I had my D3 break on me after a 2ft fall onto a solid but carpeted floor. It is 4 years old and has had a few bumps and scrapes but it must have landed really badly this time. It broke some boards inside and although it would still fire the shutter, the LCDs were dead, wasnt writing to cards and USB was dead. Cost about £800 to repair. Just luck of the draw I guess.
It had a 1970s thorium glass 35mm f1.4 lens on at the time which needless to say, didn't notice a thing.

I was out hiking and did some rock climbing Greenbrier State Park located in upper Frederick County, Maryland this past weekend with my D90 and 24mm 1.4G lens, with the intention of taking some landscape photos, with a couple of friends.

Long story short, I dropped the entire camera, it bounced, slid down the rock face and landed about 4-5 feet below where I was. Luckily, it didn't fall the opposite direction, off the cliff and down 30 or so feet until it impacted the ground. It impacted filter-end first against another rock

I picked it up and investigated the damage: auto focus, aperture, the shutter, everything worked except for the built-in flash -- the camera thinking that it isn't popping up, but it does pop open, but it keeps attempting to release the flash everytime I press the flash release button. Really, all it'll do is just click, click, click. So, I'm unsure if the flash can still fire, but it's a non-issue as I use an external flash on the hotshoe anyways.

The body just has some minor scratches and the lens itself has absolutely no damage on the glass, but there was a slight dent where the lens filter can be attached. I bent it back to shape after I got home, but I can't quite snuggly screw in a lens filter all the way in, but it can get on there. The lens cap, which was the hero of the day, suffered minor damage where it can't securely latch itself properly into place, but with a bit of elbow grease, it'll latch.

I figured that it's bound to happen once to everyone, so with that said, I'm gonna knock on wood a lot to prevent a second drop! :D

If we are into the silly stuff... a zoom lens, DX, and I cannot remember which was in the top case of the motorcycle and as I was unloading..... about four feet to the asphalt. Landed on the lens shade which bent. Did not break the filter on the front. Lens worked well even after bouncing across the parking lot.

I did trade it on something else, however, as I was collecting FX lenses in prep for a D3s....which I never purchased about a two years ago as the D4 was "coming out soon", ha, ha, ha.

A year or two ago, I was in a crowd changing the film in my new FM2 (so maybe it was more than a year or two). In any case, just as I was making certain the the film was aligned between the rails, I was elbowed from behind and my thumb went through the shutter...

Since then I have been very careful. The only other close call I had was when my underwater housing started leaking at about 80 feet, I immediately turned off the camera. It didn't take on much (salt) water, but the entire camera seemed kinda moist. Once on shore I pulled the battery and placed the camera with some rice overnight... years later it is still going strong.

Bwuck buck buck buck ;-)

Chicken.

I'm keeping well shtoom (English slang for remaining quiet). Let's just say I have nothing to add to this thread at present!

spraynpray said:
You can't say fairer than that - pretty good for an entry level camera, and kudos Nikon too.

Agree, they did not have to do that.

Juergen said:
I think this is the first D4 abuse in this thread.

My thinktank retro shoulderbag dropped from a table onto a hardwood floor. Of course it landed upside down, where the bag has no soft padding. The D4 with an atached 70-200 took a full hit. The hinge of the flap to the memory card compartment broke. Evrything else seemed to be ok.
Went to Nikon service center. They said they would need a week to get the parts, if the parts would not make it for some reason, they would take them out of on of their D4's.
A week later they repared the flap, serviced the camera, measured it to make sure there was no misalignment. The price they charged me was very reasonable. Great service I must say. I am not a NPS member.

Jürgen

Wow... You must of felt sick to the old stomach. Glad it turned out well

captainelmo said:
My previous D5000 survived torrential downpours, snow and even a drop from about 2m( my height). But it died when the tripod it was on fell and it flew 3 flights of steps and 2 hills and into a ditch. Only thing which broke was the shutter mechanism and a circuit board but it cost a bomb to repair so Nikon SG offered to sell a new D5000 at a discount.

You can't say fairer than that - pretty good for an entry level camera, and kudos Nikon too.

My previous D5000 survived torrential downpours, snow and even a drop from about 2m( my height). But it died when the tripod it was on fell and it flew 3 flights of steps and 2 hills and into a ditch. Only thing which broke was the shutter mechanism and a circuit board but it cost a bomb to repair so Nikon SG offered to sell a new D5000 at a discount.

I use an alternative to letting my equipment actually hit the ground that is getting a little hard on my body as I age owing to concussions and almost breaking my neck once. I physically launch my body to reach the equipment, catching it before it hits the ground while protecting the camera gear with my body. If I lose balance launching I hold the gear up and away from my body to cushion the equipment with my fall. If both hands come into play, which happens, this ends badly. Regardless this is my first, and someday might be my last, instinct and it has nothing to do with good sense, or money. It a reflex response to my horror of dropping gear, and it is usually more expensive, especially after an emergency room visit, than the lost of the equipment.

So far the only thing of real value that I've dropped has been my SB-900 - from about 4 feet high onto a brick pavers walkway. Barely a scratch and it's never flenched in it's awesomeness.

My backup body dropped from the floor of my SUV to the road surface this last week.

[SIGH]

Still works just fine. Great shots from Nikon tanks (um... cameras), as usual.

A friend who is new to photography watched me change a lens on my D7000 while standing by using the top of my nova shoulder bag as a work surface. he commented that it looked like an accident in waiting (it isn't actually) then he put his brand new 5Dmk2 on its screen on top of a rock wall while he changed his 24-70'L' for his 70-200'L' - when he had finished there was a scratch across his screen you could catch your nail in.....

I told him he was stupid buying all that gear when he didn't even know what exposure was, would he listen?

My buddy had his D5000 knocked out of his hands by a football tossing machine about 3 months ago. It thew the camera about 10 feet or so. It still to this day.

I think this is the first D4 abuse in this thread.

My thinktank retro shoulderbag dropped from a table onto a hardwood floor. Of course it landed upside down, where the bag has no soft padding. The D4 with an atached 70-200 took a full hit. The hinge of the flap to the memory card compartment broke. Evrything else seemed to be ok.
Went to Nikon service center. They said they would need a week to get the parts, if the parts would not make it for some reason, they would take them out of on of their D4's.
A week later they repared the flap, serviced the camera, measured it to make sure there was no misalignment. The price they charged me was very reasonable. Great service I must say. I am not a NPS member.

Jürgen

Actually the most amazing "near miss" I ever witnessed was on one of the pelagic birding trips I run. A buddy was shooting Canon (yeah, I know, but I still like him) and I believe the lens he had on was the 300mm f/2.8. Somehow he managed to detach the lens when we were 40 miles or so from shore and it plummeted down on the seaward side of the railing. Amazingly he caught the lens AFTER it had passed the top of the railing. Not every day you get to see somebody make a $6,000 catch like that!

Here's my list of shame:

I dropped by D7000 about 3' onto a steel boat deck. No damage.

My 70-300mm roll off a bed and hit a tile floor. The protective clear glass filter shattered into a bazillion pieces but the lens was and remains fine.

I had my binoculars swing hard into the front of my old 80-400mm. The wire that holds in the glass of the protective clear glass filter popped (I got it back in). No harm.

My wife recently dropped her V1 onto a tile floor. Protective filter obliterated, no damage.

My buddy had a camera bounce off of a bench on a pelagic birding trip and hit the steel deck. The filter on his 80-400mm was toast, the lens was fine.

If you read all of the above, you probably don't need to ask which side of the use of a clear protective filter debate I land on (with "land" being the operative word).

I have learned that the Black Rapid is not without its faults or issues... A while back I was shooting tidepools. I had crouched down to photograph this crab under a rock with the camera that was not on the black rapid(d90 10.5mm). It took me more than a minute for me to realize that the camera on the black rapid (actually the lens) was partially submerged in saltwater... The lens that happened to be submerged was my 14-24mm of course and not something I paid $200 for. Luckily no water got inside (miracle?) and the lens doesn't stick or anything to this day...

Less notable but also a good reason to choke up your strap at times (or get a brad accessory) I have had my dslr swing into my you know whats a few times...

2007:
Minus 2 degrees outside, tidal wave crashed over me and D200 with 18-70 G lens. Have a shot somewhere of the exact instance.

2008:
After riding back along King St. Toronto from picking up my wedding photos, bicycle tyre slipped into streetcar track, and I flipped back wheel over front into the centre of the intersection. D200 was in backpack and hit pavement first. Wonderful dull crack. Traffic stopped. I limped to the side, in a rush of shock, said I was fine to a kind lady who took pity on me, and rode home. Some cracked plastic on the body, screen protector died, but none the worse for use.

Since then, numerous drops and bangs from tables onto granite flooring, from tripods, onto carpet. None of my lenses are light anymore:

50/1,2 Ai
35/2 Ai
105/2,5 AiS

So the sound is always terrible, and deep. Still, it keeps on chugging along, though electronic lenses no longer work well (camera stalls sometimes and other errors). I hope to be able to gather enough dosh to replace it with a D800 or D600 next year.

D7000 + 70-200mm f/2.8 VR1 falling five feet off a tripod onto my foot -> ouch

Same lens falling off its strap, face-down onto a boulder -> the hood soaked the damage, and the new cheapo knock-off hood actually fits snugly unlike the old one!

Same 70-200 and a Tokina 12-24mm f/4 both saw some use in a couple hurricanes -> the 70-200 fogged up a couple days after hurricane exposure, and the zoom ring got stiff for a couple weeks but it has been fine ever since

msmoto said:
@ben_v3 Black Rapid Strap... prevents these things.... But, I have dropped them as well....so...

Those. Look. Awesome.

Makes me want to buy a second setup and rock one of the doubles.

@ben_v3 Black Rapid Strap... prevents these things.... But, I have dropped them as well....so...

I was shooting at a hockey rink and had set my D70 with 24-120 VR on the edge to grab something. I had it squished between my body and the glass. I leaned just a bit too far and it fell to the concrete. Luckily it landed on the lens shade, which broke. Everything else works just fine.