What is the most expensive photographic item that you've lost?

[Donald Qualls]

We are in good company, Yo-Yo Ma left his cello in a taxi once; Yo-Yo Ma Forgets Cello in Cab

I doubt everything most of us own will match the value of Yo-Yo Ma's cello...

 

[MattKing]

I doubt everything most of us own will match the value of Yo-Yo Ma's cello...

Particularly in Yo-Yo Ma's hands....

 

[Donald Qualls]

Particularly in Yo-Yo Ma's hands....

Yeah. Just saying, a string player at his level probably has an instrument that sold for more than a million dollars. Yehudi Menuhin (just to pick a violinist, for this example) probably doesn't own any $100 violins; same is probably true of Yo-Yo Ma with cellos.

 

[PerTulip]

Managed to never lose photography stuff (lens caps don't count). Knock on wood!

 

[JPD]

I have misplaced cameras and equipment many times, but they have always showed up. At the moment I have no clue where the light-yellow filter in Bayonet 1 is.

I did own a yo-yo as a kid, but lost it. Never owned a cello.

 

[Sirius Glass]

The lens cap fell off the Hasselblad in the UPS store in New Orleans and I looked all over when I discovered it was missing. Then a few minutes late the UPS store manager called me to tell me that he had it. I went back to the store and got it.

I often put equipment away in a safe place in my house and then later cannot find it without a lot of grief.

 

[j-dogg]

Full RB67 kit, Canon 5D kit and Ai Nikon FE kit, stolen out of my car.

 

[gone]

I had to think on this because I don't think I've lost anything, which is amazing. There's nearly always a camera w/ me when I go out, and sometimes I carry an extra lens or some extra filters to try them out. Sitting at restaurants and coffeterias w/ my gear sitting on the table and traveling as much as I do, you'd think that something would have been left behind.

Mostly I've spent money on lost eyeglasses. More than a few times I've taken them off to clean or just to set them down on a table and walked away. Usually someone returns them to a worker in the places, but not always, and a lot of places don't spend much time w/ this. They tend to throw away left over items after a while, and nearly always the person you ask has a hard time even finding a lost and found drawer in their place.

 

[Donald Qualls]

Mostly I've spent money on lost eyeglasses.

Your eyes must be better than mine. I won't get far without my glasses (though with my current method of two pairs -- one for driving, and computer presciption bifocals for closer work) it's possible to leave one pair behind...

 

[BradS]

Groggy from the long flight from SFO to Osaka, I left a Nikon FA with 28mm f/2.8 AIS Nikkor on the train in Japan once - didn't realize it was gone 'till the next morning. I frantically explained the situation to our handler. She assured me it would be fine. We returned to the train station later that day and waited for the exact train that we had been on the previous day to arrive...handler talked to conductor, I went in train to the seat I was sitting in and there it was, nobody had touched it.

The most expensive thing that I've lost for good was a Gossen digital Luna Pro. I think it might be on the hill above Bear Gulch reservoir in Pinnacles Nat'l Park.

 

[faberryman]

I don’t recall ever losing any equipment, but I did lose the first ten years of my black and white negatives. I have no idea what happened to them. I try not to think about it.

 

[Kodachromeguy]

I lost my favorite little Leitz Trinovid 8×20 binoculars on a hike near North Conway, New Hampshire. I retraced my steps twice on that hill, but never saw them again.

 

[Huss]

I lost my favorite little Leitz Trinovid 8×20 binoculars on a hike near North Conway, New Hampshire. I retraced my steps twice on that hill, but never saw them again.

oh man, those Leitz binoculars are so nice. An ex gf asked to borrow mine, and the first thing she did was drop them onto concrete. They were fine mechanically but the pristine cosmetic condition was no more.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Purchased some fancy diopter magnifier for Leica. It was cool. It managed to unscrew itself at very first hike while I was jumping on the rocks at the water edge of lower Niagara cliffs.

 

[Steve York]

Not lost but I dropped an M4 into three feet of sea water once.

 

[Huss]

Not lost but I dropped an M4 into three feet of sea water once.

Good grief!

I'm still holding out that somehow I'll find my VF, but I have no idea where it could be.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I've never lost any of my gear, but I've had it stolen. ALL my gear. Thankfully, insurance replaced it.

 

[abruzzi]

I lost 15 years of my life shooting digital. Does that count?

 

[removed account4]

sekonic studio meter (398? ) was in my light bag in the basement where my gear slept when I wasn't using it .. always in the same spot, in the same bag so I know where it is. shot a wedding for friends used it, put it back with the flash that was used that nite too... needed the meter a few days later, wasn't there. gone. kids too young to have rummaged through the stuff, door latched with sliding bolt at 5'6 as well. searched everywhere. emptied bag, emptied pockets, 3 or 4 times. finally after a year fruitless searches I bought a sekonicL28, and when I put it in the light bag where the other one lived for years. ... it ( the lost meter ) was just sitting there. I eventually sold the L28. it happens with film and film holders too, but its usually film I find that I never bought and never exposed with someone else's photographs on it. I've had a handful of strange experiences over the years. I tried to call fox and scully but they already retired.

 

[Finn lyle]

I left my then-freshly-repaired Pentax LX in a bar in Rapid City, South Dakota a few months ago, luckily after realizing that the next day and calling the bar it seems a server who also shoots Pentax had noticed and grabbed it. Got a very stern talking to about forgetting a camera like that but all in all I suppose it's better to have it back.

 

[Huss]

I left my then-freshly-repaired Pentax LX in a bar in Rapid City, South Dakota a few months ago, luckily after realizing that the next day and calling the bar it seems a server who also shoots Pentax had noticed and grabbed it. Got a very stern talking to about forgetting a camera like that but all in all I suppose it's better to have it back.

You got lucky!

Or perhaps this states the desirability of the LX...

It is interesting to note that pretty much any comment revolving around an LX has something to do with 'needs repair' or "just repaired'.

I gotta unload mine before if falls into those two categories..

 

[BradS]

Sounds like the weather in Singapore, where it is either raining, about to rain or just stopped raining.

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

I had a heavily loaded gadget bag take a tumble down a hillside. The top flap wasn't shut. An FM2, an F3 and Nikon lenses from 16mm to 200mm went rolling through the grass. Found everything except for an 85mm f2. Hello KEH... And somewhere in the Cuyahoga Recreation Area is a Nikon lens free for the taking.

 

[Steve York]

Lost plenty of yellow filters and lens caps over the years, and as practical matter "lost" a Leica M4 when I dropped it into 3' of salt water. Ha, ha, repairs almost matched the value of the camera. I wasn't laughing back then. Then I had a lens mysteriously lost when I sold on that big auction site and mailed it overseas w/o sufficient tracking. Who knew that the tracking on the custom form was no good?

 

[Kodachromeguy]

I lost a 50 mm f/2.8 micro Nikkor lens that I sold to a fellow in California via the big auction site. It never arrived at it's destination. However, the US Postal Service paid me for the insurance amount. So where did that lens go?