An expensive lesson learned

minimeeze

minimeeze

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Cheryl
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Not had a good photography session for a while, so went along to one of the local provincial parks today. The scenery was stunning, and as I was trying to get closer to a waterfall, I had to jump down some steep rocks onto a sloping ledge. My camera bag fell off my shoulder, spilling it's contents everywhere (I hadn't realised it was open). That wouldn't have been so bad, except it fell onto a ledge which sloped off to the waterfall. My Sigma 70-300 and Nikkor 28-80 are now somewhere in a waterfall in Golden Ears Provincial Park :'( Fortunately, my Sigma 10-20 was on my camera around my neck.

Moral of the story: Always check your bag is zipped up!!!

I'm now in the market for new lenses as I only have my 10-20 left :shake:
 
No idea what the waterfall is like, no chance of getting in there and searching for them?

Would they be recoverable once dried out and cleaned?
 
Harvey_nikon said:
No idea what the waterfall is like, no chance of getting in there and searching for them?

Would they be recoverable once dried out and cleaned?
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Erm..... it was a very powerful, big waterfall, and I was right at the top of it, so no.
 
Toothie said:
Ouch not so good, hope your insured for the loss and find some lenses quickly :hug:
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Not quite sure where I stand with insurance, will have to look what the house insurance covers, but I now live in Canada, the lenses were bought in the UK, and I don't have the receipts anymore. Not looking too promising really :(
 
Ouch! So sorry to hear of your incident; and I am speechless :(. I sure hope your home insurance can cover it. As for the receipts, can't you contact the sellers in UK to get you copies for your claim?
 
minimeeze said:
Erm..... it was a very powerful, big waterfall, and I was right at the top of it, so no.
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arr I was thinking you were at the bottom not the top.

:(

How did you pay for them? Maybe you have the purchases on credit card or bank statements?
 
I bought the lenses back in '04 when I got my camera, so I don't even have the statements anymore. They weren't too expensive, so I guess I just put it down to experience and look forward to buying some better glass. For now though, just wideangle shots :lol:
 
Receipts shouldn't matter too much. I recently had to put in a claim for a 7yr old lens and just told them it was unrealistic for them to expect someone to keep a receipt for that period of time .. they were fine about it.

I hope you can get it sorted :)
 
I can only imagine your feelings at the time. Still, now you'll be able to justify getting that glass you've always lusted after:)
 
Oops... :eek: ... sorry to hear of your misfortune Min... :shrug:



But I see you're already looking on the bright side and can't wait to get some better glass... :D ... that's the spirit... ;)





:p
 
sorry to hear at least you didnt fall in

i was waliking around the other day with the top of my bag open in a big crowd didnt notice for an hour,its easy done.
 
del69 said:
Id be very tempted to dust off the old speedo's :suspect:


Del.
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LOL

Arr, I do feel for you that's pretty bad. :(

The "unzipped bag" has been the cause of so many incidents. I know of a mate that yanked his bag up to his shoulder with it unzipped and his 1D fell out and impacted on concrete (he's 6ft2) and got a massive dent and crack in the body. I've also picked up my bag after "she" left it unzipped. My camera and two lenses fell from about waist height luckily on to carpet so were fine. My rule is if you unzip a bag and leave it on the ground leave the flap wide open so you can see it's undone. If you close the flap just zip it the hell up straight away! ;)
 
I suppose it could have been a lot worse, len's you can replace, if you'd slipped and gone in it could be a different matter.
Some bags seem worse than others for tipping up, my billingham was great, almost impossible to tip, the current bag (don't remember the make) is totally different, it'll tip or worse the bloody straps keep coming off at the bilnk of an eye, I have added cable ties but it doesn't stop it tipping.
 
Awww Cheryl I'm so sorry to hear that :( At least you're ok though :)

I guess we can look forward to some nice wide angle shots from you for a while then ;)
 
Ahhh Cheryl that's horrid. I've done similar in the past, if not quite as spectacularly as you.

I know you're not as local to most of us as you used to be but there must be some darksiders that have seldom used glass that could be posted your way whist you're restocking.
 
bad luck old chap
it can happen to us all
it has happened to me...all that happened though was some scuff marks on my camera
i dropped it on some concrete
insurance could be a possibility
 
Sorry to hear that - but at least you can take comfort in the fact that it was reasonably cheap glass rather than you going for a swim!

Might have to go a-swimming if it was a something like a 500 L mind you... (or Nikon equivalent in this case!)
 
Just another reason to use a back-pack type bag - plus, shoulder-bags can put a strain on the spine if they're too heavy...
Then attach the camera-strap to the shoulder-strap of the bag with a small carabiner...allows hands-free movement if need be... That way you can carry one camera around the neck and have the other (if you use a 2nd body) secured on your shoulder.

None of this helps Cheryl, but the liklihood of carrying around an open back-pack is a lot less than an open shoulder-bag...take stuff out then close it and put it back on...
 
Ouch - you must have been absolutely shell-shocked when you realised what had happened Cheryl. :shake: As you say though, all you can do it look on the bright side and turn it to a positive - and let's face it, if you were going ton get left with one lens, I think we can safely say you chose the right one!
 
If the insurance give you gype about proof of ownership then try pulling down the exif data from your images. It should show what focal length lens you were using and may add to your proof.
 
Thanks for all your replies. Insurance isn't really an option, even though the lenses are covered, as the excess is $500 and the cost of replaceing those particular lenses is about $600 - $700, so not worth bumping the price of my policy up (it's expensive enough).

I do have a backpack type camera bag, but I was hiking and was already carrying a rucksack, so just stuck my camera & lenses in my shoulder bag. I'd been carrying the bag with the strap across me, but it was starting to dig in under the weight of my rucksack. I'd just changed lenses about 10 mins before and forgot to zip the bag up - something I'll never forget again :lol:

Oh well, I can just put it down to experience and a silly mistake, and thank my lucky stars that they weren't expensive lenses!
 
Arkady said:
Just another reason to use a back-pack type bag - plus, shoulder-bags can put a strain on the spine if they're too heavy...
Then attach the camera-strap to the shoulder-strap of the bag with a small carabiner...allows hands-free movement if need be... That way you can carry one camera around the neck and have the other (if you use a 2nd body) secured on your shoulder.

None of this helps Cheryl, but the liklihood of carrying around an open back-pack is a lot less than an open shoulder-bag...take stuff out then close it and put it back on...
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While this sounds a good idea, if you go in the water can you ditch it quick enough? make sure any packs are easy to "bail out of" if something happens.
 
I learned quickly to keep bags and things zipped/locked when not being used directly (during input/output). I had my guitar once fall out of it's case. I picked the case up and the guitar went tumbling out. (I also now always carry the flap side pointed to me so I can atleast buffer it with the legs)
 
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