Canon 600mm f/4 goes swimming with alligators

StewartR

StewartR

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If you haven't seen this before, you might find it interesting and/or horrifying.

My friends Mark and Max at BorrowLenses.com have recently lost a $7,200 Canon EF 600mm f/4. The head snapped off the customer's monopod, the lens snapped off the camera, and it all ended up in an alligator swamp. You couldn't make it up.

Story on POTN here and on Digital Grin here. "Snuff" images and cat scan movie on SmugMug here.
 
Seems an extreme thing to do to test the weather proofing :p
 
ooops :shrug: but canon said it was weather proof
 
hehe

EF= extra fruity? IS= instant snack?

aww at least it's a good cover-up story for smashing up a canon doorstop and dumping it in the swamp... :LOL:
 
:thinking: It will probably end up in some lady's handbag....:eek:
 
It's bad enough loosing a lens yourself, but knowing that it's not yours and that you now probably have to pay for it when you only wanted it for a few days must suck.
 
8utters said:
It's bad enough loosing a lens yourself, but knowing that it's not yours and that you now probably have to pay for it when you only wanted it for a few days must suck.
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Nah, Mark says the customer had insurance. He "only" has to pay an excess of $840. (Plus the cost of the divers to recover it, presumably.) Though I guess that's still a fair bit more than he paid for the hire in the first place...
 
where's that fella on here that has just set up that lens renting company??? :D

That covered on the accidental damage? :rules:
 
He is (I am) indeed the OP.

Since we set up LensesForHire.co.uk we've had a few people recommend that we need to find a way of offering insurance to customers, and in some people's eyes this incident reinforces how important it is. So whilst we were already looking for a solution, we've redoubled our efforts this week.

You might be surprised how reluctant insurers are to get involved with hire equipment. (Or perhaps not. I remember when I wanted to hire a car for my honeymoon; I was over 25 but no hire company's insurers would touch me because I'd had my licence less than a year.). Anyway, we are working with one more enlightened specialist insurer and we hope to have a solution in place within a few days.

Incidentally, I don't think this incident does say much about the need for insurance, unless you're a moron. Look at what the BorrowLenses customer did. He mounted a huge lens on an inadequate 'pod, and it couldn't take the weight. Duh! Would you even think of doing that, regardless of whether you owned the lens or had hired it? I know I wouldn't...
 
StewartR said:
Incidentally, I don't think this incident does say much about the need for insurance, unless you're a moron. Look at what the BorrowLenses customer did. He mounted a huge lens on an inadequate 'pod, and it couldn't take the weight. Duh! Would you even think of doing that, regardless of whether you owned the lens or had hired it? I know I wouldn't...
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Some people might actually. If they hire a big lens, but omit to also hire a decent tripod for it. Some people wont think of everything I'm afraid. :(
 
Perhaps it would be a good idea to make the hire of a gimbal head to go with these lenses compulsory?
 
CT said:
Perhaps it would be a good idea to make the hire of a gimbal head to go with these lenses compulsory?
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That sounds like a good idea. It`s not like the lens is going to be handheld much! Maybe supply a complete tripod assembly.

At least you would then now it would be up to job of holding that weight. Especially on a lens that costs that sort of money.
 
I personally wouldn't hire anything without some form of insurance. Should something happen I wouldn't want to have to fork over £6k for a lens I didn't have. Would make me just wander off and buy the thing in the first place, interesting reading though as I'm thinking of hiring the 600 for a couple of weeks ;)
 
mattyh said:
going alligator spotting h4rri? :D
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Heh, nah trying to find my niche and convince the missus I need to blow even more money on gear ;)

It's between the 600mm and a 1Ds MkIII at the moment :eek:
 
And this just in from the "Lightning Strikes Twice" department:

Just bumped into a local photographer who has recently started leading photographic tours. He's just come back from his first big tour, to Zambia. Unfortunately on the last day of the trip his Canon 500mm f/4 and his Canon 1DX went swimming ... with crocodiles.

You couldn't make it up.
 
Make mention of this on POTN and you'd have a raft of people demanding that Canon release new firmware to prevent it happening.

Bob
 
Canon Bob said:
Make mention of this on POTN and you'd have a raft of people demanding that Canon release new firmware to prevent it happening.

Bob
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Yeah.. we want that firmware... and make it snappy! (see what I did there?) :LOL:
 
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