D2X can take a beating-in case anyone had doubts

In case anyone had any doubts, I can affirm that the D2X can take a

beating. While visiting Bryce Canyon this past week, I decided to do

the Mule ride into the canyon. Apparently my mule, Ethel, had other

plans. She threw me, and my camera, to the ground after a wild ride

of about 6 seconds. I'm hideously bruised, battered, and moving

slowly. My camera didn't seem to even notice the very hard hit it

took. To give you an idea of the impact, the ridges on the

polarizing filter no longer exist on one section. Surprisingly, my

lens also fared well, just a minor scratch on the barrel. After the

ride, I checked every function I could think of to make sure

everything was working. Absolutely no problems. After a cleaning,

there was no evidence of the fall on the camera body. I wish I could

say the same for my own body.

Good to hear Laurie. Thanks for volunteering to be the D2X crash dummy.

My pleasure Paul :)

Finally -- a muleproof Nikon DSLR!

Laurie!

 

Sorry to hear you took a tumble, hope you "Bounce" back soon from your injuries!

 

Glad to hear about your camera though, as it sounds, things could have been much worse!

 

Here's a flower for you, to help make you feel better: @-)--

 

Ken.

Did I read this correctly? Elmer and the D2x were thrown while riding Ethel.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

I'm sorry, couldn't resist :^0

Great testimonial Laurie...but so glad to hear you were not seriously injured! Perhaps you could post this story in the Canon forum challenging a 1Ds user to ride Ethel?? ;-)

"Ethel." No way it was named "Ethel." That's something. (roflmao)

 

Sorry about yer bruises, m'lady!

Hope you are recovering well Laurie! But I'm glad that both you and your camera survived that throw. Oh boy, just think an accident like that could have been ended alot worse...

Lauria, Hope you're feeling better soon, and glad to hear your camera is OK. Somehow I think perhaps you were subconciously protecting your D2X as the mishap progressed. Cheers, -Greg-

I agree with Greg on the D2X. All the best to you!<div></div>

Excellent picture, Vivek. You almost make me want to pay the money for an IR filter. :-)

ups, or is that UV? :-)

Laurie, I don't think that was on your itenerary, was it? If your camera happened to fire off a shot at the time, and if it turns out fabulous, everyone and their brother will be signing up for the mule ride and bodies will be flying everywhere! The things you'll do for a great shot...

Glad to hear the gear is ok!! Sorry to hear you're not, but bruises will go away :) I hope you didn't give Ethel a carrot or anything!

Thanks for all the well wishes. Other than some really ugly bruises and a little soreness, I'm fine. It could have been much worse. A prior riding incident put me in a wheelchair for about a month. Unfortunately, my wrist was too sore to hold the camera and shoot during the ride. The light was bad anyway. If there's a next time, I'll take a point and shoot. I can use those one-handed.

 

My irrational fear of heights kicked in and made it nearly impossible to shoot anyway. What I want to know is...why must the mule walk as close to the edge of the already steep and narrow path as possible? I walked the same path the day before without any trepidation. It was a whole different story on the back of an unpredictable mule named Ethel.

Vivek, Thanks for the flower photo. I too would love to know the details. I've been playing around with a cheap IR filter with my D70 but don't really have a feel for it yet.

 

Greg, I think the bruise on the inside of my right elbow was due to my attempt to cradle the D2X during the fall. There's an imprint that looks remarkably like the battery release latch on the left side of the camera.

You generally know where you're putting *your* feet -- but you can't read the mind of a mule, and you never know when the silly beasts will fling themselves off the edge of a cliff. Perfectly rational, Laurie. :) Seriously though - I don't have a fear of heights unless I'm on the unprotected edge of some, and then I'm a little queasy. The edge could crumble, I could twist an ankle (an almost certain possibility since I do that on flat level ground) or a flying insect intent on sucking the life out of me before I can scream for help whizzes by in a strafing attack, and in trying to wave it off I lose my balance and tumble to my death a thousand feet or more below - where I'll be eaten by wild animals and my naked bones will bleach in the hot desert sun. You were fortunate - no doubt about it! Treasure those bruises and aches as the sweet reward for still being alive!

Laurie, It is false color UV shot (almost all the UV shots I make are false color UV) using the venerable D70- Ilkka got it right. A custom fabricated flash was used for this. Here is how those flowers look like in visible light (boring yellow flowers as one artist commented).

 

If you are starting to experiment with IR, please avoid using the 18-70 kit zoom. Not much IR gets through that one. You may want to try the 12-24 zoom or a better lens like the 28mm f/3.5 A/AI Nikkor.

 

All the best for your well being!

 

Thanks Ilkka for your kind words!<div></div>

Now all we need is a muleproof Laurie.

 

And I thought it was bad enough that horses always bite me. So far I've never been thrown.

take 2 CF cards and call me in the morning...

Laurie,

I am sorry to hear about your mishap but I need to one up you on this one. I was in

Ethiopia a month ago. We were in the miles from civilization about 15 hours of dirt roads

by bus and 5 hours by horse in an area called Beta Gadet when the saddle on my horse

broke. I had my D2x on my back in a Tamarack backpack with a total of 60lbs of gear. I

went down very hard separating my right shoulder. But the Nikon lived up to it's

reputation once again. They put it on a separate horse for the remaining 8 hours. I gave

one of the horse wranglers a plastic bag to cover it but he decided to put it in his pocket

for later. It rained cat and dogs.

When I finally met up with the stuff it was not looking too good. But it all survived after a

day

of drying out I was back on the saddle. It wasn't as productive of an assignment as it

could have been with

one arm out of commission and all , but I got some great images and awesome memories.

Marcus<div></div>

Marcus, You've certainly got me beat there! I can only imagine how uncomfortable riding with a separated shoulder would be. I'm glad your camera was as durable as mine. How did you manage to weight down your Tamrac backpack with 60lbs of gear? I thought mine was getting heavy.

Laurie,

Nice portfolio. You got a nice eye

Keep up the good work.

Marcus

I am glad that the D2X is robust. As I pointed out else where, there were a total of 3 D2X's in my trip to Madagascar, and all of them performed perfectly in very wet tropical rain forest conditions. I was a bit worried because I had to shoot in the rain a couple of times. I saw one other D2X getting kicked and dropped onto a hard surface. Fortunately, there are no problems. I have traveled with the F4 and F5 in some very difficult shooting conditions such as dust storm, freezing cold, tropics, etc., and they never had any problems. I am glad that the D2X seems to be as rugged even though it has even more electronics inside.