Post how you damaged your camera or lens.

[ApertureF11Sniper]

I was on a shoot with a girl named Jordan and when I opened my rear door my camera bag fell out, I did not know it was right up against the door and it fell right onto the lens and your heart just sinks........Yeah my good lens and it was messed up.......Once home I shipped it off to be repaired which cost me $300.00.....I had it back for 4 days, I was driving near home this lil side road by these houses....My camera on the seat out of the bag so it was handy. All of the sudden a dog ran out in front of my car and I slammed on the brakes sending my camera off the seat to the floor. Hit the dog, the dog rolled a few times, jumped up and ran away....I thought I'd just killed the dog and it was running on adrenalin or something.... I stopped and went to the house of the yard it came out of. I was nearly in tears and I said I think I just killed your dog....... I told them what happened and the guy got on his bike and went to look for his dog.........Well I got home and grabbed my camera to find the lens was damaged again, exact same thing......... I went back to the house that owned the dog, the dog lived but I explained how the dogs actions caused my lens damage and he agreed and said he would pay for the repairs, when I sent it back the repair place considered it still under the repair warranty so all it cost was the shipping......I need more lenses then just the 3 that I have. One of those 3 is the cheap 18 to 55 but in a pinch I can work it effectively.

That dog, he had learned that if he ran fast enough he could get past the invisible fence and the shock collar would stop so he was running full tilt when he ran out in front of me........ I felt so bad.....But I did the right thing and I stopped and told them. Good thing I was not driving very fast.

 

[Space Face]

MP-e65 (OK not a camera or lens but a bloody expensive piece of kit all the same), closed the car boot on it. KNACKERED!!!!

 

[RAZKY]

I was on a shoot with a girl named Jordan and when I opened my rear door my camera bag fell out, I did not know it was right up against the door and it fell right onto the lens and your heart just sinks........Yeah my good lens and it was messed up.......Once home I shipped it off to be repaired which cost me $300.00.....I had it back for 4 days, I was driving near home this lil side road by these houses....My camera on the seat out of the bag so it was handy. All of the sudden a dog ran out in front of my car and I slammed on the brakes sending my camera off the seat to the floor. Hit the dog, the dog rolled a few times, jumped up and ran away....I thought I'd just killed the dog and it was running on adrenalin or something.... I stopped and went to the house of the yard it came out of. I was nearly in tears and I said I think I just killed your dog....... I told them what happened and the guy got on his bike and went to look for his dog.........Well I got home and grabbed my camera to find the lens was damaged again, exact same thing......... I went back to the house that owned the dog, the dog lived but I explained how the dogs actions caused my lens damage and he agreed and said he would pay for the repairs, when I sent it back the repair place considered it still under the repair warranty so all it cost was the shipping......I need more lenses then just the 3 that I have. One of those 3 is the cheap 18 to 55 but in a pinch I can work it effectively.

That dog, he had learned that if he ran fast enough he could get past the invisible fence and the shock collar would stop so he was running full tilt when he ran out in front of me........ I felt so bad.....But I did the right thing and I stopped and told them. Good thing I was not driving very fast.

What was the dog's name?

 

[PJM]

Same as you. Old Canon TX, fell out of the car when I opened the rear passenger door. It put a dent in the case but it was otherwise still operational. I was mostly annoyed with myself for letting it happen.

 

[ApertureF11Sniper]

Same as you. Old Canon TX, fell out of the car when I opened the rear passenger door. It put a dent in the case but it was otherwise still operational. I was mostly annoyed with myself for letting it happen.

Yeah pretty much. Now I am more careful when I open the door.

 

[RacePhoto]

I've been fortunate and never broke a camera or lens. Oh yes, I've had them dropped, slide off the seat, bumped and splashed, but good fortune has said in 50 years, never lost one or broke anything.

1. Put a camera on a tripod, near the railroad tracks, to catch an approaching passenger train. Stand back at a safe distance. Double track... a 90MPH freight come past the other direction and blows the camera over.

UV Filter but everything else survived. Have a collection of these protection filters with nicks and dings.

2. Step-Daughter on a trip overseas, with a nice travel Nikon rangefinder that I bought her for the trip. They landed and she was standing in the ocean, eating fries, sipping champagne and taking pictures of her travel companions. Dropped the camera in the ocean. Gee who would have thought? Yes it had a neck strap. Nevermore

3. The EX and yes they are related, wanted to get a video of the manta rays at Sea World that were in the pool and splashing people. So she walked up to the edge to get a close shot. No video camera for the rest of that vacation, and that one was done forever.

4. My worst was standing next to a race course, and someone had an off, and zoomed past in the gravel trap. I didn't think of it at the time, now I know better. Showered with gravel and small stones, another UV filter for the collection. Now I shoot, turn around backwards and duck behind the wall. I also took up wearing a balaclava and safety glasses at speedways.

70-200 survived and I was taught a lesson.

 

[cdd29]

I was doing an outdoor shoot last summer & had strobes & a backdrop set up on a calm night. A freak wind came out of no where (nothing in the forecast) & blew over the backdrop that in turn knocked over a light. Light is still useable but housing is cracked & has a chunk missing out of it.

I also partially dodged a bullet. Had a camera securely attached (or so I thought) to the tripod. I picked it up to move & it came off and went bouncing across the parking lot. Fortunately the battery grip took the brunt of it. Aside from a few scuffs on the camera & lens barrel, no damage

 

[webestang64]

Lucky for me I have never damaged one of my cameras or lens. Have had one stolen during a break in at a house I was renting.

We replace broken filters here at work at least once a month.

 

[Rickbb]

Typical dropping them, etc. mostly damaged the UV filter as people posted above. But do have a small scratch on the rear element of my, (then), less than one year old Nikkor 24 2.8 Still bummed out over that.

 

[Original katomi]

Twice now.. canon 5d mk 4 70 200 f4 l
First time just after buying did some shots working out of boot of car. Got home picked up bag and swung to shoulder……I had not zipped up bag…
Second time.
Was shooting spitfire after hour or so stopped for a break put camera on table , caught foot in camera strap pulled camera to ground.
Both times I was very lucky, cost me to have filter removed and replaced

 

[pendennis]

This didn't happen to me. I only saw the end results.

A Navy Photographer's Mate was shooting some low aerial shots over the runways at Quonset Point NAS, spring 1970. The pilot of the aircraft was doing slow eights so they could get all the shot angles they needed. Every one was strapped in like they were supposed to be. The aircraft had a sudden fuel surge, enough to cause the PM to drop his brand new motor-driven Beseler Topcon out of the hatch. It landed in the middle of the main runway, and all that was left was a box of nearly-unrecognizable parts. Runways were closed for hours while the mess was cleared.

 

[AlanKlein]

The eye viewfinder that clips on the flash bracket of my Olympus E-PL1 micro 4/3 camera has a habit of falling off. Once when I got home I noticed it was missing so I raced back to the spot I had last used it only to find I ran over it with my car on the way out. Little pieces. My car found it before I did.

 

[wfooshee]

I walked out to the car, camera bag in hand, went to open the trunk and found I'd left the keys inside. Set the bag down, went inside to get the keys, and went back out, got in the car and started to back out the driveway, running over the camera bag.

This was decades ago, late 80s, and my camera was a Canon AE-1, and my "big" lens was a Kiron 70-210 f:4. The camera's top plastic piece, over the pentaprism, was broken, and the PC flash plug was hanging loose. The camera worked, was still light-proof inside, and I used it for years after that. The lens was one of those single-ring zoom-and-focus setups, and the ring was ever-so-slightly not perfectly round any more and had a tight place in its range of motion. Again, the lens still worked OK, and gave a few more years of good service. (My next camera was a Nikon N90, as I entered the AF world.)

Prior to that, I very nearly destroyed a Voigtlander Vitessa rangefinder camera by dropping it on rocks while crossing a creek. It didn't make it into the water, and no glass was broken (the camera was folded and the leather cover was closed,) but the film advance rod didn't work any more. I found a shop to send it to in NYC, and got it repaired for about 90 bucks, which was HUGE money for a college kid in the late 70s! The repair was vital, though, because it was a camera my dad bought new in 1952, and entrusted to me when I begged for a 35mm camera kit after seeing so many of my friends shooting the Minoltas and Yashicas around campus. He handed me the Vitessa, a Weston light meter (no metering in the Vitessa,) and told me to shoot Kodachrome. That was my daily use camera for nearly a decade until getting the AE-1, and I still have it, and it still shoots just fine (although shutter speeds are a tad bit longer than what I set on the lens.)

Getting the AE-1 was a story itself, actually... A friend of my sister's had received it as a birthday gift, with 50mm f:1.4 lens, and had no interest in it whatsoever. He brought it by the house to show it off to my sister, and maybe see if anybody could help him with it, as he knew my dad and I were active hobby photographers. I jokingly offered him the 100-dollar bill I had in my wallet for it, and he readily agreed. I made the exchange before he had a chance to actually go out and find out what it was worth.

 

[petrochemist]

Back in my teens I was cycling around with my Pentax ME slung over my body using the neck strap. For some unknown reason the strap came undone & my camera ended up bouncing along the road. A few minor dents & scratches and the hot shoe knocked off, otherwise still usable!
Just over 5 years later, I was travelling in the front passenger of my Dad's car coming back late at night from a booze cruse to france, with my camera just on the floor at my feet. The shape we suddenly saw loom up in the headlights proved to be a car stopped sideways on across the motorway without any lights - we hit it at something around 60mph.
Neither camera or lens came out well from that (nor did the trunkful of booze, my Dad, the car, or both rear passengers) Some how I didn't even get a bruise.
More recently I've only managed a couple of filters - one dropped onto concrete while trying to fit it, and the other (a £160 behind the lens clip in hot mirror) by fitting a lens when it wasn't properly installed. This last filter cost more than most of my cameras/lenses!

 

[appreciate the journey]

Last week i was removing a 55/1.2 from my Nikon to attach an 85/1.8 i had just received. No sooner had i had the rear lens cap on, and that lens just rolled out of my fingers and out of my hand. I did a quick snatch to catch it but it simply bounced off my finger and hit the floor with a thud!
I was sure that there must be some damage....i was really thinking that i had dislodged at least an element.
I put it back on the camera...and surprsingly....it is fine! I see that it landed on the edge of the rear cap and bent the rabbit ears, which were easy to fix. It's an old glass and metal lens from the 70's. A newer plastic lens would have been toast.