Close call. Crisis averted.

[Christopher Walrath]

Well, had a close call today at work. I tke my Minoltas with me everywhere I go. I took a picture of a cake that was made for Customer Appreciation Day at work and left the camera bag open on a chair next to the table on which was the cake. My co-worker who had made the cake wanted to take a pic as well and wanted a high vantage point. She took my camera bag by the handle, lifted and out flies the SRT about five feet landing on linoleum tile over concrete floor. OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!
After grumbling for an hour and a half until I had lunch and found that all was well, I finally relaxed. The camera landed on the lens which placed the brunt of the impact on the threaded lens cap and the adapter it was threaded into. This popped out of the thread on the end of the lens and also sheered off the ID ring around the face of the lens (focal length, diameter, manufacturer, etc). After determining that the camera was NO worse for wear and that the lens apparently was still in fine working order and some Super Glue gel on the removed face, all is well again. And threads aren't even stripped. Thank God for lens caps.

 

[reellis67]

You're much more composed that I would be. That kind of thing really sets me on edge. I guess it's the old 'my fathers tools' concept, or some variant of it. People should never touch other peoples tools without asking first. I'm glad all turned out well - but I'm having chest pains just reading this!

- Randy

 

[DBP]

Lucky it was something old and solid like an SRT.

 

[grahamp]

Good job it wasn't an old Zenit. The floor would have been damaged.

 

[Christopher Walrath]

Believe you me, I was seething for about an hour and a half til I could clock out and smoke a couple of packs and calm down/wire up enough to see if everything was ok.

 

[gnashings]

You're much more composed that I would be. That kind of thing really sets me on edge. I guess it's the old 'my fathers tools' concept, or some variant of it. People should never touch other peoples tools without asking first. I'm glad all turned out well - but I'm having chest pains just reading this!

- Randy

bold type added by myself

I was brought up with this principle firmly ingrained in me - I thought it was in many ways the 11th commandment! Something you take out of your home and into your workplace, border-line sacred... But, like many other things I thought were to be taken for granted, it seems this one is slipping into antiquity - and I dare say, everyone will be worse off for it. I found that people raised with that mentality ('my father's tools') seem to translate it into other areas of life with the obvious effect of courtesy and respect towards others and their posessions. People to whom this is a foreign concept... well...
My God, I am bitching now - I better stop! Sure glad to hear the SRT is more durable than the corporation that made it

Peter.

 

[Ara Ghajanian]

Did she at least apologize for her behavior. As a consolation, she should have at least baked you a cake too.
Ara

 

[reellis67]

Peter,

Your response warmed my heart!

- Randy

 

[joeyk49]

Why did she feel the need to use YOUR gear??? She should have just taken out her 1.2mpcellphone-digicam-teethcleaner!!!

 

[colrehogan]

She wanted to use the chair, not his camera.

 

[Jerevan]

Well, sometimes one gets lucky! I know the feeling... The camera falls and hits the floor - it feels like an eterinity. I had a Canon AE-1p which I was using, and we went into a museum, and we put our stuff into a locker. For some unknown reason I put my camera into my friend's bag. When we came back, she just took the bag out of the locker. Only problem was that it wasn't closed and out fell the camera... The camera nosedived like an old airplane 1.5 meter onto a concrete floor. Eeek. The only damage was the plastic retainer ring, which fell off. In a fit of anger I yelled loudly and threw the plastic ring away. A couple of japanese tourists looked at me (angry young man cursing) and hastily evacuated the nearby area.

The lens, sans the plastic retaining ring, worked as well as it had before. I made a few photographs right afterwards. Happy ending but I am somewhat reluctant to put my camera into someone else's bag...

 

[gnashings]

She wanted to use the chair, not his camera.

She used him for his chair... how cold!

Randy,
I am glad there are still people out there who think this way!

Peter.

 

[bob01721]

"... I am glad there are still people out there who think this way...!"

There are lots of us who think this way. We learned the "my father's tools" concept at an early age... and most of us are pushing 60 now.

Glad to hear the SRT is okay. I knocked one of mine off a bench a few weeks ago. Other than a chip in the concrete walkway, there was no damage. ;-)

 

[Uncle Bill]

Something like that happend to one of my Nikon F's, the lens had to have a damaged filter removed. The front element was fine, the concrete floor at St. Lawerence Market was not. That is why I love older SLRs, they are built to take it.

Bill

 

[tony lockerbie]

Once I was using a SRT plugged into a floor standing flash unit and moved back quickly with the cord still in the pc socket. The camera was torn out of my hand, flew up in a pendulum arc and smashed to the concrete floor.

Unfortunately the camera split down the middle and was a write off. So you did quite well!