Canon F-1N AE, about 15 years ago to the floor from about knee height. The AE finder got dented and needed few new parts etc. Same era, tripped a tripod over with a Vivitar 400mm and A-1 with motor. Lens still worked. The motor's grip however got separated from the battery department. Can't remember costs for these, but F1 repair was covered by insurance for the most part.
1Ds2 and 24L to a lake almost a year ago. Err99 etc nice stuff resulted, luckily after a shop dried and cleaned them they have been working fine. This was taken care by insurance, so cost was about 200usd.
Back in the day when the 550EX speedlight was the shiz-nit, I had it mounted to my 10D inside my shoulder bag (waaay stupid). I was walking out my front door (heading to a shoot!) when the bag caught on the door frame and slipped off my shoulder, hitting the ground with a very painful *CRACK*. I opened up the bag and my brand new flash had snapped in half from the base with wires spilling out. Seems like is was around $100 bucks to fix it. Ouch.
I had a Pocket wizard and a sigma SuperDG flash take a dive off of a 12' speaker shooting a show once, the only thing that broke was the little stand that comes with the flash. (where can I buy those things?) I guess it must've landed on the stand? I almost broke down and started to cry right in the middle of the crowd when I saw it fall (gaffer tape and all) s'all good tho. Other than that I dropped a lens in highschool once (wasn't my lens) and the Kit lens that came with my XT that I don't use anymore. Nothing too bad I guess. *knock knock knock* (that's me knocking on my wood desk!
Finished a shoot in Tampa Bay with cameras and stuff spread all over the boat when the boat jockey decided to see what it would do getting back to happy hour.
A small open boat with a very large motor.
A small open boat that wanted to go through waves, not over them.
Cost the client 4 Nikon bodies, a meter and some visible bottom line lens cleaning.
Trout Guy wrote:
My wife was shooting a 30D w/100-400L IS attached; she slipped down the bank to the river and everything bounced down a set of stairs built out of railroad cross ties. Body was fine but the lens wouldn't AF.
Glad her body was fine; sorry the gear got busted.
Tipped over a 1DmkII/70-200/2.8L with 580ex (face of lens hood on the floor - standing on lens) and snapped the foot off of the 580ex. Learned how easy it was to replace, now have a spare foot in my bag.
Dropped a 50/1.8 from 5 feet and it popped the front out. Popped back in but AF never worked again.
1st 17-40 I owned came out of the top of backpack and dropped to asphalt from 5 ft. Landed on filter. Nothing broken, functioned perfectly afterwards. Slight ding to filter ring.
But the worst I've personally seen - belongs to a good friend, (can't find the pic of it right now).... He tripped and drove a 500/4.5L attached to a 1DmkII into the ground, literally peeling the lens mount away from the face of the body, with all sorts of electronic goodies hanging out. The body would power up and the LCD worked, but it was "not economical to repair" and is now a paperweight. The lens dismounted and continues to work flawlessly today - never sent in.
BenV wrote:
I remember not too long ago somebody dropped a 1d (mark 2?) and a 400 f/2.8 into the everglades.
If it's the one I'm thinking about it was a 600mm. It was mounted to the 1d on a monopod, the monopod head snapped, the two hit the cement, seperated, 600mm went into the alligator swamp exhibit, divers recovered it but it was toast
About the only thing I've ever done to my lenses or cameras is a slight scuff on the body. My 70-200 f/4L IS has a very, very small paint mark at the base of the zoom ring from a bump. My 30D has a few paint chips from bumping against walls, and in one case, having my 10D and my 30D slung on the same shoulder, and the 10D dinged the 30D. Other than that, all my gear is pristine.
I've definitely dropped everything I own (which isn't much) from at least 3 feet. Scary at times, but I've been lucky so far. No big $$$ repairs for me. By far the funniest though was when I was changing lenses my college's gym. I was about half way up the bleachers and shooting a full chapel with everyone either listening to the speaker or sleeping I dropped my 50 1.8 - thankfully just that - and watched it bounce ALL THE WAY DOWN the bleachers. That made a good amount of noise. So much for being a silent photojournalist eh? Anyways, the lens is fine. Just a small chip out of the side. I'm glad it was a sturdier mk I and not the even more el cheapo mk IIs. Not that it would've been that much to replace anyway...
I've several times crashed my 40D + Lens + 580EXII onto the ground (carpet though) from placing it on a chair because I forgot to unplug myself from my CP-E4 as I've walked off. No adverse consequences yet but I get scared every time I accidentally do it
My 430EX which I don't use much anymore has been dropped numerous times. The Wireless switch snapped off but everything still works perfectly.
Tough little unit.
Stuff that has been broken and then fixed through self Made Repairs:
50mm f/1.8 II, dropped from about 50cm whilst it was stored in its box. Glued it back together using Superglue. Still almost as sharp as my 85L II and 35L wide open:
Many just throw away their 50 f/1.8 II if they drop it citing "its cheap, may as well get a new one". Why waste $80 when you can fix it very easily?? $80 is very important to me, so I choose to fix my gear rather than throw it away. It doesn't take a lot of skill either, I'm no mechanic, I'm an accounting student
2. 400D with 12-24, slung/dropped onto the concrete ground from an open bag as I was putting it into the car. I unscrewed the 400D, jammed it back together, put the screws back in. Canon didn't care about this when I got it calibrated:
Tokina 12-24 was unaffected, the hood took the impact and has some deep gouge marks but its all good
One SERIOUS drop (2-meter, inside a lowepro bag which prevented 80% of the shock, anyway), damaging my OM-1 and (fortunately given the options) the Zuiko 28/3.5.
I was carrying a MkII with 100-400mm with a shoulder strap that has the plastic quick disconnect buckle. This caught on a metal gate, broke the plastic buckle and the 100-400 hit the ground at the very end. It broke the filter and jammed the threaded ring too tight to remove. I was in Tanzania at the time and the lens continued to focus and perform well except for erratic IS. Sent to Canon when I returned and they had to replace the IS system. $299.00 but it works better now than ever.
I dropped my 50 1.8 - thankfully just that - and watched it bounce ALL THE WAY DOWN the bleachers. That made a good amount of noise. So much for being a silent photojournalist eh? Anyways, the lens is fine. Just a small chip out of the side. I'm glad it was a sturdier mk I and not the even more el cheapo mk IIs. Not that it would've been that much to replace anyway...