My life sucks

V

Victor Nhat Nguyen

Well-known member
I was a second shooter for a wedding last weekend. I use the 70-200 f2.8 newest one with IS. The base plate was loose and when I try to take the body off, the lens fell to the floor. Repair are gonna be $460. On a student's budget that's a lot. I could almost buy a new camera with that money. Just coming here to rant, anybody else broke equipment before?
 
Well, thats an expensive way to teach you to never do it again. In film school I saw a dude working with an Arri S with a long zoom lens on it. He takes his hand off the head, without locking the tilk and the camera falls forward and crashes to the floor. I think he ended up owing the school a coupke grand to repair the lens/camera.
 
Yeah, I had a lens "fall off" my Canon 40D on a stills photo shoot several years ago....I had accidentally depressed the lens lock and rotated the lens while zooming or something, and wham!! there it was on the ground. It was a 24-105mm F4 L IS USM. Bent the lens mount, otherwise it was Ok....cost = app. $150.00. Ouch. Well, live and learn.
 
sewolla said:
Yeah, I had a lens "fall off" my Canon 40D on a stills photo shoot several years ago....I had accidentally depressed the lens lock and rotated the lens while zooming or something, and wham!! there it was on the ground. It was a 24-105mm F4 L IS USM. Bent the lens mount, otherwise it was Ok....cost = app. $150.00. Ouch. Well, live and learn.
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yea I bent the lens mount too, apparently, there were more internal problem, that's why mine cost so much
 
I've busted bulbs in my ancient Lowel Omnis before when the top riser of the stand loosened and the light comes crashing down...but the worst was when I rented my HVX out and they broke it and refused to pay for it. Don't rent out your gear.
 
Justin Kuhn said:
I've busted bulbs in my ancient Lowel Omnis before when the top riser of the stand loosened and the light comes crashing down...but the worst was when I rented my HVX out and they broke it and refused to pay for it. Don't rent out your gear.
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then how do rental companies do it? do they have a contract?
 
watch as I make ALL the mistakes

watch as I make ALL the mistakes

You have to have production insurance I think.

I rented to a friend who was DPing a short. He wanted this homebrew Glidecam JR I have as well. It uses a ball and pivot joint for the gyro piece and if you twerk the handle forward too far, like stupidly far, the ball will pop out of the socket fairly easily. He had another shooter stand in for him one day and letting that guy handle my gear was my most fatal mistake, of all the fatal mistakes I made in this situation. My friend did not prep him at all and he dropped the camera to the tune of $1200 in damages. He also let my tripod get stolen out of his soft-top jeep. I still seethe. But at least he was willing to pay for the tripod. I wanted the production to pay for the kit and kaboodle but that was basically one individual, the director, and I was not getting money out of her without litigation. I could have gone to small-claims court but she, of course, blamed me for everything (improper equipment, I wasn't there that day etc), when I in turn had trusted too much to my friend the DP of this show. I had paid someone else to stand in for me on set on this day because of a fuçkup the day prior involving P2 cards. I told the AC not to wipe a specific card and he paid no attention to me whatsoever--I didn't delete any data personally, I was trying to utilize the space on the cards efficiently or some dumbass thing? So I handed the AC a card with uncaptured data on it. :zombie_smiley: Why couldn't I just capture all the data on the cards the night before? Stupid stupid stupid STUPID. Data workflow should be one person's job, and for some reason I had volunteered to help out in this area. Helping out is what got me into this whole mess. So then I passed this up the ladder to my friend the DP. He brought the producer over and that guy tried to sweep it under the rug so she wouldn't be upset during that day of production. So when it finally came out I should have pointed all of this out in plain language but I was trying to smooth it over and just ended up looking like I was trying to hide something I was at fault for. Which I guess I was, but in retrospect I looked like THE culprit because I didn't throw the DP or the producer under the bus. Though I doubt the outcome would have changed.

So you see why, maybe, I ended up $1200 in the hole. :Drogar-BlackEye(DBG
 
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Remember the big Radio Slave flash triggers for still shooting back in the day... a transmitter the size of a pack of camels clipped to your belt, with a cable going to the PC jack of your pricey (film) Nikon? Set the camera down, makeup artist calls you, you turn and head her way... and drag the camera to the floor. Did that TWICE in my career. Bodies were fine, lenses needed some repairs!
 
Grug said:
Yep, that's what insurance is for. Never a fun experience though.
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They had no insurance, that's why they were renting from some dumbass owner operator like myself. I was not the only person who got stiffed by this director, by the way, so hopefully Karma caught up to her eventually (Karma, my 300-pound axe-wielding redneck third cousin).
 
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Victor you said 'I use' a lens - was it yours - or maybe you were second shooter using the kit of the main shooter - in the second case I dont think you should have to fork out - he is the cheapskate, being uninsured, and hiring students, (enabling him to lo-ball/undercut legit wedding ops) he should live with the consequences of his actions

Stories like the are sad and annoying. Not only for the individual involved.

Everyone shooting for money (or even 'free') should budget and charge for insurance
As it becomes an 'industry norm' at the low end not to be insured those who are insured suffer a competitive disadvantage and unrealistic client expectations are built up in terms of price
A negative cycle is then built up

I guess the DJ at the wedding and the hotel at the wedding were insured, why not the camera crew.. ?
Seems like those other industries stand together a little better, charging enough to make a profit and cover legit costs like insurance.

Ive employed a youngster before, he rolled and wrote off a company vehicle (my company), unsuprisingly I was insured - other losses over my career include stolen 300/2.8, lost 300 2.8, (young op left it at race track - no claim!) Stolen 35/2 85 1.4, smashed 16 2.8, DOA 600 f4 ect..

S
 
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I agree 100% with Sam on this one - you should not be liable for those repair charges Victor. Whoever you were working for is the liable party, and they should have been insured. If they weren't insured then that is their mistake as producers, and they need to man up and eat the charges.

If there were a possibility of me being liable for repairs or replacement for some of the gear I work with daily, I'd be too afraid to do my job at all - there is always the possibity of any number of things that could go wrong (and be easily blamed on me because of my proximity to the gear) which could wipe out my life savings. Filmmaking should not and simply cannot operate that way.
 
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i had a crash once, nothing tremendous but it sucked too: i did some follow shots on my skateboard, riding behind a good skateboarder. he kicked back his board by accident and knocked off the sunshade of my fisheye... no way to repair since there are just 1.5 mm screws.. glad that there are no scratches on the lens, and funny footage where we both are looking stupid into the fish.. could have been a totally knocked off fisheye and broken filter thread on my HVX

regards Steve
 
Another thought.. You are at college.. I guess studying something releated to this industry

WTF are they teaching you? Business Practice should be part of the course

You should all discuss this in class

S
 
Sorry to hear & yeah it sucks, but as stated if you were borrowing the lens it should have insurance and you should not have to pay such a hefty fee.
 
I bought a tamron 28-75 f2.8 dropped with the camera from hip hight on a wood floor. camera's fin but the lens lost some sharpness :(
 
The lens wasn't mine. I borrow it from the guy who was hiring me as a second shooter for the wedding. We are doing low end weddings so that's why he wasn't insured. But it makes sense right? you drop something you pay for it. I graduated from high school last month and is signing up for college right now.
 
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