Lucky lenses ...

[Steve Gledhill]

Can anyone be as lucky as me with camera lens mishaps?

Yesterday I was photographing on a boulder beach in South Wales when I did what I always dreaded I’d do one day. I failed to locate correctly the bottom of the lens board holding my Nikkor 300mm f9. I clipped the top two lens board clips, moved to adjust the lens and it dropped almost 6 feet onto boulders where it bounced and clattered. Naturally I feared the worst, but the only damage was a small dent in the aluminium board (which was easy to smooth out) and not a mark on the lens. I’ve tested the lens today and it’s in perfect working order!

It brought to mind another incident a few years ago when I was photographing a small waterfall in Ireland. The camera, tripod and I were all standing in about 18 inches of water. I’d taken the shot, unclipped the lens – a Nikkor 210mm f5.6 – then I stumbled. In regaining my balance, I avoided falling in, but I did drop the lens in the water. It executed a graceful arc before splashing down about 3 yards away. I retrieved it from the bed of the stream and expected the worst. I disassembled the major components, shook out as much water as possible, and dried them as best I could and laid them out in the sun to dry. An hour later the lens was back in action. I’d expected at least for there to be problems with the shutter – but no need to have worried. Back in perfect working order!

On one other occasion, in Yosemite, I dropped my Nikkor 90mm – butter fingers – and that time there was a little more damage – a tiny dint in the front filter ring which I had to have fixed as it stopped me attaching filters. But when I consider what could have happened, again I was lucky.

I have four lenses in all – so far I haven’t dropped the Nikkor 135mm. And, no, I don’t believe that reporting this is tempting fate ...

Perhaps all Nikkor lenses are made to bounce - or perhaps you know different?

[Filmnut]

Nothing quite fun as that has happened to my lenses.
The worse experience my camera and lenses had was when I was photographing in an abandoned mine, which was more like a cliff that was hollowed out, than a regular mine. I thought that I had the camera and tripod set properly on the very uneven ground, but when I released my hand from it, it slid down a flat rock, and went tipping over and further into the mine. All was well though, it landed on the only patch of soft ground there!
Keith

[Richard Wasserman]

I had someone on a bicycle who was not paying attention run into my tripod with the camera and lens mounted on it of course. The whole thing was knocked over and landed square on the lens–a 110mm Super Symmar. The outcome was not so good....

[Eugene van der Merwe]

On my first outing with my first LF camera, a technika color, i was standing on a large seaside rock photographing the sunset. Of course something had to go pear shaped. When i removed the lens, 65mm super angulon F8, mint, i dropped it, luckily it did not fall on the rock, it fell into a little pocket in the stone exactly the right size for the lens on the lensboard to fit in. Unfortunately the pocket was full of seawater.
Needless to say, swearing ensued.
The repairs to the shutter cost almost as much as i paid for the lens, but it worked just fine after that, until it and all my other LF gear got stolen about 3 years later...

[Dave Jeffery]

My lensboard release was very tight so I loosened it, but unfortunatley a little too much. A few of us hiked up a 10,000 ft high mountain peak and back down again and when I set up for a shot of some old trains my 110 Super Symmar XL dropped and hit the ground. Fortunatley it landed on the barrel which bent in and miraculously the glass didn't crack. It was just so amazing to pick up the lens off the gravelly pavement and to see the glass intact!
The lens had just been returned from the factory where the focus had been checked. I set up the camera and checked the lens as best I could and it seemed fine, and it really looked as though the outer barrel had absorbed the shock just right and the aluminum was just bent in as a result of the fall. The barrel seemed too robust to bend to affect the focus after about a short 5 foot fall.

Since it seemed as though the aluminum barrel would crack if I tried to straighten it as it was with a lot of force, a decision was made to make some cuts in the aluminum to allow it to be bent back into shape with much less force being needed. The first stress relief cut was made about half way through the aluminum parrallel to the threads and just behind where the bend from the impact stopped. A series of small cuts were then made all the way through the barrel in about 5/16 inch wide increments and almost all the way back to the first cut.
It worked like a charm! I was able to bend the small sections straight and the aluminum bent perfectly in the first stress relief cut. Since the aluminum was weakend by the cuts it could be bent more easily and more accurately. Once the barrel was straigtened out again epoxy was applied to the gaps in the threads and allowed to harden. Next, a step up ring was cut staright through to use as a tap to cut threads in the epoxy. After everything was cleaned and new thread were cut another step up ring was screwed in and it stays in the lens. Filters can be screwed in and out ot the step up ring easily of course.

This fix worked very well and the lens works perfectly once again.

When I loosened the lensboard I didn't take into account the constant jarring of long hikes acting on the release.

I was lucky!

[Phil Hudson]

"I have four lenses in all – so far I haven’t dropped the Nikkor 135mm"

Remind me not to buy a used lens from you! Still it's good to hear that these things are built to last, especially since they're out of production now.

[Dave Jeffery]

I am so careful handling and cleaning my 110 XL and making sure to protect it during any travels. It was a strange feeling to have it pinned down to a workbench and to be cutting the outer barrel with a hacksaw!

[Caivman]

Good Greif Steve! Well, things could be worse. At least you didn't take up Chainsaw juggling or knife throwing with some road show. Stick to Photography. :-P

Tip for when you "oops" your lens into the drink: Dissasemble major components (remove elements from shutter) and place your lens in a bag of dry rice. Sucks the moisture right out in about a days time.

[Wallace_Billingham]

Tip for when you "oops" your lens into the drink: Dissasemble major components (remove elements from shutter) and place your lens in a bag of dry rice. Sucks the moisture right out in about a days time.

lol When I first read that I read put your lens in a bag of dry ice not rice. I thought you were talking about freeze drying the lens

[Robert A. Zeichner]

Years ago I was walking a golf course very early in the morning doing some nature photography with my then Leica M6 and a very expensive 75mm Summilux. I knelt down to change lenses, put the 75 in my bag (or so I thought) and moved on. After about an hour of walking I discovered the 75 was not where I thought it was and retraced my steps in reverse without any clue of where it was. I was really upset! My wife suggested walking the course again in the original direction and lo and behold, I found the shot I was trying to get when I originally knelt down. So I looked down and there it was, gently nested in tall grass with not so much as a drop of water on it. Lucky I guess.

[Vaughn]

...All was well though, it landed on the only patch of soft ground there!
Keith

My boys were climbing some rocks at the beach and one of them did that (head first)...:eek: Now that I am thinking about it, the same boy fell off a stump I had my 8x10 set up on -- fell straight down about 6 feet onto a log. Then there was the time I was photographing all 3 boys on a tree limb -- only a couple feet off the ground on the front side -- and 6 feet straight down on the back side. I looked at the GG, turned to grab something out of the camera pack and looked at the GG again -- and there were only two boys! The boys were about 4 years old (plus or minus a year) for all of these incidents. And, no -- my wife was not there, nor was told!

No injuries, if only would our camera gear be able to bounce so well! -- in fact the only broken bones and major stitching have been the results of playing on "safe" playgrounds.

[Andrew O'Neill]

I failed to properly attach a 90XL to my 8x10 once in a mineshaft. I pointed the camera down, went under the darkcloth to focus. I heard a "clunk" and the image on the GG suddenly went white. Nice chip on the glass in the centre of the front element. Luckily this chip did not interfere with future exposures. Never showed up. Phew!

[Steve Gledhill]

lol When I first read that I read put your lens in a bag of dry ice not rice. I thought you were talking about freeze drying the lens

Wallace,
I read this twice and read 'dry ice' both times. I was suprised but didn't think any more of it - but at the back of my mind was lodged this clever 'dry ice' trick! Thanks for drawing my (our) attention to this potentially lenses shattering mis-reading.

[goamules]

I try out most barrel lenses in my universal iris mount on an 8x10 field camera and an old Crown tripod. The type with the hinged platform to allow for tilt. I'd heard some people say they didn't trust the security of the iris' grip.

I put a new to me 19" Protar Viia in the iris, and proceeded to crank out the bellows. I always make sure the two locknuts are tight on the folding platform, but this time forgot. Once the tipping point was reached, as I had the cloth over my head, the whole camera snapped over into the "I'm an enlarger" mode, pointing straight down. The weight of the lens snapped both front rails. It was one of those "what just happened?" moments. But the lens was still in the iris mount, with the front standard hanging by the bellows.

[Caivman]

lol When I first read that I read put your lens in a bag of dry ice not rice. I thought you were talking about freeze drying the lens

lol, feel free... but i do NOT advise this in any form.

[Michael Graves]

I was shooting a ravine with a Crown Graphic and a 203mm Ektar. I decided to switch to a 120mm Angulon. In taking the Ektar off the camera, my butter-coated fingers lost their grip and in ultra-slow motion I watched it drop toward the edge of the ravive. Frantically I stuck out my foot, and (no, I don't know how this happened) it landed right on my boot and balanced.

So there I was with one foot hanging over the ravine, the other on the rock and my left hand gripping the tripod as I fervently prayed for the wooden legs to maintain their grip. Very slowly, I brought my foot back in, bent over and snatched the lens back from the brink of disaster. Only then did I allow myself the luxury of an extended bout of swearing.

[Heroique]

… I pointed the camera down, went under the darkcloth to focus. I heard a "clunk" and the image on the GG suddenly went white…

I can’t imagine a more terrifying sound in the dark.

Don’t know why, but it’s my light meter that makes me clumsy.

One evening at cliff edge, I fumbled my Sekonic L-308s, watched it plummet 200-300 feet, then bounce between granite boulders like a pinball. (Wish I were blessed with Michael’s acrobatic-foot skills.) Next day, I found it resting on top an 18%-gray rock under sunny-16 light, with a glint off its lumisphere that seemed to say, “No need to worry, I’m enjoying a 15-ev sun bath.” Still works fine, but there’s a battle-scar on its bottom corner.

[Michael Wynd]

Some of you may remember that last year while in the Otways in Victoria, I had my backpack with the camera lens filmholders,etc, resting on top of a slightly sloping rock. Unfortunately the day before we had had 40mm of rain and the rock was very slippery. The pack slid slowly off the rock and fell about 50cm onto another rock. When I took the camera out and checked it 9over, I found that the front locking knob for the front focussing rail had broken off. I had it repaired by my partner's brother (he teaches metal work at Canberra Institute). When I was putting it back together, I noticed that the focussing rail on the top section (for doing wide angle work) was bent, so I tried to straighten it out. It snapped in my fingers. I had to get this bit fixed and I put the camera back together 2 days before leaving for Alice Springs.
The camera works better now than it did when I bought it. The second repair did cost me a bottle of scotch and a copy of one of photos from Alice Springs though.
Mike

[patrickjames]

I once drove around for two days with a lens (without caps) on the roof of my Jeep! I only found it because I was driving through some dunes and kept hearing a clank. I thought I might have messed up something in the suspension, so I stopped to investigate. I happened to glance at the roof and there was my missing lens. Not a single scratch.

[Curt]

I was in a chopper sitting on a bench with the toes of my boots sticking out, my camera had a $10,000 experimental lens on it that was mounted just before the mission which was in total dark. We were over the enemy camp when the chopper when into silent mode. A slight vibration and a til to the port caused the lens mount to come apart. The lens fell a thousand feet into the jungle canopy. The pilot noted the coordinates and sent out a search party the next day but the ground crew couldn't find it. I said we should go in the chopper and take a look. While slowly hovering over the place I saw a glimmer of a lens on the top of some foliage. We went down and I reached out and picked up the lens off the top of a palm tree. It was in perfect condition except for the broken mounting. I was given a metal for the lens recovery and a metal for thinking of how to find it. I later traded the metals in at a pawn shop for a crappy old Graflex. When I got home I looked at the lens and it was the $10,000 lens that had been lost in the jungle. Not really though but it was a good story.

I had a lens drop from my Kodak 2D, a whopping 3 feet onto some thick grass in Galveston Texas just after Katrina, the slide on the top wasn't completely down and the lens just dropped off. I have often thought of putting a safety string or chain on the lens boards. One has to be careful when handling equipment.

[dsphotog]

In 1973 my mother bought me my first 35mm SLR, 9 years later she passed away, so the camera was priceless (to me).
In 1987 a bogus contractor stole the camera outfit from my home, he also never finished the work he was hired to do, and vanished with the deposit I gave him.
About 7 years later, I was working in a local camera shop, when a customer came in to sell the 50mm lens! When I told him the story, he gave me the lens.

Thanks Mom!

[Ben Syverson]

I've written about this before (http://bensyverson.tumblr.com/post/123168413/), but it's a funny story so what the hell.

My primary lens on my Canon is a 24mm f/1.4. While shooting a music video last year, I swapped lenses, setting the 24L on the grass. In all the commotion, I forgot about it and left it outside. That night, there was an absolutely Biblical downpour.

The next day, I was horrified to see the lens in the wet grass. It was covered in mud. There was water inside the lens, and condensation on the window for the distance scale. Not knowing what to do, I tossed the lens into a box of dry rice and waited a very nervous 24 hours. A day later, I pulled it out of the rice, dusted it off, and stuck it on the camera. It was fine!

In the year since, I've used it nearly every day. It continues to be my normal lens... Every once in a while I'll be shooting in some light rain (the 5D is rated for it), and someone will say "oh my god, are you sure that's okay?" It always makes me laugh... If they only knew what that lens has been through!

[Dave Hally]

My brother and I were photographing at Pebble Beach near Pescadero, CA. He had a Sinar P/360 schneider and a Dicomed Back, with all the gear. I had my Toyo 45A/ 90 Nikkor and Quickloads. I set up a shot and took it. Meanwhile he was shooting his long exposured with the scanning back. I waited until he finished and asked if I could try the Dicomed for my shot. Sure. Carried the gear over, installed the IR filter, inserted the back and turned to turn on the control box- Crash! Oh F*#K!!. the weight of the back and cables brought the camera over into the tide pool and straight onto the rock in the middle, with the dicomed back popping out and into the water. We rinsed the back out and blew it out with canned air.I wiped off the camera, it was wet all inside, and the front standard was broken at the base. The lens filter ring was bent, but it still works! It was $500.00 to get a new IR filter and repair the Dicomed, which still works! Once the camera was dried out I was able to take it arpart and replace the standard(s)- about $150. The Toyo does have that one weak spot!
Dave

[CP Goerz]

I was at the edge of Waimea Canyon in Kauai with a 5x7 Dorff and popped under the darkcloth...the screen was really bright! I then heard a chink......chink..........chink of the lens rumbling down the canyon. Since it was a Goerz I decided to go after it and climbed down the pretty darn treacherous slopes and found it. Only the shutter cocking lever was a bit bent, the glass was perfect.


On another note though I was by Bryce in Utah and was again at the edge of a steep cliff, I put a lens down while switching to a different focal length and a blast of wind blew it over the edge...no way was I going after that one so if anyone has found a 210mm Fujinon down there good luck to yah!

[Ash]

Come to think of it, a handful of times the 80mm came loose on my Hasselblad. Lucky for me, every time I turned the camera downward, my hand was on the lens & caught it... apart from the one time it landed in my lap!!

[Photojeep]

Several years ago, I was shooting from the top of a parking garage with my Hasselblad 500c and my beautiful 40mm wide angle. I needed a longer focal length for the next shot so as I was taking off the 40, I bumped into the car, which was closer than I thought. The lens was knocked out of my hands and I caught it after the second bounce I couldn't imagine it was ok but was too afraid to even look for a couple of minutes.

I was amazed to see that it was unhurt in the slightest. I had it checked out and everything was absolutely perfect. Under magnification I could see that the front edge of the lens had some black paint sctatched off. That was it.

Wish I hadn't sold it...

[dsphotog]

That darn gravity! It seems lenses are especially attracted by it.