Great thread idea!

I don't have any personally (knock on wood) but I know a guy that has killed 2 JVC dv 500s by having them crash lens first into the ground. Always lock your tilt knob down when you walk away from the camera!

I also know a guy that has a great camera save story - the short version is a Sony Z1 was tumbling off a dock...and just before it hits the water he grabs it in mid air!

I backed a grip truck over a sony 600,, didnt like where the grip parked the truck So layed my camera down , got sidetracked on something of critical importance and.................................

"Dave, report to the front office and pick up your pick slip."

1) Client left Z1 on top of mates car while talking to him then mate drives off....
2) Client leaves PD150 on sticks while videoing dog and him at play, dog runs into tripod...
3) Client drops EZ30 over side of boat, manages to fish camera out of water before it sinks, don't bother, a new one is cheaper.
Bob.

This one wasn't me but a good friend of mine. We were in broadcasting class and he was using a crappy sony analog camera....the thing didn't work so he just walks into the classroom while the teacher is teaching and slams the camera on the ground.....after that he walks over to the desk and puts staples in the hand strap to look like he was "fixing it". We even got most of it on tape!

Good news is he got to stay in class and didn't have to pay for it or anything!
Bad news is the camera is totalled. ahhh yes, the crazy things we do in this school....although i must say i was slightly sickened seeing a broken camera like that.

-William

I had a DV500 that was knocked off its tripod, I forget how it actually happened, probably repressed memory. It had to have the block replaced, insurance covered most of it. Upon repair I sold it on Ebay for more than you could buy a new one and bought a PD150.

I had a new Panasonic 450 and a new tripod. Put the camera onto the tripod but didn't get the quick release plate locked down. Picked up the tripod, heard my wife yell and turned in time to see the camera hit the floor, lens down. The impact drove the lens about half-way through the camera, tearing out all the interior goodies.

The up side (after listening to wife for several days I needed an up side) was that the insurance company, unable to locate a new 450, replaced the disaster with a new 455.

Jack

I showed up at the church, after shooting the Bride getting ready, to find my wife in tears, expecting a bollocking, for dropping my Sony DV Cam. Luckily, the camera still worked, but the LCD screen was kaput, so we shot the ceremony through the view finder.

Still haven't had it fixed, the camera is near on 5 years old, will probably get a replacement and continue to use this one for Tripod 2nd Camera stuff.

Man the wife was surprised when I was calm about it though. Guess I'm mellowing in my old age! :)

Yeah, I know about that locking the head down thing. I had a 16mm bolex snap off my cheap tripod in college and it fell about 5 feet onto bedrock. The cast body didn't get much damage, and the lenses managed to escape unscathed, but the plastic film cover got cracked. Had to start my project over, but it could have been worse.

I know a filmmaker in my area who dropped a new XDCAM about 5 feet off of a jib, and it was unscathed. I THINK Sony might be using that story as promotional material right now.

shooting a training video for the israeli army back in the 80'. in helicopter, leaning out open right door (in safety harness), with camera strap round neck, and 'safety' steel wire attached to handle (400sp). tell the pilot to veer left - he, not hearing (understanding) my english, veers right - fuck the camera, i hold on for dear life, one end of camera strap snaps, quickly followed by handle ripping off....

great shots on tape of the camera slowly spiraling to earth.

was never again asked to do aerials.

put me on a patrol boat a little while later. amazing how you can't get the smell of vomit out of a furry mic baffle...

leslie

now retired, feet firmly on the ground at all times. 170 molly-coddled like no other camera i've owned!

O.k. - here is another one...

In 2002 an unnamed company was shooting a national broadcast car ad with a 35 mill. Panavision camera. Said camera was mounted on a "russian arm" - a robotic arm that is mounted on the "hero car". Everything was going fine until said camera smacked into a Douglas Fir tree at 40 mph. Said camera's mag dumped all over the road and the lens was compeletely sheared off...the camera body was valued at $250,000 bucks - not sure about the lens..

According to those that know - Panavision was able to salvage the camera body, no word on the lense.

I had a JVC DV500 on a Miller tripod. One of the leg locks decided to fail and down it went onto alphalt. I glad that I actually didn't see it happen.

Wound up with a small crack in the body by the XLR connector, but the camera and broascast lens worked just fine afterwards.

Gary

People will remember that I fell down some stairs with my FX on a shoulder pod, but managed to restrict all the damage to just me and the earphones cable.

I slipped on some ice as I was walking between a building and my parked car. As I went down the Sony Digital 8 camcorder I was holding banged against the building. I was more worried about the camcorder (which I had borrowed from a relative) than myself. Fortunately, the camcorder suffered only minor scratches (much like myself). We were both functioning fine after that.

All of which should serve to remind us all that this is a remarkably dangerous game. I can think of no easier way to get in harms way than walking around peering through a viewfinder while wearing headphones.
Bob.

I was taping the local fireworks show with a hand-held JVC ? and holding the camera slightly upright continuously for 25 minutes. When I stopped shooting my shoulders and arms were in a permanent cramp position extended and they would not move. I am saying to myself, "what is going on here?" then I crumpled to the ground with the arms still extended but the camera did not fall. After about 1/2 hour feeling came back into the arms and shoulders with a lot of pain. The pain did not clear up for about 2 days. There were a lot of people looking at this guy wondering, just wondering. The guy was wondering too.

JJK

Three stories (maybe 20 years ago?):

1. I'm on a two man shoot using an Ikegami HL79. The DP sets the camera up on a slick wooden floor on a set of Gitzo sticks, but he leaves the front leg lock out. He turns around and I see the camera take a nose dive into the floor, right on the lens. Lens and optical block destroyed -- about $15,000 worth of damage.

2. Louisiana State Capital building. They have something like 50 steps up to the front of the building (with each states name carved into each step.) A videopgraher for the local TV station is taping a politician walking out of the building and is backpedaling with a brand new RCA TK76 (and a Sony BVU110 deck cabled to it.) He misses the top step and the camera goes over his shoulder and starts down the steps, even yanks the 110 from his grasp. The 76 and the 110 go all the way to the bottom. They both end up in about 100 pieces. Apparently the news producer / reporter who was supposed to watching for the steps for the photog wasn't doing a very good job ;-)

3. A remote shoot at a college basketball game with a production truck and three cameras cabled with triplex. The engineers run the triplex camera cables along the ground across a section of the parking lot. Two cables are fine, but one of them runs around the back of the building across an unsecured section of parking lot. The camera operatior secures the cable to the leg of his tripod with zip-ties and the truck end of the camera is tied off pretty well to the truck.

About halfway through the coverage, an old car with it's muffler / exhaust pipe hanging (and dragging on the parking lot) drives across the triplex. It hooks the cable. The truck gets joisted first. About the time director asks, "what the heck was that?", camera three shows a VERY quick pan across the crowd -- the floor of the gym -- the doorway -- the sidewalk -- the parking lot -- the tailend of the car -- then static. Apparently triplex is very well made ;-) No one was hurt, but the camera was, as you might expect, a total loss.

Jim

My son while hunting dropped my Canon GL1 in the water as he was getting out of a canoe. Obviously, everything stopped working. I sent it off to Canon for a repair estimate and they came back with a $1700 quote and could possibly cost more. Since a new GL1 was about $2100 new I asked Canon to return it as is. My insurance allowed me $1600 which I put towards a new Canon GL2 ($2250). Some time later--out of a whim--I tried to fire up the water-damaged GL1 and to my surprise it worked. After putting it through the paces the only noticeable flaw was that the audio could not be heard while playing back via the camera's VCR mode--however, audio records just fine on tape. That was three years ago and the camera is still in use and produces excellent video. I now own a GL1 & GL2 with a combined cost of about $2750. Oh, the things that makes one say . .mmmmmmmhh!

>>...expecting a bollocking...

Ok. What is a "bollocking?" :)

I don't even see it listed on merriamwebster.com.

Is this a basic "yelling at?"

Thanks.

Edit:

I found it.

(British)
bollocking n :
telling off, severe reprimand, rocket, “he gave me a right bollocking”.

Ya' learn something new every day. :)

Bob, good point! That's way I aways, well, most of the time, employ the services of a "spotter."

I use to shoot news and I quickly learned how to shoot with both eyes open. One for the viewfinder and the other to keep my surroundings in view.

Dave T2

Not meaning to spin this thread but, talkin about dangerous i know that when I'm shooting for any extended period of time things become a little sureal, kinda like I'm watching tv, I've shot a lot of NASCAR stuff and when looking at the footage sometimes think, man that was close., what was i thinking.... so i wonder about those underwater guys with sharks, and the wildlife guys with bears and such,, hmmmmm.