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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
My camera bag almost caught fire!
Wally Nell, Photographer
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CAIRO and SAN DIEGO | CA | EGYPT and USA | Posted: 11:14 AM on 07.25.11 |
->> Weirdest thing happened to me on Saturday. I had my 300 2.8 in my camera bag, with the hood and large side pointing up, with the small side with the back lens cap on inside the bag. After about 30 minutes, I started smelling something burning but thought it had to be something in the environment. I had to change lenses about then but when I took my 300 out, there was smoke coming from the camera bag! So I looked and found the back lens cap had a hole burnt in it by the sun focusing through the lens! And there is a hole in my camera bag! My Thinktank is now a holy bag!
I always thought this was an urban legend that something like this could happen. I guess not. I guess by some fluke the lens was lined up correctly with the sun for a few minutes and this is what I got. I am so glad I did not have one of my camera bodies on the other side!
The lens is OK. The back element got a bit of condensation on it from the heat. I was thinking of cleaning this myself, but it kind of smeered a bit when I used a lens cloth. So, taking it to CPS today to see if they can clean it. Should be easy.
Who woulda thunk! |
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Michael Granse, Photographer
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Urbana | IL | USA | Posted: 11:54 AM on 07.25.11 |
->> It is the type of thing that would seem like an urban legend, but it does happen. In fact, there is a building in Las Vegas that is zorching innocent passersby with a "death ray" of focused sunlight. The shape of the building in addition to the materials used in the windows have combined to form a parabolic mirror. Here is a link to the story:
http://tinyurl.com/24pafer |
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Curtis Clegg, Photographer
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Sycamore | IL | USA | Posted: 12:36 PM on 07.25.11 |
->> I have a big melted spot on the front of my 550EX from years ago when I was using a Better Beamer (a Fresnel lens accessory) on a sunny day... it only took a few seconds to burn almost all the way through the housing; luckily, I noticed the smell before there was time to damage to the internal stuff.
Wally it's a good thing you didn't have a bag of unpopped popcorn in your bag! |
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Dianna Russell, Photographer
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Springfield | MO | USA | Posted: 1:21 PM on 07.25.11 |
->> Wow, Wally. You are lucky it didn't damage the lens.
I have a hole in my old Domke bag from one of the old Nikon D1 batteries coming into contact with metal from a key chain that was accidentally left in that pocket. I kept smelling something burning too and didn't realize until later what it was. |
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Jack Kurtz, Photographer
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Phoenix | AZ | United States | Posted: 2:26 PM on 07.25.11 |
| ->> I burnt a hole in the shutter of a Leica M2 back in the day because sunlight focused through the lens on the shutter. I couldn't figure out why all my photos had a weird mark in them. Sent it in for repair and the repair shop (DAG I think) told me what happened. Said it wasn't that wasn't that unusual with Leicas. |
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Sam Santilli, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Philippi | WV | USA | Posted: 3:02 PM on 07.25.11 |
->> Wally, is your 300 a druid? There was a special on NatGeo about Stonehedge and soltice sun rays. I know your lense was make in Japan, but yopu never know.
"Don't mess with Mother Nature" |
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Jason Myers, Photographer
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West Palm Beach | FL | USA | Posted: 3:25 PM on 07.25.11 |
| ->> Wally...photos! |
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Kevin Krows, Photographer
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Forsyth | IL | USA | Posted: 11:01 AM on 07.26.11 |
| ->> Guess I should cancel my photo shoot of the sun :). |
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Michael McAtee, Photographer
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Cherry Hill | NJ | USA | Posted: 8:30 AM on 07.27.11 |
| ->> I lost a SB800 while using a Better Beamer the light came through the fresnel and burned a hole right through the palctic and fried the insides....ouch |
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Jed Strahm, Photographer
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Phoenix | AZ | USA | Posted: 12:26 AM on 08.01.11 |
| ->> A little different situation involving fire in my camera bag, I had one of the wire ball chains that used to come with the credentials in the side pocket of my bag and one of my 1d battery caps came off and made a nice arc across the two leads and burnt a whole through the bottom of my bag and destroyed the battery. I now gaffer tape on the battery caps. Lesson learned. |
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Baron Sekiya, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Hilo | HI | USA | Posted: 2:25 AM on 08.01.11 |
| ->> I've got three burn areas on my Canon 60D LCD screen because I've been careless with my Zacuto eyepiece attached. It focused the sun onto the LCD screen blitzing the LCD layer. Zacuto supplies an eyepiece cover with their finders but I lost one of them. |
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John Bowersmith, Photographer
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Lubbock | Tx | USA | Posted: 12:48 AM on 08.07.11 |
| ->> Jack is right. One of the big reasons Leica stopped using cloth shutters is because of burning. |
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Steve Ueckert, Photographer
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Houston | TX | | Posted: 9:39 AM on 08.07.11 |
->> It is possible to buy a newly manufactured, still in the catalog, Leica MP with a cloth shutter essentially the same as a M3 from 1954. The MP is supposed to be the ultimate refinement of the film M Leica.
The digital Leica M cameras have metal shutters. |
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