Scary Nikon D300 + 24-70mm lens experience . . . . .

1 hour ago, my wife backed her little car into a huge, full size brite red pickup truck parked right outside my office. Only minor damage to both vehicles, thank goodness. A couple of years ago my SB-800 fell off my tripod - I had forgotten to lock it in place. We all, or at least many of us, have our stories. Mistakes happen. Yours seems to have a happy ending. And you ended up with some really nice shots!

One fairly frequent complaint about he 24-70mm/f2.8 AF-S is that the screws that fasten the mount onto the lens barrel are too short so that it can easily break. However, in this case it sounds like the entire lens came off the body.

BTW, I have never even met Lil in person. However, my parents volunteer at the Huntington Library in Pasadena, in the Los Angeles area. They have taken me there a few times when I visited.

I would test the lens at both 24mm and 70mm. Make sure that every AF point on the D300 still works with it. I would also inspect images files at the pixel level to make sure that it is still sharp from edge to edge. You only need a small dent on the lens mount to get consistently soft images from a slightly damaged lens.

From Lil's story I would say that this could happen to anyone.

Does anybody insure themselves against mishaps with camera equipment? Is such insurance even available?

I dropped a Hasselblad once when I was an assistant and I thought my heart had actually stopped. I couldn't take a breath for what seemed like forever. So, I feel your pain.

Never had a lens pop off a camera body, though: very strange. Are you sure someone other than you was not handling your equipment?

Hope the lens checks out okay!

Thanks Elliot,

you're very kind. :-) I'm still shaking from the experience.

Hi Shun,

yes - - the whole lens came off. If part of the lens mount had remained in the camera I believe the screws would have been the issue. Here it was the whole lens.

I will do the test as you recommend & will probably send the lens in to Nikon for a full test by them. Based upon the battle scars by the lens mount I would imagine the blow was fairly strong.

Shun is right - - we've not ever met in person, but Shun has been extremely supportive & helpful since I joined here & started my dive into the world of dslr photography. I mentioned Shun as I know his parents volunteer at the Huntington & that he's visited. Shun has also been generous enough to offer guidance, which I really appreciate, both with photography & the boards here.

Lil :-)

I have all my equipment insured against damage of any kind, theft, etc. It is a rider to my home owners policy and they required that every item being listed with a serial number and replacement value. The coverage is very inexpensive. My policy has a $500 deductible per incident and runs under $200 a year for $22,000 coverage.

Tachion,

in the US we can add our equipment to our house insurance. I don't know about rental insurance. But house insurance will allow for adding the equipment & it didn't sound like a lot based upon what my agent told me. I haven't done it yet, but will now.

Robert,

thanks for understanding. My husband once dropped a full Steadicam setup as an assistant. He was being attacked by a bee. This is before he owned his own equipment. He never worked with that Steadicam Operator again.

My husband is a camera operator. He knows how fanatic I am about my equipment. My daughter only handles one of my cameras if I hand it to her. No other person around to handle it.

I'll report back after I've tested every one of those 51 focusing points as Shun recommends.

Thanks for the support

Lil :-)

I once was walking down a gravel road swinging my almost new Nikon F by its strap (I have no idea why I was doing that). Then as the camera reached the top of a swing out in front of me, I let go of the strap (I have no idea why I did that). The camera and 24mm lens hit the road at least five yards in front of me and rolled two more yards. When I picked it ip there was a dent in the front face of the FTn finder. Didn't have to send it to the shop and used it four years before trading it on another Nikon.

Regarding insurance, I have all of my equipment covered with my insurance company unser a personal effects floater policy. There is no deductible. If the equipemnt is lost or damaged or stolen, it is covered. The only catch is that I cannot use the equipment to generate any revenues--not even one dollar. Annual cost is about what Robert pays going from memory. If you generate money from your equipment, join NANPA and buy commercial insurance from it or its vendor.

To protect my equipment, I try and keep all of it in a backpack until I am ready to shoot. I tryand have the right lens on the right body. I used to carry my cameras and lenses on straps ready to shoot like Lil describes. I changed after seeing too many people in photo groups having problems with their equipment--lenses getting banged up especially the one on the spare body. Whenever possible, I keep that spare body and lens in a bag.

Lil, my 500mm f 4 plus camera and flash fell off my tripod early one morning after I swore I had it mounted properly. Fortunately, all I lost was the flash. I have seen unattended tripods fall over with similar equipment mounted so you never can be too careful. I never leave my long lenses mounted on an unattended tripod. They are safer on the ground.

Joe Smith