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Sad sight: Damaged 24-70mm/f2.8 AF-S


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<p>Was covering a High School basketball game last night, and out of the corner of my eye I see something black drop to the floor next to a fan. Hear the crunch and look to see a camera and lens on the floor. Turns out to be a D3 with a AFS 24-70 f2.8G ED lens. Sheered the mount right off the lens. There's quite a bit of plastic between the metal mount and the body of the lens, and it sheered right through that plastic. Very sick sight to see.</p>

<p>Went home and hugged my 24-70. :-)</p>

<p>Best,<br>

-Tim</p>

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<p>He had one of those sling things where the camera is held to the sling by a threaded eye that screws into the tripod socket/mount on the camera. And the eye came unscrewed and the camera dropped. He was standing on the floor by the stands so no one was underneath him. Fell about three feet I'd say.</p>
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<p>According to Bjorn Rorslett, the 24-70mm/f2.8 AF-S is designed to break at the mount upon impact to prevent serious damage to the lens, and camera: http://www.photo.net/nikon-camera-forum/00TwV2</p>

<blockquote>

 

<p ><a href="/photodb/user?user_id=79334">Bjorn Rorslett</a> , Jul 16, 2009; 01:00 p.m.</p>

 

<p >For what it's worth I've used seven samples of the 24-70 that all behaved in the same fashion. The results are excellent. Even a prototype I tested (not in that tally) by and large performed similar to the others except for having less efficient coating.<br />My personal 24-70 sees a lot of use. Like the other recent "pro" lenses it is designed to break at the bayonet mount if getting a severe blow so as not to damage the camera. Replace the mount and the signal cable within and you're good to go - a Nikon repair shop does this in 15 minutes (I have timed the operation).</p>

</blockquote>

 

<p> </p>

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<p>Yes, I've heard the same report - shearing at the lens mount is a good thing, compared with twisting the whole lens or camera.<br />

<br />

The issue of coming unscrewed is what's always worried me about attaching a camera strap by the tripod mount. I hope some of them have an anti-rotation mechanism, but it's not clear to me that all of them do. If it's friction holding it in place, that would terrify me - just like various cameras coming unscrewed when mounted on an over-the-shoulder tripod.</p>

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Those single attachment point sling straps are one of the stupidest products ever foisted off on gullible photographers.

Tripod mounts are not designed for the torques and swinging mass of a heavy camera and lens combination. Strap lugs connect directly into the frame he camera, the tripod mount assembly doesn't and besides which you are hoping that a a few threads on either a ten-cent screw or the the camera's trod mount aren't going to strip or shear.

 

The lens repair will be costly but less costly than damage to the camera if the lens hadn't sheared the way it is sposed to.

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Gullible me fell for the Joby strap line and, to be honest, I liked how it worked.... right up to when it turned loose and my

D700 and 24-70 hit the pavement. Nothing sheared but it cost me $300US for the camera repair and $600US for the

lens. Needless to say I've returned to my old, very secure, strap. My old brain feels much wiser... and poorer ;-)... Mike

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<p>I will definitely never use single attachment point sling straps anymore. My camera dropped off when visiting a cave, and I just managed to stop it rolling down in a 'lake' 400m deep according to the guide. My leg was faster than Ronaldo has ever been -:) old fashioned straps for me now even if it is a little more cumbersome. -:) </p>
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I understand the comments about single attachment systems like Black Rapid and the possibility of the attachment working loose.

But I am not sure the comments that the tripod attachment is "weaker" than the strap attachments are accurate. Can someone site

evidence of that fact? Given the purpose and use of the tripod mount I would think it would have to be extremely secure and very unlikely

to fail at the level of the camera body itself. I have come to really appreciate the Black Rapid system. Although There is the risk of a

loosening screw, I personally believe that if the tripod mount screw is tight there should not be other extra risk with using that system.

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<p>I think the stupid thing is 1). to overload the tripod mount screw or 2). to use silly attachments like the ones used by most sling straps.</p>

<p>For decades, climbers have used cameras attached to the tripod mount, hanging from the harness. If you use an on-axis attachment&rotary system directly to the screw on the tripod thread, sooner or later there will be a problem. Same if you hang it with a huge, heavy lens on the camera.</p>

<p>On-axis rotary attachments seem to me be an invention looking for a problem. This is the reason of my refusal about buying this systems, in the same way I dislike straps with that "proven" strap conectors made in thin and cheap plastic, or that critical parts made in calamine or cheap alloys. There are loads of them, and by the way, looks like also in this straps.</p>

<p>And as Ellis says, the torque could be increased by swinging the camera+lens combination, so the common sense dictates that heavy lenses should be avoided, or should be attached to the lens` foot... the 24-70 is maybe a bit on the heavy side, and doesn`t have a tripod foot, so extra care should be taken.</p>

<p>Looks like in this case, and in the others mentioned, the problem is in the attachment system.</p>

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<p>Detail: Check the weak camera`s tripod socket on a Leica, directly on the detachable base plate (!), (it is on one side, in order to be merely usable), and the typical tripod socket on film SLRs, a metal block hold by two tiny screws... compare the diameter of the 1/4" tripod screw thread to the size of the screws, they are barely 1/3rd of the tripod socket (this one belong to a Pentax camera, Nikon ones are quite close; if I recall it correctly, on my F3 the block is hold by three tiny screws).</p>

<p>So you can use the tripod socket for whatever you like (even on the Leica), but it should be used with at least *a bit* of common sense.</p>

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<p>FWIW, a Nikon original camera strap conector (I bought it online thinking in a DSLR on mind, the neck strap is really nice and wide, but sadly, the connectors seem designed to hold a lighter), and a cheap alloy hook from a very expensive camera bag maker. The very nice tripod 1/4" screw is of a very low grade aluminum, also from a well known camera accessory "specialist".</p><div>00cPE7-545728184.jpg.a615d737a35b540849d53ab83ce04cd1.jpg</div>
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<p>About the strap attachments, check <a href="http://cameraquest.com/Epson-R-D1/_r-d1/images/stripdown/r-d1_strip_08.jpg">here</a> what I think it`s the classic embeded design, through the chassis, with an "anti exit" locking screw (I`d say well designed for the "usual" torque directions), and <a href="http://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/EkXeBODwymDiAem3.medium">here</a> a digital SLR camera which use a double screwed plate plus two "anti exit" security pins, over the chassis. And as mentioned, one in each side.</p>
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<p>I gotta say I never consider the mid-bottom-plate of a camera a good place to suspend a camera from. It hangs very eccentrically, the 'pull' direction is not axial to anything which, I'm sure, contributes to the rotational aspect of drop-offs. All the pressure is on one side of a screw thread.....and let's face it, screwthreads never tighten themselves, they only ever work loose... It's their prefered <em>Natural State</em>!</p>

<p>As a securing-on-a-tripod fitting it's an OK place, but getting it balanced with a lens tripod foot is preferred where applicable.</p>

<p>I was always very dubious about the suspension fittings on-top of my Metz 45, until I actually tried them. They're more to prevent your nice hammer-head flash becoming, well, a Hammer-Head, but never-the-less, very handy.</p>

<p>A thread like this about a year or so ago came up with air-bags for expensive lenses. The triggering mechanisms were quite easy but very hard to separate from normal handling, be they accelerometers, tilt switches, pull toggles etc. </p>

<p>I wonder what the Insurance statistics say about the mechanism(s) for lens/camera damage.....tripod fell/blew over, left on car roof, dropped out of open camera bag, rolled off table etc. etc?</p>

 

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