Quote:
Originally Posted by MS Fowler
Thanks for sharing your experience. I agree that no digital has yet matched the sheer durability of some of the legendary film cameras. I also agree that that level is not required by the OP, or almost anyone. I went to college with a guy who had a Nikon F1 that had survived a fall from a Huey in 'Nam. Tough.
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Back when I was in photo school at Ft. Meade, one of my instructors told us all to carry an unmetered film backup into the field. He had a story and a camera to prove it.
November 2001 he was with Army Combat Camera and was parachuted into Afghanistan to reconnoiter a landing strip. The C-130 that dropped the team made another pass around and pushed the improperly secured pallet of gear out the back of the aircraft doing a few hundred miles per hour. In theory, the drogue chute would have stopped the gear and all would have been well but the sled was imbalanced and not all the gear was secured. Pelican cases of Nikon F4s, F5s, D1s, laptops, comm gear and one lonely Nikon F2 exploded all over the desert. Everything with electronics in it was dead but the little Nikon F2 augured itself into the desert floor a few inches and when it was found, was dusted off, checked for damage, wound and worked perfectly.
I had my own gear experience out in Fallujah, Iraq in the fall of 2004. I was with NMCB-4 attached to 1 MARDIV and while out one day a 122mm rocket came in close and I dropped straight to the ground right on my Leica M4. I overwound and stripped the brass keyed winding shaft when the weight of my body hit the camera. After my ears stopped ringing I saw that my beloved camera was broken and there is no camera repair in Iraq. So I got out my swiss Army knife, a set of jewelers screwdrivers and borrowed a pair of sharp channel locks from a machinist friend. Took the camera apart and found the problem. Showed it to my machinist friend who got a piece of brass stock and turned me a new press-fit keyed shaft. We used a press to pop it back in the camera chassis and the thing still works beautifully to this day. Only problem back then was the fine spring of the winder lever was hopelessly stretched and the green Navy doesn't usually carry spring steel stock for fine applications like a camera winder lever. So I lived with it. Still have the camera and I'll never get rid of her.
Phil Forrest