Thorny Devil Loc: Alice Springs, Central Australia

From time to time I have read horror stories of people dropping their cameras or lenses and thought that would never happen to me - I always handle my camera gear very carefully.
Well, a couple of days ago I was walking from one end of the house to the other carrying my Fujifilm 10-24mm f/4.0 lens. I still don't know exactly how it happened but I watched in horror as the lens slipped out of my grip and landed camera end down on to a solid concrete floor covered with ceramic tiles. Fortunately the lens caps were attached to both ends of the lens and the lens hood was also attached.
I was aware of the sickening sound as the camera end of the lens hit the floor. I picked the lens up off the floor and was surprised to see that nothing was broken. The only mark was where a bit of tile grout from the floor had become embedded in the serrated edge of the rear lens cap. I shook the lens and there was a faint rattle from the OIS mechanism but nothing more than usual. After carrying out a thorough visual inspection I attached the lens to the camera and everything appears to be working satisfactorily.
I can not believe that the lens survived a one metre drop on to a concrete floor. It says a lot for the design and build quality of the Fujifilm lens however I do not recommend testing the integrity of other Fujifilm (or any other make) lenses in the same manner.

roaddogie

I would go buy a lottery ticket.

RichJ207 Loc: Sammamish, WA

I want to talk to you about black opals. 🎅🏻

JRiepe Loc: Southern Illinois

A couple years ago I had my camera sitting in the back seat of the car as I was driving. Stupid me. I missed the road I was to turn onto and threw on my brakes. The camera came crashing down onto the floorboard hitting the bottom metal part of the front seat shattering the rear monitor. Earlier that day I attempted to toss my eyeglasses into my cap that was lying on the ground and in doing so missed the cap causing the eyeglasses to skid across the rock and scratching one of the lenses. That day's outing with my carelessness cost me around $800.

Thorny Devil Loc: Alice Springs, Central Australia

And new underwear.

Thorny Devil Loc: Alice Springs, Central Australia

It worries me that I sometimes do things absentmindedly - sooner or later I will get caught out.

Thorny Devil Loc: Alice Springs, Central Australia

Black opals??

Xinloi6870

Black opals are extremely rare, as is dropping your lens on concrete without any damage.

flip1948 Loc: Hamden, CT

Perhaps he confused Alice Springs with Lightning Ridge

RichJ207 Loc: Sammamish, WA

Obviously off-subject. Noticing you are in Australia and having been obsessed with the fiery opals originating there, I couldn’t resist a comment. Just bought a nice Ethiopian opal but they’re just not the same.

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

While driving home from a shoot a deer ran across the road right in front of me. My camera bag was on the rear seat. I braked hard and the bag slid off the seat and fell to the floor. It isn't a real camera bag, I use a gym bag which is not as well padded. Fortunately all ended well, I missed the deer and no camera items broke.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

I recently took a trip and had a 150-600 Sigma Sport mounted on my D800. It was on the back seat of the car I was driving. I rounded a corner a little too fast, and the camera and lens rolled over to the door. I was happy it didn't roll onto the floor of the car. I thought my sister in law would have secured the camera and lens so that wouldn't happen again. In any case, I forgot about it. When we got to the next shooting location I opened up the car door and watched, helplessly, as the camera was overcome by gravitational acceleration as it crashed to the ground. It had some scuffing on the pentaprism cover and eyepiece, and the mount seemed a little loose, but it was focusing and taking pictures. When I got home I took a long hard look and the lens mounts on the camera and lens were "kinked" - so off to Nikon and Sigma they went. Well, Nikon's policy is to completely refurbish the camera to "like new" condition - so they replaced the entire front of the camera, the top of the camera, and all of the rubber grips, battery door, aligned the mirror, tested for focus and adjusted the focus mirrors, cleaned everything to make it look PERFECT! Total cost was $300 including return shipping. Sigma replaced the mechanical parts that got damaged and tested/adjusted focus parameters- total was $125 including shipping. So for $425 I got a great refurbished lens and camera body that was better than they were before I dropped them. Have I learned my lesson to be more careful? You bet! Will it happen again, you bet! This was an out of pocket expense because I was between insurance companies. That was the other lesson learned.

Thorny Devil Loc: Alice Springs, Central Australia

Okay, I can see the connection now but I don't intend to repeat the incident to compare statistics - lens damage versus black opals.

Thorny Devil Loc: Alice Springs, Central Australia

Looks like you have done your homework flip1948, Lightning Ridge indeed is famous for its black opals which are more likely to be found there than most other opal fields in Australia.

Thorny Devil Loc: Alice Springs, Central Australia

Thank you Gene, hearing about an incident from a photographer of your calibre and experience makes me feel a little better.