Show your gear's battle scars!

[brianhuangbh]

DSLR's are wonderful little machines. They withstand the harshest beatings and still live to take another picture(DRTV).
Show us what your gear has been through and tell the story!

Here's my D7000. I got it when it first came out and we've taken 30,000 pictures since. I loved this camera when I first got it, and I love it even more now. I usually take good care of my gear, so most of the stuff is in pretty good condition.


First off is a nick on my 17-55. It might not look like much, but when you take into account how solid this lens is, you'll know it's not easy to nick this lens. This happened when I was climbing some rocks in Lake Tahoe and my camera slipped and I guess the lens hit a boulder. The lens is still a champ and I use it almost every day!

I never really liked the plastic screen guards that Nikon provides, so I bought a glass screen protector for my D7k. This is my second one and I've realized that it's ridiculously easy for me to crack the edges, so I just left this one on like this until I mess it up more.

I cracked the screen of my SB-800 the same week I got it. I'll never know how this happened. I was pretty pissed, as you can imagine and I'm still waiting for the LCD screen to come back in stock in Nikon's parts dept so I can replace it.

Last one. A couple months ago, I took a trip to Disneyworld in Florida. It was a sunny day and hot as hell. Then suddenly, tornado warning. Needless to say, we were kicked out of Disney and my gear and I got soaked. It was actually a lot worse than this, but I was under the shelter of the Disney tram when I took this picture.

Again, nothing spectacular but hopefully worth sharing. Hopefully some of you guys have more interesting photos than mine. :mrgreen:

 

[Dao]

One word - Ouch!

 

[davisphotos]

I sold it recently, or I would share a picture of the lens hood from my 24-70 that got run over. Despite that it still worked just as it did when new. Plenty of scrapes and scuffs on the end of my 70-200 lens hood too. In fact, all my lens hoods are pretty beat up-it's a good illustration of why I always use them

 

[kundalini]

I was cleaning up after shooting some instructional images. In my mitts were the D700 and a couple of flashes. As I walked passed the D300 with 24-70mm mounted on the tripod, my toe caught one of the legs of the tripod. You know how they say that time slows down during certain moments in your life? This was one of them and I couldn't do a damn thing about it except to feel the horror. The body bounced one way and the lens in another direction. The body seemed fine until I noticed the lens mount, it looked odd, the lens mounting plate was still attached.

The repair bill was $300 and a month out of service. It was a damn sight cheaper than a new lens.

 

[Joshonator]

Lol the other day I was supergluing an AF confirm chip into position for the first time. I was using a cheap brand of superglue, and when it seemed dry enough I attached the adaptor and put it away for storage. Later that day I check up on it and a vapour from the glue had formed a nice white coating over the rear lens element. Luckily it wasn't completely dry yet so 2 hours of scrubbing with a microfibre cloth and water later I managed to get it all off. If I found out much later the lens would probably be a paperweight about now .

 

[brianhuangbh]

I sold it recently, or I would share a picture of the lens hood from my 24-70 that got run over. Despite that it still worked just as it did when new. Plenty of scrapes and scuffs on the end of my 70-200 lens hood too. In fact, all my lens hoods are pretty beat up-it's a good illustration of why I always use them

Was the hood attached to the 24-70 when it got ran over?

I was cleaning up after shooting some instructional images. In my mitts were the D700 and a couple of flashes. As I walked passed the D300 with 24-70mm mounted on the tripod, my toe caught one of the legs of the tripod. You know how they say that time slows down during certain moments in your life? This was one of them and I couldn't do a damn thing about it except to feel the horror. The body bounced one way and the lens in another direction. The body seemed fine until I noticed the lens mount, it looked odd, the lens mounting plate was still attached.

The repair bill was $300 and a month out of service. It was a damn sight cheaper than a new lens.

Wow, that's kinda scary. I tripped over my tripod once, but luckly I caught my camera before it hit the ground :thumbup:

Lol the other day I was supergluing an AF confirm chip into position for the first time. I was using a cheap brand of superglue, and when it seemed dry enough I attached the adaptor and put it away for storage. Later that day I check up on it and a vapour from the glue had formed a nice white coating over the rear lens element. Luckily it wasn't completely dry yet so 2 hours of scrubbing with a microfibre cloth and water later I managed to get it all off. If I found out much later the lens would probably be a paperweight about now .

I thought people attach the AF confirm chips to the bodies, not the lenses?

 

[Buckster]

Went flying off the front seat when I had to slam on the brakes. It was in its case. I didn't see this till I opened it some time later to use it:

The fix was to remove the UV filter, which took a heavy equipment oil filter wrench, a mechanic and myself all working pretty hard at it for a good half an hour, the whole time wondering if all the pressure and force we were using would tear it to pieces. It survived, and I remove all my UV filter shortly afterwards, when I found they were also introducing faint Newton rings on my images as well.

This next one I just finally dealt with today. Had a 5DMKII and a 7D each hanging off a Black Rapid DR-1 Double Strap while out shooting somewhere in Alabama. When I went to remove them, I should have removed each from the harness, then removed the harness. Instead, I pulled the harness up over my head, and the two bodies clanked together, causing this shattered screen on the 5DMKII.

1. The shattered screen.

Here's me documenting the replacement earlier today:

2. Hair dryer to supply heat to melt the old glue, replacement screen, and a suction cup to pull on the old screen (turned out to be too big, so I used a suction cup on a child's toy):

3. Heating the screen, suction cup attached and ready to pull on.

4. A little tugging and it pulled right off.

5. Removed the remaining old glue strip.

6. Prepped the new screen by pulling off the protective pieces.

7. Exposed the sticky part on the new screen.

8. Place the new screen and press firmly all around the edge.

9. One last look at the old screen next to the new one.

Beyond that, most of my gear has little tiny nicks and stuff, especially the older it is. I'm not terribly gentle with my gear. I treat all my pieces of gear as tools, and I'm not afraid to get them dirty or banged up a little. I never think about resale value, because it SO rare that I ever resell anything I've acquired when it comes to camera gear.

Anyway, that's about it for my battle scars.

 

[sm4him]

Sorry, but I didn't take a picture of my 70-300 after it somehow came loose from my bag and rolled down the hill into the lake where I was photographing dragonflies. I saw it as it got within about a foot of the lake, and lunged for it, grabbed just a split second AFTER it plunged into the water.

Just imagine a nice, fairly new looking zoom lens (but used, ergo no warranty) with water dripping out of it everywhere and some kind of green lake-weed stuff clinging to it.
I spent about the next 30 minutes trying to drain the water out of it. I'd twist it all the way in, shake it, then twist it all the way out and hold it up and drain it, then wipe all the water from the outside. Then repeat the process, over and over and over again. Finally, water quit actually DRIPPING out of it, but every time I zoomed it all the way in and shook it, then zoomed it back out, more water would appear on the outside.

Once all the water was out of it, just for kicks, I tried it on the camera--and it worked!! I was shocked! But by the time I got home, the lens had completely fogged up and quit working when attached to the camera. Figuring it was toast anyway, I got a great big bag of rice. Now, if it were a cell phone, I'd have buried the whole thing in the rice, but I figured that would cause more problems than it could even potentially solve, so I just took out enough rice to make room for the lens, put the lens in the bag on top of the rice and sealed it up. When I checked on it the next day, the condensation was all gone!

That was a couple of months ago. Since then, the lens still works great. WHEN it works at all. It's perfectly clear and still produces nice images--but you never know whether you'll be able to use it or not. Sometimes, the camera recognizes it and sometimes it doesn't--so you can't ever RELY on being able to use it.

For two days, most of my thoughts were centered around two things:
1. CR*P!!! How did I let that happen?!? and
2. Thank GOD that it was not my brand-new macro lens!!

I've used my macro lens almost exclusively since then. And I've yet to visit another large body of water.

 

[sovietdoc]

This thread is good, but not as good it could have been if we were looking at the pictures of your faces when you had one of the accidents described in this thread.

 

[sm4him]

This thread is good, but not as good it could have been if we were looking at the pictures of your faces when you had one of the accidents described in this thread.

Don't laugh TOO hard; YOu may be NEXT!!

 

[480sparky]

After falling down on a sidewalk while carrying the tripod & head in my hand: (My knees were worse. Within minutes, my pants were soaked with blood)

Mysterious appearance of the cracked screen of my Gossen light meter:

The worst damage, but obviously not very expensive.... the case I carry my 77mm VND filter in:

 

[Sw1tchFX]

LOL nicks and scratches...cute. My D700 is gaff taped because otherwise the back opens up like a 35mm film camera.




-There was a short in the main circuit board from a piece of metal touching it. Gaff'd it to the exterior to keep it back, no longer shorts out now.
-The screen popped out (nothing a little loctite couldn't fix)
-playback button smashed in
-all inputs/outputs on the left side smashed in
-AF/Menu multi selector inoperable when shooting, only goes down and right in playback or menu
-OK button inoperable
-AF area selection switch inoperable
-Pop up flash sync inoperable
-info button and zoom in button only operable if you press down on the screen area
-AF area is permanently single point and center. All other AF areas inoperable
-Body is cracked on the top deck, left plate, bottom plate, and back plate.


Otherwise it still shoots like it was new out of the box.

 

[Garbz]

Was wondering when you were going to show up Switch.

 

[g13a]

LOL nicks and scratches...cute. My D700 is gaff taped because otherwise the back opens up like a 35mm film camera.




-There was a short in the main circuit board from a piece of metal touching it. Gaff'd it to the exterior to keep it back, no longer shorts out now.
-The screen popped out (nothing a little loctite couldn't fix)
-playback button smashed in
-all inputs/outputs on the left side smashed in
-AF/Menu multi selector inoperable when shooting, only goes down and right in playback or menu
-OK button inoperable
-AF area selection switch inoperable
-Pop up flash sync inoperable
-info button and zoom in button only operable if you press down on the screen area
-AF area is permanently single point and center. All other AF areas inoperable
-Body is cracked on the top deck, left plate, bottom plate, and back plate.


Otherwise it still shoots like it was new out of the box.

Looks like somebody used hammer to put film roll into it.

 

[sm4him]

LOL nicks and scratches...cute. My D700 is gaff taped because otherwise the back opens up like a 35mm film camera.




-There was a short in the main circuit board from a piece of metal touching it. Gaff'd it to the exterior to keep it back, no longer shorts out now.
-The screen popped out (nothing a little loctite couldn't fix)
-playback button smashed in
-all inputs/outputs on the left side smashed in
-AF/Menu multi selector inoperable when shooting, only goes down and right in playback or menu
-OK button inoperable
-AF area selection switch inoperable
-Pop up flash sync inoperable
-info button and zoom in button only operable if you press down on the screen area
-AF area is permanently single point and center. All other AF areas inoperable
-Body is cracked on the top deck, left plate, bottom plate, and back plate.


Otherwise it still shoots like it was new out of the box.

Holy Smokes. You Win.