To Photographers: What is your worst equipment disaster? Drop a camera in water? Crack a lense?


thefoxysquirrel's avatar
I nearly dropped my Nikon D90 into a bucket of mop water today! It made me wonder how often such accidents happen to others.

So... let us know what the worst accident was. What happened, and most importantly... how much did it cost you???
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goldacorn's avatar
was flying over an active volcano on a helicopter tour in hawaii, my camera was mounted on a stand attached to the outside of the helicopter just under the window, it was operated with a console inside. apparently it wasn't mounted properly and the vibrations caused a bolt to fall out. thats right, for my worst equipment disaster, I actually dropped my camera into an active volcano.


that was completely made up, worst real "disaster" was having a camera flushed down the toilet by a curious 2 year old.
thefoxysquirrel's avatar
that is the best disaster ever!!!

I almost WANT that to happen to me!
LoboSabio's avatar
I was trying to light a shot in a dark hallway and I accidentally bumped into my tripod. Fortunately for me the only damage was cosmetic.
eperlekvar's avatar
if it counts, I bought an expensive memory card, because only this one fits in my camera.. I went to Venice, and the card just said "memory card error".. f*ck...
thefoxysquirrel's avatar
that totally counts. nothing is worse than buying something you are sooo excited about, getting it home, unwrapping it (or unwrapping it in the car as i often do!) and seeing that error message....

sucks!
rare2bme's avatar
I had a Minolta X700 film camera that I somehow left cooking inside my car on a super hot Southern Cali summer. When I remembered I went back to get it and it was HOT. Instead of leaving it be and letting it cool off, I turned it on and I pressed the shutter. All i heard was a short zap and that was it! Luckily it was still under warranty and Minolta honored the fix for free.
My other disaster happened to my Nikkor 80-200 f2.8D lens. I usually have two cameras, one on each shoulder while photographing weddings or other events. My 80-200 on my D200 and usually a 50mm on my D7000. I was hurrying towards the front of the church when I heard my zoom hit one of the pews. Must have been a good hit because later the auto focusing felt grindy and sandy. Sure enough, Nikon replaced the whole af motor and lens mount for $288!
WizardOfUnseen's avatar
I usually used to do all of my photography with my phone and it got wet in the rain :( Needless to say after that, it was dead :no:
AllyCat1994's avatar
I dropped my old Fuji Film camera in water and it works but me fumble fingers dropped it and now the screen is messed up and i can't see what i take a picture of. Luckily I got a new camera for Christmas that year C:
thefoxysquirrel's avatar
breaking a classic camera can really suck. I have a 60's era minolta that I love and is in pristine condition. I love what it does but I rarely use it because Im afraid of breaking it!
AllyCat1994's avatar
This one was nothing special it was a beast of digital camera though I don't even know if I still have it it was so long ago I don't even have the camera that I had after it because fumble fingers me dropped it! If I had one from the 60's I would rarely use it to cause I have bad luck with Camera's and technology in general C:
Amy-the-Faerie's avatar
I'm just a general div and forget to take some of my equipment with me. So often I'm in a very pretty place without any way to take a decent photo or with no tripod.
thefoxysquirrel's avatar
uggh! I know. Im new to photography and all of a sudden I realize why people carry their cameras everywhere! I always noticed it, but never thought much about people with cameras until I started wishing I had mine with me
tanikel's avatar
My worst was probably nearly losing a lens and half of my night-vision adapter when I was getting off of a helicopter. I guess the combination of the vibration and high winds loosened some of the attachments and well...bye bye equipment. Thankfully I was able to find it about half an hour later. It's definitely not fun trying to find a piece of shiny black equipement on a bed of rocks at two in the morning. Dx

I've also shattered a few lenses and dinged up a body, but the camera body armor protected it from most of my shenanigans.
thefoxysquirrel's avatar
night vision and helicopters? awesome!
tanikel's avatar
The best kind of work to do! ;p
Endeavor-To-Freefall's avatar
Nothing bad has happened to my camera, just bad things happening to me in the process of taking photos. Being chased by a bad-ass motherfucker of a Goose across a well populated park comes to mind, it must've been hilarious for all the people watching me though. I wasn't even that close to it :grump:
thefoxysquirrel's avatar
haha! i got chased by a goose while fly fishing once... but i was ten!
KSXZT's avatar
I have a Nikon F2A. A real classic. It's been dropped, beaten up, battered and bruised so often that it should have stopped working by now. The just don't make them like they used to.
Airthir's avatar
A chicken pecked my lens. Didn't scratch it, though.
thefoxysquirrel's avatar
aahhh. the dangers of photographing poultry!
Airthir's avatar
the resulting photographs are pretty amusing though: [link]
nosugarjustanger's avatar
I couldn't turn on my camera. It just died. :stare:

What a waste of money. I didn't even hit it against the wall, or drop it. It just...died. Fuck.
thefoxysquirrel's avatar
not even an interesting story out of it eh? that sucks!