Confess: Your "repairs history" ie. what have you broken

[Frank Fremerey]

Fun thread, keep it going!!!

I remember I made a hole in the floor of a press room letting drop my F4s with 1.8/85D on the first Day I had her. All I needed to do was replace the Aluminium hood HN-23 of the lens that took all the damage...

[Erik Lund]

Re Aperture blades; I was modifying a 20mm Ais, extending close focus down to 18cm - that requires extending the aperture guide to take up the extra amount of focus travel so everything was finished, cleaning the lens helicoil and aperture etc,,, all I needed was a drop of superglue onto the guide pin and the tiny tube I had prepared - Then the glue spurted into the lens as I squished the bottle directly into the closed aperture dispersing in-between all aperture blades - disassembly of the aperture unit and separation of the blades and soaking them in Acetone took some very frantic seconds - after that I had to clean every square mm of the each aperture blade and guide pin and housing parts,,, ouch,,,

[Jan Anne]

While roaming the beach in the last remaining days of 2008 it was a bit colder than anticipated, while waiting for the bus to take me to my warm home the Tokina 11-16/2.8 slipped from my frozen hands and fell on the concrete floor of the bus stop The hood took the fall but broke the mount for the hood, luckily the camera shop was very helpful by sending the lens back to Tokina and it was in my hands a few days later, insurance covered the involved costs.

The light was very nice however that evening so it was worth all the trouble

D300 with 24-70/2.8, Holland 2008

Many moons later I locked a lens up while doing maintenance, the last time I did maintenance on other peoples lenses

[Bjørn Rørslett]

I got, very cheap, a Zoom-Nikkor 360-1200 mm f/11 ED that had been sitting in a damp Japanese basement for 30+ years. The lens apparently never had been used. Now, this is a true rarity amongst the Nikkors, this version ("K") together with the following AI variant totalled less than 100 samples. Normally the price would be sky high, but this particular lens had been heavily fungus-contaminated and was sold as junk (seller's own description). I recall shipping this 9 kg behemoth in its original box to Norway costed more than the lens itself

When I received the lens, it appeared immaculate except for a "white" front element of the focusing group inside. I took it apart and removed all the fungus growth, which only afflicted this single lens element, and assembled all the pieces again. Then I decided to  get rid of any future fungal issue by letting the lens be exposed to UV for a good while. This was early summer and the weather was outstanding, clear blue skies and for our latitude, really 'hot' (ie. 25C or so). I made an improvised cradle for the lens on my back porch so it would point towards the sun, and let the lens tan itself for some days.

Then, one clear and bright morning, I got a call for an urgent assignation, and rushed off to do the job. Believing the nice sunny weather would last for weeks as usual for these summer spells, I had not checked the weather forecast that morning. Of course it started to rain hard soon thereafter. When I returned in the afternoon, I busied myself with processing all my files from the shooting until I suddenly remembered my 360-1200 still standing on the back porch.

Ouch. The sun shade, being an excellent fit, had retained about a litre of rain water that trickled into the optics and completely drowned the inside components. It was water everywhere. As the nice sunny weather period had lasted for many days, this first downpour washed out a lot of dirt from the air, thus the water percolating around inside my precious lens was - to put it mildly - dirty as well. The optics needed to be completely removed from the lens casing and all components and elements dissected, cleaned, and dried. My living room was filled with optical components in various state of cleaning. A true nightmare.

I had to call on the expertise at my Nikon repair shop to get the last bits and pieces together a week alter, when I felt it safe to reassemble the lens. They got hold of the repair manual yet spent almost a day, at my expense, to make the lens fit for fight again.

Now, I check the weather forecast every morning while I brush my teeth. This was a steep learning curve for sure.

[Andy]

I got, very cheap, a Zoom-Nikkor 360-1200 mm f/11 ED

Ouch, what a story with such a great lens.

I only used it for blue sky shooting, and now with your story in mind will probably keep that approach


My "story" is with a AiS 300mm/2.8, bought used over eBay:

The seller "forgot" to mention, that the lens was drowned in salt water for a while


and some sand from the latest beach party was still on some inner lens elements


First he disputed any wrong doing, but when I checked with Nikon, the lens with this s/n was known. The seller sent it for a repair cost proposal to Nikon the week before and got as response "non-repairable" - a total write off.

Then there was no issue to unroll the deal.

Another one: D1x. An expressive from of blooming




rgds,
Andy
 

[Bjørn Rørslett]

So, you don't have it any more then? Sorry, I didn't see that this comment was to the 300/2.8.

Your photo shows this is the same tripod mounting issue as with my 360-1200. How one should expect a 9 kg lens be kept in a secure position by a tiny 1/4" screw far in front of the tripod foot is beyond my wildest imagination. I'll make a photo of the modification if it cannot be found elsewhere. Also note the need for the (four) focusing pegs otherwise just the exercise of turning the focusing collar is exhausting.

Andy: that blooming is a trifle compared to say the D70 !!

[Bjørn Rørslett]

I alluded to the inadequate tripod mount on the early 360-1200 Nikkor. A bit surprising as the tripod mounting foot itself is very robustly designed. However, they put a tiny platform for mounting at the very end with an even tinier 1/4" screw to keep that 9 kg monster lens under control. Common sense dictates this will not do and the first attempt of mounting the lens on a tripod will just confirm the hunch.

When the fungus (and flooding) issues were sorted for my 360-1200, it was time to make the lens operation under real field conditions. A very solid block of industrial strength aluminium was milled to fit into the groove under the tripod foot. I made this ever so slightly oversized so had to hammer it into position in the groove. Then, ran double 5/8" bolts through the tripod foot into the metal bar to make it totally stable. Then, I drilled and tapped three holes for 3/8" retaining screws to fit the mating holes of an Arca-type Fluid Head plate.

The lens is always used on a heavy-duty Sachtler ENG 2 CF HD tripod with Video20 Fluid Head. Atop this platform it is a pleasure to explore the world through the 36+-1200. No problem shooting 1/2 sec exposures here ... My only problem is Natural Selection making humans losing their predecessor's long arms. The 360-1200 lens is not only heavy, it is *very* long as well. Having the four focusing pegs helps, possessing gorilla arms would be even better.

[Andrea B.]

My favorite disaster was when I knocked my converted, full spectrum D200 + UV-Nikkor 105/4.5 + BaaderU filter + RRS Ground Pod into a vernal frog pond. It was probably the frogs' doings because they resented the photographic intrusion. Frogs can be tricksters. 

The D200 went in backside first, so I thankfully managed to grab the UV-Nikkor just before it was going to submerge. The camera came up soaking wet of course and covered in duck weed. I immediately removed the lens & card and opened up all doors and windows to shake the water out and off. Later I did the oven thing to try to dry out the D200, but to no avail. The D200 no longer worked.

When I sent the D200 in for analysis and possible repair, Nikon Melville insisted on replacing the sensor to "repair" the conversion - which I did not want them to do. At that time they wouldn't budge on this issue, so I "refused" the repair, and Nikon sent the D200 back to me. However the cam now worked! I don't know why it worked, but we don't look Gift Horses in the mouth, right? I still have that cam.

***

My other worst disaster was seeing my D3S + 24-70/2.8G AFS (old version) + RRS Ground Pod fly over the edge of a spillway wall and land on granite rocks about 7 feet below. Miraculously the D3S still turned on when I retrieved it, but the lens front was bent and the helicoid stuck. There were also scuffs and minor dings on everything.

I'm still surprised at how little damage there was overall from this big fall. Everything must have to land just right for such an escape from major breakage? I sent D3S & lens to Nikon for full checkover and repair. And RRS gave the little tripod a checkover, adjustment & cleaning.

***

Dropped the D300 body onto my brick patio and watched it bounce. A scuff mark on the bottom corner, no damage.

Saw the same D300 + lens roll out of the back of an SUV and hit the deep sand/dust of the Mohave Desert floor. Thankfully it missed the gravel and rocks.

Stepped on a $345 BaaderU filter (in the same desert) when I lost my balance in some gravel. The fracture shards were interesting and very sharp. Cut my hand a bit. I couldn't leave the shards there because of all the little critters.

Recently heard the D600 and rather expensive Coastal Optics 60/4.0 lens hit the same desert floor with a big thump when the cam managed to un-engage itself from the quick release lock on the tripod. I'm not sure how that happened, but it was scarey. No damage thankfully. Lots of dust.

Killed two D7000 in a row trying to convert them myself. This after several successful conversions.  Have not tried this since. Enough do-it-yourselfies for me. Now I let the conversion shops earn their pay.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

That joint trip through Southwestern US Deserts with Andrea provided tons of photos and a lot of "field tales" as well.

Andrea had rented an underpowered Ford trying to masquerade as a SUV. It had the doors so everything could, and eventually would, fall out out of them, but little success otherwise in particular on the Interstate. The poor car would be hard pressed even to break the lame Norwegian speed limits ...

Oh well. Besides Andrea stepping on her expensive filters to generate interesting motifs, dealing with gear rolling out of the Ford's doors was a constant challenge. My D40X survived several drops well, but the Panasonic GH-2  rapidly applied for a visit to Dr. Lens later. It could no longer focus to infinity and the lens was stuck on it standing out at an angle. Very entertaining. I got some video footage from it, though. The Noct-Nikkor had its focusing action stuck in a 'near range' position for the chief of the trip. My 200/2 AFS made gritting noises from sand ensconced somewhere in its innards. And so on. It was a funny and enjoyable journey.

[Akira]

Bjørn and Andy,

Hope you would cherish your 360-1200 zooms.  The sample I saw a couple of days ago her in Tokyo was sold at 1,000,000 JPY.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

1 Million Yen - that sounds seriously expensive in my book ...

With the shipping and service costs (flooding incident) included, I think my 360-1200 runs around USD 1.000,- or so.

[Andrea B.]

OTOH, that funky Ford Escape got us all the way through Titus Canyon !! 

By 'Escape' it was meant that gear could easily escape the car. 

[Vilhelm]

Holy  wow thank you everyone for the intriguing stories - you made my 1200 EUR disaster week feel like Christmas :-D

[Bjørn Rørslett]

We have hardly scratched the surface ....

[Akira]

1 Million Yen - that sounds seriously expensive in my book ...

With the shipping and service costs (flooding incident) included, I think my 360-1200 runs around USD 1.000,- or so.

Well, the sample I saw was in a mint condition (and that in the picky Japanese sense of evaluation) and came with the original aluminum case.  Also, it came with a 122mm L37c filter which originally cost 16,000 JPY, if I remember correctly.