Your camera's near death experiences

B

Budgieboots

Well-known member
Hello, I thought this would be a fun thread to post our
camera's near death experiences.

I'll start by posting mine.

I am at Frankfurt Airport in Germany and I'm using one of their carts to carry my luggage. These carts can go on the escalators they have there by locking their wheels. Anyway, I have my luggage all nicely on the cart and ontop of the luggage is sitting my Kata bag which contains my dvx, tapes and microphone cords. Stupidly, I did not hold onto the bag or attach it to anything, it was just sitting ontop of the luggage, free as a bird. So, in my brilliance I decide to go on one of the escalators that travels downward and gravity kicked in. My Kata bag went rolling off the luggage it was sitting on and went tumbling down the escalator, doing at least 7 flips. I was terrified when I got to the bottom. I opened up the Kata bag and to my surprise, everything was fine! I was so relieved.

So I guess now I have faith in Kata and Im so happy I got a Kata bag because it saved my DVX's life!
 
I had my camera sitting in the front seat with me in the passenger seat (no seatbelt). I was just driving home real quick - no big deal. Well, some bigger idiot than I stopped short and I had to slam my brakes. The camera rolled off the seat and banged around on the floor for a while.

Luckily all I had to do was clean it up a bit.
 
During a night shoot, I'm walking around with the DVX on a Glidecam supported on a DV Sportster vest, and step in a post hole. It's muddy and I sink ankle deep in mud at the bottom of the post hole (2 feet deep) and take a header. Luckily I was able to swing the Glidecam a bit but the corner of the DVX sunshade hits the mud at an angle.
After wiping off the mud and checking everything out, no damage done but it was pretty hairy for a few minutes.
 
I was shooting a music video outside at night in a park pavillion(without a permit). We were shooting the guitar player and The crane with camera on it fell off the tripod and the camera slammed into the concrete steps and the crane slammed into my hand which hurt.. But what hurt worse was the fact that my DVX could no longer focus and I was scared for its life... Restarted it and it worked fine put the crane back on the tripod and finished shooting. I was nervous the rest of the time because the crane was locked on when it fell...and im still not sure why it happened.

Not a near death experience for my cam but still a crazy little story: Was filming at a concert where I was really sick(My parents wanted me to go to the emergency room but i drove 2.5 hours and went to film the concert instead cuz i didnt want to break my word) But not only am i like throwing up and close to passing out, i was testing out the crane shots before the band I was shooting came on and one of the screws(with a loophole on it) holding the pulley system together broke off and fell down into the crowd(I was on a balcony) and probably impaled somone. So now I'm freaking out that I came all this way and wouldnt be able to use the crane on the concert. But luckily after searching everywhere we found somone to help us and he luckily had zip ties which fixed the crane pretty well and are actually still on it to this day. Later that night still waiting for the the band I was filming to play(they were the headliners so therefore last to play :() some dumb kids snuck up into the balcony and kept bumping into my cam as it was on the crane and i got pretty angry but was too sick to move let alone start any sort of confrontation so I had to wait for security to come and kick them out.

Oh and that same night while I'm trying to fix the crane this stupid lady comes up to me and asks me to film her sons band for free and then starts telling me how to do things like I had agreed to do he job already. She was like...amek sure you get the crowds reaction to them and blah blah blah. I didnt have the energy to tell her that I hated her and wasnt about to waste the energy and tape to film them and then spend so many hours editing their half hour set and not get paid for any of it. I just kind of handed her a business card and told her the crane was broke.... I hate how everyone expects freebies when they see me filming concerts...I don't know if they understand the amount of time it takes to edit and that im being paid to be there for whatever band im filming and im not just doing it for fun.

End of rant/stories
 
Ah yes....

Well... So far I've only had one near death experience with my DVX. I'm crossing my fingers! Mine happened about a week after I purchased the DVX. I live in Montana and we have some amazing nature around here so I decided to shoot a short using some of the more spectacular locations around the area. One shot required that we litterally crawl several hundred feed vertically up a mountain side to reach some rock formations at the top of an inaccessable peak. Sounded like a great idea at the time... damn cool location.

Anyway, going up the mountain was one of those utterly exhausting experiences. The angle of ascent was incredibly steep and the ground was soft and easily gave way so we could only go a few steps at a time before stopping to rest (while hoping that we actually gained ground as ground would slide downward).

We reached the top, shot our material, and began the descent. While going down the ground gave way and I let go of my Pelican case with the DVX inside. I slid about 20 feet down the side of the mountain - no harm done - but had to watch in horror as the case bounced down a cliff/mountain side for several hundred feet and landed in a rock bed. In the end the DVX was just fine. The viewfinder diopter was out of alignment but that was about it. I swear by Pelican cases now! My case has some heavy damage but it worked!
 
One of my 100a cameras was hit by a motorcycle ridden by Monte Perlin, famed motorcycle stunt-man. There's actually some footage of this somewhere.

One broken Azden microphone mount was the total damage.

e
 
While I was working on a documentary one night, I was chasing some actors (theater documentary) as fast as I could while I was video taping them in a dimly lit hallway. Bad situation to begin with, no? So, as I'm running, I realize that I'm getting slammed between two actresses trying to get to the make-up area before the show starts. Just as I realize what's going on, I see my feet get caught up in her long dress and I go down, still holding my DVX. Of course the first thing I'm worried about is the beating I'm gonna get from the show's directors and costumers when the actress opens the show without a dress. Luckily, nothing happened to the dress, and I still hadn't even though about my DVX. So I get up to start shooting again and realize the damn thing actually survived unscathed...until..."****...now the camera won't focus and there aren't any second takes in documentaries." Oh well...I had some good footage from earlier. Then I realize, well, I may as well turn the thing on and take some wide shots if they look decent. Much to my happiness...the thing worked flawlessly after that.
I popped the footage in that night and it actually recorded perfectly until the frame it hit the ground. There are about 6 or 7 hilarious frames where you can see the brim of my hat and my shocked eyes realizing that I had fallen over like that. Then there's a REAL nasty dropout and timecode break, but other than that if worked fine. Oh, and I'm six-foot-four and was rolling the camera above my head, so that's a pretty good fall that the little guy survived.
Peace,

-Harry
 
...then there was the time I ran over my Ikie with my news car...smashed the zoom controller and the lens mount...now no longer in the news game...wonder why?
 
i was using a monopod as a crane in a heavely wooded area. i was standing on what i thought was just a grassy hill thing. but it ended up to be a wood pile with leaves and crap all over it. i fell face first to the ground. i got so lucky tho, the actor grabbed the pod and cam as i was falling. hehe i got lucky.
 
its been how long now and John Hudson still cracks me the F**k up! Hi John how have you been? Still in Cali?
 
None with DVX's, but i've had a few close calls.

Worst was a fall I took with an XL1 on a Steadicam Flyer. We flipped a bike trailer that I was in while going around a corner. I landed on my back (which was protected by nice soft vest padding) and couught the rig & camera inches from hitting a tree. The helmet I was wearing probably saved my neck and the gear was all fine, so I got away with a scare.
We didn't do a 2nd take. The shot made both the final cut and my demo reel.

- Mikko
 
My school has gone threw ... Alot ...
[FONT=arial,sans-serif][SIZE=-1]AG-DVC200[/SIZE][/FONT] (The Sholdermounted one) was on a Hotel Cart, stacked on the very top, got pushed over tile, and well, That didnt end well.

Uhh, Another [FONT=arial,sans-serif][SIZE=-1]AG-DVC200 [/SIZE][/FONT]Got hit with a football from the game they were filming, and it hit the lense, and that was the end of that camera.

I saw one of my schools Poor DVX100P Hit the floor, There goes the Lense hood and Focus ring.... :(

Maxtor 200GB external took a Spill from someone pulling on the Firewire (dumb people scare me)

Had a HVX200 Mounted on a Kessler krane that's Tilt arm was held on by Velcro (Bolts left in someone elses car, Actor had to leave, I <3 Velco) It did work too!

Sony 6 or 4 inch preview monitor's cable got stepped on, and it fell of the table to its Demise.

So many BNC and Svideo cables i cant even Remeber all of them

A couple others, Cant remeber right now.
 
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I was filming an action sequence in a forest. The shot involving me running in a circle as fast as I could with my FX1. I tripped on a rock and down came the camera. It got a pretty good jolt and the battery actually flew off. Of course I instinctively threw my hand up to protect the camera, not actually caring if my elbow gets stratched or broken :). The first words out of my mouth when I got up was "Is the camera alright?" My philosophy is that the human body will heal...for free, the camera won't. Which is why everytime I hand someone else the camera I tell them "If you drop the camera, you have better be prepared to jump on the ground and let it fall on you."
 
I can now officially join this club as I managed to drop (last friday) my HVX 5' . I have to say it bounces really well. No real damage that I could see as the Matte Box took the brunt of the fall but still pissed it happened all the same.
 
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