Gear: Ooops, I dropped my lens

You know it is bound to happen to every photographer.  Hell, it’s happened to me in the past.  But as I shoot many live concerts, you’d think this would happen more often.  I’m not gentle with my gear.  I’ve dropped my camera off rocks in Ireland, I smack my memory cards pretty hard sometimes when in the photo pit, my lens often gets bumped into the stage or other photogs (sorry!).  But yeah, gear is meant to be used, right?  But on the way home from the Alicia Keys show a few days ago, I was searching through my bag to get my keys and… I…. dropped… my…. bag.  [insert dramatic music here]

I heard a thud.  Not a good sound to hear.  I figured the top of the cameras that are in the photo compartment hit.  I honestly didn’t think more of it until this morning (yes, 3 days later).  A friend came by to borrow my 70-200 for a shoot she has this weekend.  I took it out of my bag, and it’s dented.  Like big ol’ nasty dent right up top.   I mean, this doesn’t happen in a photo pit with crowd surfers and stage divers, nor does it happen when I’m “exploring” a building and fall through a broken board… noooo.. .when looking for my keys.

You’ll notice the dent pretty easily

70-200-broken-filter-dent-shit

Now thankfully I had a filter on this lens.  I don’t have filters on all my lenses, but I do for this one.  Why?  I have no clue.  But I did.  And it’s the filter that has the dent and not the lens.  I tested out the lens, focus was fine, zoom ring, focus ring, all check out.  The Image Stabilizer kicks in no problem.  No cracks in the glass itself or in the actual filter.  My problem is that I can’t put a lens cap on the lens and I also can’t unscrew the filter off the lens.  haha.

Yep… so there ya have it… I dropped my lens.  Last time I did this was with my old 10-22 which fell on a stage from about 4 feet high, and proceeded to roll off the stage and fall off the stage onto the floor.  So I guess it was dropped twice!

Lessons learned?

  • Lens filters can save your lens when you are stupid
  • If you are going to buy a filter… buy a GOOD one.  It’s still an extra element between your sensor and your subject, so invest in good filters like Hoya or B+W
  • Lens hoods are also great to put on when using your lens (I’ve cracked one and have had one kicked off my lens before)
  • Use your gear, but be smart with it
  • Have a good camera bag with good padding
  • Don’t loan me anything, I’ll drop it

Now let’s hope that the lens is really ok, I’ll have to put it through proper testing when I get it back.

Hopefully this will be the last blog entry about me breaking things.

2 comments

  1. Wow! My dream is to get this lens (Nikon), I can’t even imagine dropping this prize. I would be distraught

    1. I was.. .when I saw it. But thankfully its just the filter. When I dropped my 10-22, the zoom ring barely turned. Canon fixed it up quick though

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