Help! 5d mark 2 and 17-40 l destroyed after falling from 80 foot cliff

[john_reynolds10]

<p>Canon durability is horrible. I hope you learned your lesson.</p>

[john_r._fulton_jr.]

<p>I'd just play it straight. I'd send it to Canon and tell them you can't understand why your pictures aren't coming out as well as when the camera was new. Suggest to them that perhaps a CLA might help? Also complain about how hard it is to get the lens on and off the camera and that it just doesn't seem "right". Anyway good luck.</p>

[jan_h._voigt]

<p>You want a durable camera? Buy a Robot! They were often used in WWII airplanes on both sides. That's why early postwar photojournalists often had a Robot: It often survived the crash...</p>

[charles_wood]

<p><em><a href="../photodb/user?user_id=4463156">John Reynolds</a> , Sep 29, 2011; 08:26 a.m. </em></p>

 

<p><em>Canon durability is horrible. I hope you learned your lesson.</em></p>

<p>Canon, NIkon, Pentax...they're all about the same when you do destructive testing, planned or otherwise. I once owned a Canon Elan 7E, certainly not a pro body by any means. It survived a 250 foot fall, in a softpack, bouncing three times on the way down a cliff and landing on the dirt by the side of the Escalante River in southern Utah. The camera was untouched and the Tokina lens had a crack in the front element. Survivability of catastrophic mistakes is largely unpredictable, regardless of brand.<em><br /></em></p>

 

[larz711]

<p>Thanks for the responses, got a good laugh from a few. The State Farm renter's insurance policy I have won't cover it, spoke with agent. I tried the credit card I used to purchase the camera as well, no dice. I'm going to ship both back to canon with my fingers crossed. I don't expect much really, but you never know, right? I will definitely post an update with their response. I will try and post the camera's farewell statement later tonight.</p>

[sarah_fox]

<p>Sounds like a plan. I'll be VERY interested to see what Canon can do for you. Fingers crossed.</p>

<p>Charles, I'm reminded of my mom's Leica IIIf, which I inherited from her. When the camera was less than a year old, she had a mishap on a train. She was using the restroom and hung the camera on the door handle. Someone turned the door handle, and the camera dropped about a foot to the floor. The shutter was never the same after that. It will sometimes malfunction even today -- and even after having been serviced a few times over the decades.</p>

<p>I do think cameras have gotten amazingly durable. Timing/shutter components are now mostly electronic (tough), rather than mechanical (bulky and fragile). Fiber reinforced plastic components of entry cameras have some give to them and don't bend like metal. (Plastic cameras seem to survive drops the best, even though metal cameras "feel" sturdier.) I think the engineering is probably better too. I know many of my antique cameras could not survive mishaps such as described on this list, even though most modern cameras DO somehow survive.</p>

[labgolden]

<p>Larry, <br>

Forget the camera, the lens, and the tripod -- just tell us the general vicinity of the "crime scene", where the light and landscape were so captivating, that you were moved to toss $4000 of gear over the edge. :)<br>

P.S. If it's any consolation, I liked your writing style that described your slow-motion horror.</p>

 

[dan_south]

You fell from an 80 foot cliff and you're worried about a camera?

[sergiu_m]

<p>Wow... noticing the pictures you posted I can quite surely say that there is some bad luck in all of this. You see, in medicine (long time ago, in a galaxy far far away... I was a physician) when discussing fractures we were able to see people falling from 0.5 meters with a nasty, even cominutive, fracture (yes it might happen), and people falling from 3 meters with a "clean", easy to fix one, or even without a scratch. What I see here is that the "body" of the 5D is in the same situation: it fell exactly on the "wrong" side, meaning exactly on the worst line of fracture possible - just look at the metal "cast & assembly" lines (to me the maximum kinetic energy blow was exactly there). Hoping it is a correct one, this theory was reinforced when I saw the picture with the lens - it has just a "clean" cut, the easiest one, but nothing else (worth repairing?). It is possible that with just a slight variation in the drop angle our discussion should have been "wow, look how it survived a 80 foot fall!". I am very sorry for your loss and very glad we are talking about a "fracture" just for the camera, and not a human.<br />P.S.: in my opinion, any statement like "A Nikon (or any other camera) would have survived (except maybe for the bolted metal 35 mm Russian made cameras:):):))" is silly. Watch your steps in the bathroom, you might discover that I am right... :(</p>

[scott_ferris]

<p>Sergiu,</p>

<p>Very well put, I had a good friend, a young real estate photographer, who slipped in his shower and, tragically, died.</p>

<p>On the flip side of that I once fell a clear 60 feet onto a metal deck and I am still here. The best comment I got from my fall was from a mathematician who estimated my deceleration at 250g's, he pointed out that the human body is capable of surviving far greater g forces, just so long as you don't land on your head.</p>

<p>It is a very strange and sometimes sobering world out there......</p>

[geoffm]

<p>Larry, your story (with pictures, of course) is worth publishing. Send it to a camera mag!</p>

[linda_jones1]

<p>Glad you are ok. I've come close to a bad fall, and been lucky. How easily we get in to that moment of concentration and aspirations!<br>

I'd say your story had a happy ending, and it would be great in a magazine to remind everyone to be careful and get insurance, at least on the expensive elements.</p>

<p>Best of luck to you, and I am sorry!</p>

[larz711]

<p>Thanks for all the feedback. Think it would be interesting to see the story in a magazine not sure how to go about doing that.<br>

For Andrew: a photo of the "innards":</p><div></div>

[larz711]

<p>and, finally, I had time to get these up:<br>

# 10375<br>

And, the final exposure, #10381</p><div></div>

[larz711]

<p>Last Light</p><div></div>