming with my camera's (without extra protection for the camera)
Nothing will hapen in 9 of the 10 times, but that one time it goes wrong; I could not forgive myself |
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Doug Pizac, Photographer
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Sandy | UT | USA | Posted: 10:13 AM on 04.09.11 |
->> 30+ years ago during one of my summer internships at National Geographic a Nikon F camera and wide angle lens came into the repair shop after being dropped from a hot air balloon from several hundred feet. It had to be dug out of the ground with a shovel. The techs cleaned it up and that was that. Everything worked fined.
Those cameras and the F2 could be thrown and bounced off walls and they still worked. Several years later I was having lunch with a friend who showed off a brand new Nikon N8008 he just got. It was on the edge of the table and he accidently knock it off. The two and a half foot fall turned the camera into a paper weight.
I still have and occassionally use my Nikon F and F2 cameras. Their shutters have never had to be replaced and they're still accurate. When I was with AP and shooting Canon, the Mark II shutter blades broke down about every 18 months.
Cameras today are precision instruments what with all the electronics, auto focus beam splitting, etc. The old film cameras were like AK-47s -- clunky, but worked no matter what. |
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Mark Loundy, Photo Editor
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San Jose | CA | USA | Posted: 10:39 AM on 04.09.11 |
->> I think we all know that dropping one's camera is a bad idea. Having a camera survive a rough encounter with physics is unusual enough to merit an anecdote. Dropping a camera and having it break is merely to be expected.
--Mark |
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Max Waugh, Photographer
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Bothell | WA | USA | Posted: 11:49 AM on 04.09.11 |
->> As with some of the examples above, I've done most of my damage while traveling and/or shooting wildlife. My first insurance claim came about when a wave crashed over me while kayaking in New Zealand. My 100-400 has been repaired twice after drops in Yellowstone (clambering over rocks to shoot bighorn sheep) and Argentina (wife was carrying it and slipped on the stairs). I've lost memory cards crossing a river in Costa Rica and got caught in a rainstorm later that trip which knocked my bodies of out commission for a while. The rain covers on my ThinkTank Skin pouches didn't provide enough protection in that case. Oh, and my Gitzo CF tripod cracked and broke in -40 temps in Yellowstone this winter.
Plus, I managed to drop a body and big lens on the track right before a football game. For which I ended up in Fun Pix. :)
I learned early on to stop filing claims after every incident and I make the most out of my CPS membership instead. |
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Dianna Russell, Photographer
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Springfield | MO | USA | Posted: 2:15 PM on 04.09.11 |
| ->> Stew, I agree. I would have had that camera wrapped in plastic or something. I take care of my equipment and it hurts to look at some of those photos. I enjoy reading your interesting stories. |
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Israel Shirk, Photographer, Assistant
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Boise | ID | US | Posted: 7:44 PM on 04.09.11 |
| ->> I like to rough it up every once in a while. Just to show it who's boss. |
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Yamil Sued, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Peoria | AZ | USA | Posted: 8:52 PM on 04.09.11 |
->> Mike, that is how I got my D3 and my 70-200 VRII last July. Bad enough that Nikon USA gave ma a brand new lens and a Brand New D3s.
I agree with Stew too, when I shoot at the World Speed Shooting Championships in Piru, CA, that place is like walking on Brown Talcum Powder, I put my gear on Op-Tech Rain Sleeves and blow and wipe my gear every night, it is MY gear, I must take care of it, so it takes care of me. |
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Mark J. Terrill, Photographer
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David Welker, Photographer, Student/Intern
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Springfield | MO | USA | Posted: 11:01 PM on 04.09.11 |
->> Mark,
Do you have any shots of it mounted on the bull? The shot from the "steer cam" is really great. |
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Dianna Russell, Photographer
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Springfield | MO | USA | Posted: 11:31 PM on 04.09.11 |
| ->> Mark, I like the shot from the steer. But it makes me want to get a gopro. Definitely cheaper than destroying a Nikon. |
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Mark J. Terrill, Photographer
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Simi Valley | CA | USA | Posted: 5:39 AM on 04.10.11 |
->> David,
Here is a picture taken by Ronal Taniwaki from Nikon. http://www.sportsshooter.com/mjterrill/bullcam/ This was at the running of the bulls in Mesquite, Nevada around 1999. As you can see, we saddled the bull and mounted the camera to that. We put the bull in a trailer to take him to the start of the race and as soon as he got in there, he bucked and badly damaged the camera. We tried again with another camera and the same thing happened. On the third time, we tried to walk him to the start, but bulls don't have the same smooth gait that horses do and he shook it off after about 200 feet. It was fun to try, though. I plan on doing it again someday with a better rig. |
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Stew Milne, Photographer
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Providence | RI | USA | Posted: 9:51 AM on 04.10.11 |
->> Mark, those were AP cameras, right? any photos of the damaged cameras?
I wonder what the insurance company would say on that? "You tried to mount a camera on an enraged bull? I don't think your policy covers that." |
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Mark J. Terrill, Photographer
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Simi Valley | CA | USA | Posted: 3:56 PM on 04.10.11 |
->> Stew,
The AP is self insured. Some of the cameras belonged to Nikon. You think the bull was enraged? You should have seen Ron after one of his cameras hit the ceiling of the trailer. (-: |
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Josh Holmberg, Photographer
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Las Vegas | NV | USA | Posted: 3:01 AM on 04.11.11 |
| ->> yes, MK II's shutter needs replacing all the time.......18 mo. is an accurate statement..........however I have a Canon T90 (AKA the Tank) and that thing is indestructible.....frickin awesome still after all of these years..........the old adage, "they just don't make them like they used to" applies here |
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Brian Dowling, Photographer
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Philipp Schmidli, Photographer
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Stew Milne, Photographer
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Providence | RI | USA | Posted: 5:17 PM on 04.11.11 |
->> Wow Philipp. Nice work. Did you light the caves with strobes?
I still would have put a bag or some other protection around the body and lens. That's just me though. |
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Philipp Schmidli, Photographer
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Lucerne | LU | Switzerland | Posted: 6:34 PM on 04.11.11 |
| ->> Stew, no, i don't used strobes in the caves. We crawled a lot in the caves and i had no room in my bags for strobes. It was very tight there. |
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Mike Huffstatler, Photographer, Assistant
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Rancho Cucamonga | Ca | United States | Posted: 12:04 AM on 04.12.11 |
| ->> Note to self: review this thread before purchasing hardware here! :) |
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Alex Boyce, Photographer
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Florence | EU | Italy | Posted: 2:03 PM on 04.12.11 |
| ->> i destroyed a 15mm canon fish eye on an onboard motocycle shoot, that lens is good but the front element fell out as i is weakly connected.....ohwell 700 euro downdrain.... |
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