I am one lucky dude

MtnShooter

MtnShooter

Guest
Ever drop a camera? I did for the first time in two decades today.

I was shooting a music festival with a Z1U, holding it at about knee level, and holding it loose so the picture didn't get jiggly, and BAM... a kid ran right into my hand. The camera hit the concrete so hard it busted off the mic mount and closed the LED screen almost all the way.

But the little sucker still works fine. The only damage I can detect is the mic holder. I'm one lucky dood. And apparently the Z1U is a more robust camera than it gets credit for.

Gotta finish the shoot tomorrow with my DSR 450. I'll have a better grip on that one.
 
While I was in college, I was using the schools equipment on a shoot. Their policy is, you break it you pay for it.

Decent camera on a cheap ass tripod. The extender legs wern't the strongest. I had the camera setup as high as it could go, and there it went starting to topple over as one of the legs let loose.

I moved fast...



But not fast enough. It smashed to the ground. Boy was I lucky, nothing broke.
 
Lost my first camera due to not locking the camera into the tripod plate.

I was shooting a polo match from a genie lift. I got a few shots, then went to move the lift. Apparently the camera was not locked completely into the tripod. The momentum from the lift was enough to separate the camera from the tripod, and it smashed down lens first.

I still got whats left if anybody needs spare parts for a BVP-550 or BVW-5.
 
Lost an old beta cam several years back. Was sharing gear and the tripod I was using had a bad leg that wasn't reliable and I wasn't told that. I was standing behind it when the leg went forward and down it went on the concrete. Luckily, we were replacing the cameras the following week with new ones but I did get a talking too about making sure that didn't happen with the new ones.
 
Yep I had a cam handle break

The handle on my Sony D-30L broke. I had just finished shooting one of those shots where you follow someone and hold the camera down by the sidewalk CU on the feet.

I was in the process of hoisting the camera back up on my shoulder, and had it nearly there when the handle simply broke. The camera went forward and I instinctively stuck out my leg. The camera landed on my shin and rolled down my leg...the rubber lens hood, and the wireless mic antennae broke the rest of the fall. Nothing damaged except for a scuff on the lens hood and a nasty gash in my leg. A small price to pay when the camera is your own personal property.

But I shudder when I think how many times I'd used that same handle to secure safety straps to the camera in a helicopter shot or over the edge of a building or canyon.... Wow. If it had broken then...
 
I had a camera strap break on me. I just slid the strap over my shoulder when the back bracket broke. I managed to catch the strap as if fell, but the back end of the camera hit the ground.

The camera wasn't seriously damaged - I did get some odd messages every now and then, like Tape Jam, when there was no tape inside.

The chief quickly ordered new camera straps for everyone after that.
 
I have never been able to trust a camera strap enough to use one. I don't like giving up complete control of where my lens is going and knowing that my grip is going to keep it secure. The description of the handle breaking is the first I've heard of that happening, and that is scary. I didn't think that was possible. I've trusted the strength of that handle in cases where if it failed...yikes. I think I'll check those connections today.

FMc
 
I had a camera handle break as well. Fortunately I was setting it down just after walking in to a H.S. gym to do a sports story and the camera was only about 6 inches from the floor. Suddenly my load was lighter and I had about 5 inches of UVW-100 handle in my hand. I accidentally grabbed the shotgun mic instead of the handle of a 637 once. The only damage was the NP battery compartment.
 
At my second job, I was the lucky recipient of a beta cam that went bouncing down the road when the guy who had it before me rolled his car.
Then I had it flip over, lens first, still attached to the tripod (at the lowest level) and broke the viewfinder off. And I dropped it 2 other times, left side to the ground.
That camera spent more time in the shop than on the streets.
Fortunately, I haven't dropped anymore since then.
(My fingers are crossed)
 
I was covering a restaurant fire by a marina one morning, just got through doing a hit so I took my sony xd cam off of the sticks to move it closer to my crew car, when i got to my spot I put the cam back on my sticks...now at the time the tripod head would trick me when its in the mood, it would latch on, and even make the click sound....but in reality its just sitting there (I reported it, but no problem was found as usual) well after putting the cam on the sticks again, i turned around to clean up the reel cables. On my turn I must have bumped the tripod, beacuse soon after, I heard a crash...of course, it was my xd cam...luckily the viewfinder broke the fall...all it needed was a replacement...that was my first and last time ever having a camera fall in my presence, but unfortunately for me, the next day was my last at that shop...never been the same since

- Supa
 
It was Christmas Eve at my first station and I was out shooting this Christmas Train Ride VOSOT. After we got back into the train station I took three steps off the train and hit a patch of ice. Luckily for me the Beta SP broke my fall. My body smashed the viewfinder and the walkway broke the tape door. I even managed to split my batter in half. That camera didn't come back form engineering for a while.
 
First time in ten years

Just happened a few days ago, it was like watching my child fall; I was shooting a stand up and since our shop pools gear, my sticks were MIA, so I grabbed another shooters sticks and assumed (yeah I should know better) that it worked properly, I set it up went over to adjust the light and when I looked over one of the legs was loose and she went down. No visable damage, did a couple of tests and have yet to find any problems. I then tightened the legs on all our sticks.
 
I was walking down a rural road after a barn fire in the middle of winter, one of those nice rural roads with a crown in the middle. I had my camera on my shoulder when my feet just went out from under me. It was like a cartoon moment, the camera stayed up in the air with my hand still in the lens and just before ther camera hit the ground I was able the get my left hand under the camera, and luckily it did not hit the ground.

One of our guys was getting a great shot of the waves coming up on shore and we were all watching the shot waiting for the waves to go under the camera, but they did not, the water splashed upon the lens, a split second later the camera died. Our engineer did get working again, but it never looked the same.
 
I have once too...I was on my way to a fire in the middle of the night. It was in winter, it was warm during the day so some snow had melted, but then a light coating of snow fell too.

I was walking down a sidewalk, and my feet went out in front of me, the camera landed on its bottom and the tripod leg was a little bent. I had no idea there was a big patch of ice on the sidewalk.

I was a little dazed looking straight up at the sky, the last thing I had seen before that were my feet going up. I think it jarred some of the electrical stuff inside the DVCam as it would flash pink at random times. It had to be sent in, but it was fixed.
 
I was shooting the career highlight biggie of any cameraman… that’s right the surfing dog story that you know will play at the end of the bulletin on every network in the world.
As it was a day with very little surf I tried to sex it up by getting as close as I could to the action. I thought it would be safe to stand in the water up to my waist and shoot the dog surfing past me without danger to the camera.
Just as he went past me the dog (hanging however many toes they have on the front paws) leaned too far forward and the board planted its nose into the wave standing up in the air. Following the ‘what goes up must come down’ rule the back of the board crashed onto the camera and actually smashed off the viewfinder and giving me a glancing blow to the head. I was staggered, seeing stars but luckily for me I didn’t drop the camera or the now dangling viewfinder into the sea.
A bit of gaffer tape and I was able to finish the story. The techs had a spear bracket so the camera was fixed in a matter of moments… it all could have gone so seriously wrong, imaging explaining what had happened to the camera if I had let it go…
“there was this surfing dog…”
 
ooops!

I dropped a BVW-100 onto a sidewalk once. I was carrying it down by my side and banged the VF into my leg. The camera flew out of my hand and landed directly on the right side. It bounced about 8-12 inches right back into my hand. No damage externally, so I was safe....right? I shot for another few minutes and returned to the station. Everything I had shot following the drop was not usable...damn, busted. I had broken one of the boards internally. Oh, by-the-way, I was leaving for a new job three days later (not because of the drop though!!).
 
Another story - I was covering breaking news outside of town. The cops closed down the road (found a body) and we had to use the shoulder of the highway. So all these news units were cramped together off the side of the road. Our helicopter was able to fly over and get some video. He was going to land in the field and pass the tape off to another shooter.

Well, it was cool to see the chopper land next to us, and one of the other station's shooters was watching the helicopter as he was backing out. Out shooter made the mistake of setting the camera down.

The camera was crushed and useless. At least we had video from the chopper!
 
when I first started shooting multi cam probably only my first or second day on the job. We had just finished setting up and were meeting back at the truck. I remember looking up as a large wind gust whipped by taking a camera and tripod backwards 30 feet or so off the bleachers. It hit probably ten feet from where we were all standing. Since then I check and triple check all equipment and never leave cameras up when I can avoid it.

Since then I have seen one other blown over, during a live shot. Felt bad for the cameraman he had heavily bagged the tripod to no effect. I would hate to have to have been in his shoes as he explained that to engineering.
 
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