What's your favorite Michael Bay moment?

[craig]

<p>I was shooting around Seattle the other day with my Canon A1 and ran into a fellow FD enthusiast, who was shooting with his T90. Turns out we've both been using FD cameras since the 1980's and the conversation inevitably went toward the direction that "they don't build cameras like these anymore."</p>

<p>He told me that he was once shooting with his T90 in San Francisco, trying to get an impossible shot, and managed to drop it off a cable car. He showed me the scar on the bottom of the camera, which wasn't too bad, all things considered.</p>

<p>Although I no longer had my original A1 (sold it to help pay for college), I recalled about a time I was shooting at a temple in Korea back in 1986 or 1987 and while rewinding my film, I lost my grip on the camera and it fell down a stone staircase and landed in a bush. I figured it was <em>destroyed</em>. Fortunately, the lens (a cheap 50mm f1.8) and the leather case took the brunt of the damage, and the camera came out almost completely unscathed.</p>

<p>I'm amazed at how much abuse these old cameras can take. Fortunately, the A1 I'm shooting with now is near-mint, and I'm a lot less clumsy with my gear, so I probably won't be dropping it down another flight of stairs anytime soon.</p>

<p>The conversation got me thinking about the crash-worthiness of these old FD cameras. Having had an EOS Elan I and II crash me for no obvious reason, I think these old FD cameras are built like tanks.</p>

<p>Out of a general sense of curiosity, I'd like to ask the group here what was the worst "accident" that your camera's ever been in and survived? Do you still use it?</p>

[SCL]

<p>I had a Leica M4 get a dunk once while kayaking, was fine; an old Ricoh RF get grease dripped on its aperture ring while I was eating a taco in remote Mexico - it too was fine, probably needed a little lubrication anyway; the worst was that same M4 last year slid off the hood of my SUV while I was scraping snow off my windshield, and hit the pavement, about a 4 ft. drop onto concrete - knocked the rangefinder out of alignment and the lens needed to be reset in its helicoid --ouch. My "new" Nikon D300 slid off my kitchen table onto the tile floor and lightly cracked the control panel screen cover...everything still works fine, I just put a protective cover over the crack to prevent moisture from getting in. Outside of that, all my cameras get a little battering no matter how gentle I am with them. They all seem to hold up pretty well...older ones like tanks, newer ones like jeeps.</p>

[rick_janes]

<p>Quick reflexes and good eye-to-foot coordination has intervened a few times to arrest my falling camera gear. Of course, having big feet helps, that and a higher pain threshold.<br /> But what sort of oaf allows his equipment to strike ground unchecked, without injury to himself? I know a guy who put his motorcycle through barbed wire fencing and down an embankment while trying to keep a lunchbox from falling off the back of his bike! Surely you guys have likewise given it up saving your F-1s and T-50s? <br /> Tales of self-sacrifice, maybe we can hear some too!</p>

[awahlster]

<p>who is Michael Bay? And how is this not a topic for casual conversations</p>

 

[richardsperry]

<p>Mark,</p>

<p>Michael Bay is a movie director known for gratuitously blowing things up. Very expensive things being blown up or being smashed.</p>

<p>The reference is, for when you have 'exploded' or 'smashed' a camera of yours. Usually at high expense.</p>

<p>Alas, my last Michael Bay moment was the last time I dropped 40 at IMAX a week ago or so. But I don't think that counts. It certainly was not my favorite one.</p>

[scott_ferris]

I know none of my FD gear would work after stuff like this.

 

Www.youtube.qKpxd8hzOcQ

 

Silly, but amazing that they just kept working........

[dan_south]

<p>Favorite Michael Bay moment? Hmm...</p>

<p>Maybe that scene where Shia LaBeouf's parents break into his bedroom and Megan Fox appears from the shadows. </p>

[richardsperry]

<p>And the parents think to themselves, "We have a dork of a son, with a big freeking nose, with nasally unchanged voice, and he has built a super model teleportation device". "It's like Weird Science, but our son has figured out how she can stick around, against her will."</p>

<p>http://cdn.mos.totalfilm.com/images/e/even-stevens-2000--300-75.jpg</p>

<p>It's called a contract, and thankfully she did not sign the third one.</p>

[David_Cavan]

<p>I dropped an entire LowePro bag of equipment in the Amazon, loaded with my Pentax 35mm and a few lenses. It floated at an angle for the 10 seconds or so it took to grab it. Quickly emptied the equipment out in the boat - and kept stuff out of it until I could dry it in air conditioning that night. Nothing wet except the outside of the bag, fortunately. The only damage was a "bathtub ring" made by the water that was on the bag as long as I owned it. I shudder to think of what animal-life was in that water...</p>

[hanappa]

<p>Dropped my Pentax K-1000 down the side of a mountain while island hopping in the Caribbean. Had minimal affect on the camera, aside from a few scratches and mud. It later fell off my bunk in an unexpected squall and bounced around the fo'c'sle for a while before being recovered. Dented the end of the 50mm, but worked fine. That camera took an infinite amount of abuse, but it was the salt water corrosion that finally took its toll.</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>Accidentally pulled a functional (if capping) Asahi Pentax H-2 off the shelf. No longer functioning. I was able to find a cosmetically perfect duplicate, and still intend someday to get the two non-working ones melded into one working one. :(</p>

<p>Who is Michael Bay? (rhetorical question)</p>

[Jeff Lear]

<p>When Crocket and Tubbs were chasing the drug dealers in the white-on-white Lamborghini Countach through downtown Miami in their undercover white Ferrari Testarossa!</p>

<p>Camera-wise? Probably when I missed the clip on my shoulder strap, sending my 5D with attached 100-400 bouncing down a steep, rocky trail, occasionally going airborne and spinning unbelievably fast. It stopped about 20 feet down when the camera strap got tangled in a tree branch. There were a couple scratches on the lens hood and battery grip. That was 4 years ago, thankfully, no lasting consequences for my ineptness.</p>

 

[dan_south]

I like Miami Vice, too. But are we talking about Michael Bay or Michael Mann? ;-)

 

Then again, I still haven't figured out why we began talking about movie directors in the first place.