The most aweful noise in the world ..., I am having a Cry ... Camera not happy !!

[mickyj]

In my rush to get to work the other day, I dropped a camera, lens first, down onto Cement. It feel about 1 meter and landed with a crunch then bounced base first under my car into a puddle.
It actually dug a cut into the cement with the lens filter ring. I felt sick.

Now I will tell you it was a Canon 5D with a Canon L series TS-E 24mm attached and fell head first onto the focus ring. Yes, I still feel sick.

The obvious damage, the lens cap is cracked, a goner. The filter ring on the lens is bashed back a little and the lens filter screw in on the end is no longer 100% round.

I checked the lens over and I see no further damage and nothing rattles (Thank goodness). I squeezed off a few shots, tried the focus ring (still has a smooth action) and checked the tilt and shift.
I have checked out the photos since and they all look ok. Either I have been very lucky or the lens will fall apart another day

I can't see the dented filter ring in the photos so it is not dented back far enough. Any ideas on what kind of damage doing this could do ? Any ideas on what I can do with the lens and camera to fully check it out ?

I have tried the camera at both extremes of focus, tried tilt up/down and shift + swivel. I have also tried zooming in on the final pictures and they look fine.

I know the L series lens and 5D body are made to bounce ... but on cement ?

Maybe I should go out and buy a lottery ticket. going off this as an example, I would not win first prize but I feel like I could win the second or third ... with my partial luck

[Tannin]

Ouch! Probably the two most vulnerable mechanisms in the lens are the auto-focus and the image stabilization systems .... with the TS-E 24, I reckon you might be OK on both.

[mickyj]

yes, I think the only real damage was my backside when I kicked myself and yelled at myself. I think I was very lucky.

[kiwi]

Yip, horrid sound Isnt it, seems you have been lucky huh

[Scotty72]

You seem to escaped lightly.

[JM Tran]

try the brick wall test with the camera and lens on tripod, and various apertures and orientation to see if there is any mis-alignment with the camera, and also the lens performance.

last year I dropped the D3 and 70-200 VR at about 1.5m right into concrete, landed body first - the hood bore the brunt of the lens impact but it broke and filter was kinda chipped. No problems with the D3 but there was a big crack on the vertical grip area and it costed me about $350 to get it fixed and resealed again. Could have been a lot worse.

[mickyj]

Thanks, I had forgotten about this test. Duh !

I will give it a shot. I suspect this lens will never have a filter fitted ever again, other than that, it is looking ok

[mickyj]

I did do some test shots. They came out ok but it was hard to tell. We have not had good sunlight in Adelaide for a while. First rain clouds, now volcanic ash. Who would have thought ?
So the photos are a little dark. I think that they were pleasing though.


The first three are Tilt (gives the miniature look). The last two are stitched shifts (To all extremes of the Shift) The last of the shifts was HDR made up of 9 photos.
I think the wall test is next !

[ameerat42]

Yes. It's just the thing to make you shove a packet of chips in your mouth and then spit them all right out! Good luck with your good luck so far.
Am.

[reaction]

send it in for a check
no number of posts by random internets will truly give you peace of mind
hope you were insured

[Bennymiata]

My father always taught me to have a secure hold on the camera strap EVERY time you pickup the camera.
So much so, that now, I always grab the strap before grabbing the camera.

Lucky that L lenses and the professional Canon cameras are tough!

I'd love a 24mm tilt lens.......even one that has been dropped but still working.

[smallfooties]

omg...
You sure are lucky! Whoa... i hope you're insured too!
would be expensive to replace or repair the gear no?
i have this paranoia where i think i will one day drop my camera too... even more so now that i'm using the black rapid strap... lol...
nothing wrong with the strap... i'm just thinking it would be my luck to have the screw come loose... and *crunch* *wails* lol...