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.