(tragedy updated) Tell me a story about.....

[JustJazzie]

Your lost/misplaced/tragically broken gear.....

I've been absolutely aching to dive into another water drop set. Sadly, I seem to have misplaced my speedlight. I'm fairly confidant it was left on the east coast, but my FIL has yet to see if turn up. :'-(

As you know, misery loves company......

 

[limr30 3]

When I bought my K1000, I bought a flash to go with it. At some point several years later, it broke. I can't tell you when it broke but I remember thinking I might try to fix it so I didn't get rid of it immediately. A few years after that, I realized I didn't have it anymore. I still have absolutely no idea what happened to it. I've never replaced it.

A few years ago, that same K1000 took a tumble when the cheapo mini-tripod I was using buckled and fell. The camera tumbled off the stone wall and fell onto concrete. It got cracked in a corner of the top plate but otherwise, exactly nothing changed about how it functioned. I've since gotten it repaired just to make sure the crack never widened up and caused light leaks.

 

[pixmedic]

I totally feel your pain Jazzie....
last year, I bought a package of lens wipes that has a clip on it that you can use to attach it to your camera bag.
I was dragging the camera bag around somewhere and it must have hit something and broke the clip because when i got home the pouch of lens wipes was gone! I had no lens wipes!
I had to go back to wal-mart and buy some more....total downer.

 

[sm4him]

Sadly, I have more of these stories than I should.

I am constantly misplacing the quick-release plates for my tripods. Nowadays, I at least have more than one tripod, but when I only had one, I'd sometimes misplace the plate for weeks on end. (And yes, I'm aware you can buy replacement plates--but somehow I never do that either. I just spend hours looking for the misplaced one...).

Sometime last year, or maybe late 2013, I went with a friend to a couple of favorite spots about 90 minutes from home. Took my monopod, even though I usually shoot handheld. So we're at a dam, and I think it'd be a good time to use the monopod. I try it for a while, then go back to shooting handheld.
Got home about 6 p.m. and as I transfer my gear from her car back to mine, I realize the monopod is still sitting on the ledge at the dam, where I set it down.
I was supposed to be meeting my sister for dinner. I told her at dinner what I'd done--and she talked me into driving back (well, SHE drove) to see if we could find it. A 3-hour round trip only to discover that evidently someone else discovered it first and decided honesty and integrity weren't as important as free gear. I called around the next day, finally got the security office, but no one ever turned it in. I found myself hoping that maybe it would snap it in half on whoever had taken it and cause their gear to crash to the ground and crack.
But it was a nice Manfrotto pod, so I doubt that happened. I still haven't replaced it.

I'll tell another story later.

 

[waday]

I agree with Sharon. I have too many of these stories.

Does losing money and damaging laptops and palm pilots count? Or does it just have to be photography?

Money. My wife and I went away for the weekend. We're at the beach, walking on the boardwalk. I don't usually carry cash with me, but for some reason I decided to take $120 out of the ATM. Instead of putting the money in my wallet, I fold up the cash and put it in my pocket. We decided to get some food at a nice restaurant (partly the reason I got the cash out), and when we go to pay, the money is gone from my pocket. The only thing I can think of is that when I pulled my phone out of my pocket, the cash went along with it.

Laptop. I had just bought a brand new MacBook Pro. Saved up all my cash (that I didn't lose, haha) and bought it. I was showing it off, and then I decided to put it back in it's sleeve. I bought a sleeve to protect it when it was in my bag. Well, I put it on the kitchen countertop, and I pick up my bag. My elbow hit the laptop, and it tumbled to the floor. Luckily, it was ok, but it now has a big honking dent in the side. (Ok, it's not that big of a dent, but it still hurt..)

Palm Pilot. Remember Palm Pilots? For some reason, I thought I needed one, because, you know, I'm a busy guy. Haha. Anyways, it gets shipped to me, and I'm so excited. It's a fancy newer one with a color screen. I'm playing around with it, seeing what it can do. Don't ask me why I had my glass of juice right there, but the glass tipped and the juice went over the entire thing. I quickly washed what I could off, and let it dry. It still worked, but the buttons would stick. Needless to day, that was probably the last time I ever had any food or drink near anything electronic.

I'll leave it there for now.

 

[Designer]

"Misplaced stuff" is my middle name, but since it's not photography-related, I won't bore you with a list.

 

[acparsons59]

I once bought a Canon 30D for 100 bucks with a 18-55 and 70-250 lens and many filters. My mind played tricks on me because I couldn't believe that I got such a great deal, I looked at the camera and just saw D30 which was a lot older version, "Not to be confused with the Canon EOS 30D"(I copied and pasted the quoted blurb from the Wiki site that, didn't notice it until just now). People told me 30D, 30D. I said no, D30 my mind was playing ricks because there was no way I could believe that I go that good of a deal. I sold the camera for 150 with all of the stuff that came with it so that I could finance a 50D. It was worth at least twice that and the lenses I could have sold separately or kept. I discovered it a few months later when looking at shots that I took with it that seemed a little too high res for a 3.1mp camera. So, I looked at the exif data and it said 30D, then I realized that it was actually a 30D and I should have just kept that camera instead of getting the 50D. Oh well......

 

[JustJazzie]

When I bought my K1000, I bought a flash to go with it. At some point several years later, it broke. I can't tell you when it broke but I remember thinking I might try to fix it so I didn't get rid of it immediately. A few years after that, I realized I didn't have it anymore. I still have absolutely no idea what happened to it. I've never replaced it.

A few years ago, that same K1000 took a tumble when the cheapo mini-tripod I was using buckled and fell. The camera tumbled off the stone wall and fell onto concrete. It got cracked in a corner of the top plate but otherwise, exactly nothing changed about how it functioned. I've since gotten it repaired just to make sure the crack never widened up and caused light leaks.

I'm glad you were able to get it fixed! Maybe our flashes ended up in the same place, wherever runaway flashes end up. I knew I should have used it a little meow, the poor thing probably felt neglected!

 

[JustJazzie]

I totally feel your pain Jazzie....
last year, I bought a package of lens wipes that has a clip on it that you can use to attach it to your camera bag.
I was dragging the camera bag around somewhere and it must have hit something and broke the clip because when i got home the pouch of lens wipes was gone! I had no lens wipes!
I had to go back to wal-mart and buy some more....total downer.

Ya know Pix, I really expected more from you. I mean, really- did the thought that "gear the clips onto the outside of a camera bag" not make you think twice!? Surely, you should have realized it was actually additional security. You're SUPPOSED to clip it to the INSIDE of a zipperd pocket. That way, if you forget to zip it shut you're wipes are still secured. Clip, zip, safe! It's all so simple. I'd truly like to feel sorry for you, but honestly I think a little common sense would have gone a long way in this situation.

 

[JustJazzie]

Sadly, I have more of these stories than I should.

I am constantly misplacing the quick-release plates for my tripods. Nowadays, I at least have more than one tripod, but when I only had one, I'd sometimes misplace the plate for weeks on end. (And yes, I'm aware you can buy replacement plates--but somehow I never do that either. I just spend hours looking for the misplaced one...).

Sometime last year, or maybe late 2013, I went with a friend to a couple of favorite spots about 90 minutes from home. Took my monopod, even though I usually shoot handheld. So we're at a dam, and I think it'd be a good time to use the monopod. I try it for a while, then go back to shooting handheld.
Got home about 6 p.m. and as I transfer my gear from her car back to mine, I realize the monopod is still sitting on the ledge at the dam, where I set it down.
I was supposed to be meeting my sister for dinner. I told her at dinner what I'd done--and she talked me into driving back (well, SHE drove) to see if we could find it. A 3-hour round trip only to discover that evidently someone else discovered it first and decided honesty and integrity weren't as important as free gear. I called around the next day, finally got the security office, but no one ever turned it in. I found myself hoping that maybe it would snap it in half on whoever had taken it and cause their gear to crash to the ground and crack.
But it was a nice Manfrotto pod, so I doubt that happened. I still haven't replaced it.

I'll tell another story later.

Ohh! This sounds like a terribly painful experience. It really sucks that people are so dishonest nowadays.

I can definitely commiserate with you on the small parts mid placement dilemma. I lost my flash cover to my nex7 the week I bought it. Honestly, I didn't even realize it HAD one until I found it a year later in a move an thought to myself "that shape looks really familier......" I am constantly misplacing my tri-pod plate, and as we speak the flash cover for my nikon is definitely not where it belongs. I'm hoping when I clean up the studio it turns up! I also kept loosing my PC sync cap, until I finally got the wireless trigger and move onto the hot shoe cap. Luckily, the hot shoe cap is significantly larger and much easier to locate!

 

[JustJazzie]

I agree with Sharon. I have too many of these stories.

Does losing money and damaging laptops and palm pilots count? Or does it just have to be photography?

Money. My wife and I went away for the weekend. We're at the beach, walking on the boardwalk. I don't usually carry cash with me, but for some reason I decided to take $120 out of the ATM. Instead of putting the money in my wallet, I fold up the cash and put it in my pocket. We decided to get some food at a nice restaurant (partly the reason I got the cash out), and when we go to pay, the money is gone from my pocket. The only thing I can think of is that when I pulled my phone out of my pocket, the cash went along with it.

Laptop. I had just bought a brand new MacBook Pro. Saved up all my cash (that I didn't lose, haha) and bought it. I was showing it off, and then I decided to put it back in it's sleeve. I bought a sleeve to protect it when it was in my bag. Well, I put it on the kitchen countertop, and I pick up my bag. My elbow hit the laptop, and it tumbled to the floor. Luckily, it was ok, but it now has a big honking dent in the side. (Ok, it's not that big of a dent, but it still hurt..)

Palm Pilot. Remember Palm Pilots? For some reason, I thought I needed one, because, you know, I'm a busy guy. Haha. Anyways, it gets shipped to me, and I'm so excited. It's a fancy newer one with a color screen. I'm playing around with it, seeing what it can do. Don't ask me why I had my glass of juice right there, but the glass tipped and the juice went over the entire thing. I quickly washed what I could off, and let it dry. It still worked, but the buttons would stick. Needless to day, that was probably the last time I ever had any food or drink near anything electronic.

I'll leave it there for now.

Oh my!
These are definitely gut wrenching.

My son threw my ipad into the bathtub once. Yes, the bathtub! I let it dry out in rice for two weeks....that was the longest two weeks ever!
The ipad did survive. The iPhone I dropped in my morning coffee however, was not as lucky. I DO, still take coffee around electronics. However, I have now premeasured my coffee cups to see which ones have openings large enough to submerge my phone, and I avoid the risky ones. ;-)

 

[JustJazzie]

I once bought a Canon 30D for 100 bucks with a 18-55 and 70-250 lens and many filters. My mind played tricks on me because I couldn't believe that I got such a great deal, I looked at the camera and just saw D30 which was a lot older version, "Not to be confused with the Canon EOS 30D"(I copied and pasted the quoted blurb from the Wiki site that, didn't notice it until just now). People told me 30D, 30D. I said no, D30 my mind was playing ricks because there was no way I could believe that I go that good of a deal. I sold the camera for 150 with all of the stuff that came with it so that I could finance a 50D. It was worth at least twice that and the lenses I could have sold separately or kept. I discovered it a few months later when looking at shots that I took with it that seemed a little too high res for a 3.1mp camera. So, I looked at the exif data and it said 30D, then I realized that it was actually a 30D and I should have just kept that camera instead of getting the 50D. Oh well......

:-( sounds like someone got a great deal at least. And perhaps at least boosted your collective karma rating?

 

[sm4him]

I agree with Sharon. I have too many of these stories.

Does losing money and damaging laptops and palm pilots count? Or does it just have to be photography?

Oh, laptops!! That adds another sparkling moment of stupidity to my list!!

I spent the better part of a weekend thinking I had either a kidney stone or a kidney infection, back several years ago. I was fairly determined to wait it out at least until Monday, so I didn't have to go to the ER where I knew I'd wait for hours and hours on one of those horrid cots and they'd likely not do anything anyway, unless it was actually an infection.
Still, I'd go back and forth every few hours about whether I should just go to the ER.

So, at one point, on Sunday afternoon, I decide to just buck it up and go. But on the off chance that they DID keep me, I wanted to have some stuff I might need. So I packed a bag with a few clothes, a book or two and my laptop (this process took HOURS, since I had to lie down and wait for the pain to subside a little between every item I packed). Finally, I had the bag ready and went out to the car (YES, I intended to DRIVE myself to the hospital, despite the fact that I couldn't sit up for more than about 3 minutes at a time…but that's a subject for another thread, the "what in the world were you THINKING" thread).
I get to the car and realize I've forgotten something. I go get it, toss it in the car, and start to back out of the driveway. I run over a branch or something in the gravel driveway. Then, at the end of the driveway, I sit there a few moments and reconsider my plan--I'm back to thinking about the hours and hours I'll likely spend in the ER at this point, and after all, I'm now just about 12-14 hours from getting to my regular doctor on Monday anyway.

I talk myself out of going. Pull back up the driveway, running over the same branch again.

Have you guessed it yet?
Right. That was no branch. That was the backpack that my laptop was in. And I ran over it. TWICE.

It definitely left a mark. And putting it in a bag of rice wasn't likely to help!!
I did, miraculously, manage to pull the hard drive and actually extract what was on it, so at least I didn't lose any actual data.

EDIT: Oh and just to top it all off--by Monday morning, the pain was completely gone. No need for ERs OR doctors, meaning the laptop never really needed to go out to the car in the first place.

 

[JustJazzie]

I agree with Sharon. I have too many of these stories.

Does losing money and damaging laptops and palm pilots count? Or does it just have to be photography?

Oh, laptops!! That adds another sparkling moment of stupidity to my list!!

I spent the better part of a weekend thinking I had either a kidney stone or a kidney infection, back several years ago. I was fairly determined to wait it out at least until Monday, so I didn't have to go to the ER where I knew I'd wait for hours and hours on one of those horrid cots and they'd likely not do anything anyway, unless it was actually an infection.
Still, I'd go back and forth every few hours about whether I should just go to the ER.

So, at one point, on Sunday afternoon, I decide to just buck it up and go. But on the off chance that they DID keep me, I wanted to have some stuff I might need. So I packed a bag with a few clothes, a book or two and my laptop (this process took HOURS, since I had to lie down and wait for the pain to subside a little between every item I packed). Finally, I had the bag ready and went out to the car (YES, I intended to DRIVE myself to the hospital, despite the fact that I couldn't sit up for more than about 3 minutes at a time…but that's a subject for another thread, the "what in the world were you THINKING" thread).
I get to the car and realize I've forgotten something. I go get it, toss it in the car, and start to back out of the driveway. I run over a branch or something in the gravel driveway. Then, at the end of the driveway, I sit there a few moments and reconsider my plan--I'm back to thinking about the hours and hours I'll likely spend in the ER at this point, and after all, I'm now just about 12-14 hours from getting to my regular doctor on Monday anyway.

I talk myself out of going. Pull back up the driveway, running over the same branch again.

Have you guessed it yet?
Right. That was no branch. That was the backpack that my laptop was in. And I ran over it. TWICE.

It definitely left a mark. And putting it in a bag of rice wasn't likely to help!!
I did, miraculously, manage to pull the hard drive and actually extract what was on it, so at least I didn't lose any actual data.

EDIT: Oh and just to top it all off--by Monday morning, the pain was completely gone. No need for ERs OR doctors, meaning the laptop never really needed to go out to the car in the first place.

I gasped out loud. I'm glad I didn't have any coffee in hand when I read this, and really I am speechless. I really thought you ran over a branch, until..you didn't. I can hear the crunch, and it's painful.

 

[Buckster]

I can't figure out what I did with a full Canon AE-1 kit I bought a few years ago that was pristine, in a bag, with the original manual, flash, and all. It just disappeared from my possession somewhere along the line.