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Dropped my camera.........what should I expect?


ilia_isakov

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<p>Hi, I have this fear of dropping cameras, and it finally caught up with me<br>

my dog knocked my camera off a couch, and I saw it hit the ground. I checked the camera and it seems to be fine, however, I want to set my fears straight... so please tell me about how high a normal dslr (not cheaply made) - what height of fall can it "survive". Describe similar incidences if you had them.</p>

<p>more specifically my question is: what happens when a camera falls down. Lets say there is no visible physical damage.......buyt I am assumingthat there are still moving parts inside the lens and the camera. How does this affect them down the line........will it malfunction someday?</p>

<p>(I own a panasonic, gh3, and a 12-35 mm panasonic lens. Both are apparently sturdy, the camera is magnesium alloy).</p>

<p> </p>

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<p>It all depends on the height of the fall, the nature of the surface it hit, and exactly what part of the camera hit the surface. As Mukul said - you need to try it out. I had an Oly E-Pl2 drop from about 4 ft onto a hard surface...it screwed up the AF of the attached zoom lens, but only at the long end of the zoom range. Some other cameras...everything was fine. A Nikon F5 (the tank) hitting asphalt when a strap broke resulted in a new mirror box.</p>
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<p>Right, it depends on several factors as mentioned above. You could drop two identical cameras from the same height onto the same service. If they land differently, the damage (or the absence of damage) could be very different.</p>

<p>I would double check the zoom ring and focus ring of the lens are still working fine. Capture a few images of a flat wall, setting the zoom at the long, middle, and short ends, and make sure that your camera sensor is parallel to the wall; use a larger aperture so that depth of field doesn't mask any problems. Check whether all corners of the images are still sharp.</p>

<p>Test use every button and every dial on the camera.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

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<p>Early 6MP DSLR from desk to thin carpeted floor: either still doing fine or maybe a correlation to RF cam jaming in the mounted lens a few years later.<br>

M8's strap got caught in some lever and pulled it out of my hand, landing on hard floor no external visible damage but RF out of whack.<br>

Zooms seem to dislike dropping; if you are lucky its just a burst lenshood.<br>

Do tests with critical focusing (wide open) - No clue if dropping has impact on OIS.</p>

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<p>As you are being told, mostly, it is matter of chance. There is a huge number of variables of which make and character of the camera and its lenses are only two factors.<br /> For an analogous situation see things like<br /> http://www.oddee.com/item_96967.aspx</p>

<p>and specifically for cameras at<br /> <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=cameras+fall+of+out+&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8">https://www.google.com/search?q=cameras+fall+of+out+&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8</a></p>

<p>Then again, a one-foot fall that hits just "right" may total a lens or camera.</p>

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<p>Yup, it all depends. However, if the stars align, they can survive quite a bit. My worst was a time when a gust of wind blew my tripod over onto a concrete sidewalk. the height of the camera was at least 1.5 meters, maybe more. I think the end of the lens caught the worst of it, because the lens hood shattered. The only other damage to camera or lens was a bent filter ring on the lens. I hope you are comparably lucky, but you will only know by trying it.</p>
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<p>Way back in the day, I ended up dropping my very first F2 four times onto concrete or asphalt, usually three or four feet, over the course of two or three years before any damage at all was done. That time it landed on a corner of the prism, detachable. It sprung the prism so it was a little loose but still worked just fine. The newspaper I worked for paid for the repair so I had it fixed by Nikon. If they hadn't paid, I probably would have just taped it down with some gaffer tape. About 12-15 years ago, my daughter was a toddler and managed to knock over an F2 of an FM that was on a tripod about five feet high, also onto concrete. I had a 105 2.5 on it and it hit on the lens hood. That dented the UV filter enough that you couldn't put a lens hood into the front of it anymore but the filter protected the lens itself and kept the filter threads on the lens from getting dented.<br>

I've never had a camera damaged to the point of not working. But like everyone else says, it's a matter of luck.<br>

Bottom line is try your camera out and if everything is working fine maybe you just got lucky. A foot and a half or so off the couch onto your (hopefully) carpeted floor doesn't sound like much cause for alarm to me. </p>

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John, I don't understand it either. It is my understanding that https is encrypted while http is not. https is supposed to be more secure for banking, corporate log in, etc. I don't see why it is used on mundane sites such as Youtube which are open to the general public. Nor do I know why https does not become a clickable link on Photo.net.
James G. Dainis
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