What is the biggest disaster or close call you had with a camera and gear?

A couple years ago in New Hampshire at a place called the basin I was shooting from the edge of a river and the current was very strong due to a few days of constant rain. The river bed at this place is almost completely granite. So I have my 5d mkii on a tripod and its already in the water resting on the slippery uneven granite, I had to hold on just to keep it from being swept away in the strong current. So... somehow I decided it was a good idea to stand in the water right at the edge, I'm wearing boots and jeans, and have importaint things like wallet, keys, and cell phone in my pockets. So I lose my footing on the slippery granite and off I go down the stream with the camera in hand, heart beating a million miles a minute. Somehow I kept just the camera above water lever and managed to get my foot lodged into a ridge on the river bed, stopping me. The process of getting out of there was hell, the slightest wrong movements would send me sliding again, but slowly I got the hell out of there with everything intact.

An ugly scratch on my lens hood. Nothing more serious yet.

My brother and I had our cameras on our tripods waiting for sunrise and he bent over to get something out of his backpack. The moment he bent down there was a strong gust of wind and his camera tipped over. He was able to catch it just before it hit the ground so that was a close call.

Personally, we were leaving a motel headed for my daughter's college graduation and the first thing I did was put my camera in the back of the van. Then my mother-in-law's wheel chair wouldn't fit in the back so I removed the backpack and set it at the rear of the van while I positioned the wheelchair. As usual for my family we were late so we were in a rush and I forgot to put the backpack back in the van. I realized I had left the backpack when I opened the back of the van at the auditorium. I rushed back to the motel and the backpack was gone. I lost my 40D, 3 lenses(28-135, 12-22, & 100-400L), 580EXii flash, and a bunch of odds & ends. I was gone no more than 15 minutes and the bag was right in front of the front door of the motel but no one saw anything and none of the equipment was ever recovered. I did have insurance but it only covered about 70% of my loss.

On visit to NASA Visitors Center at Cape Kennedy, I had to open my camera bag for a security check that took longer than one would normally expect, and in a hurry to catch up with the rest of my party I forgot to zip the main compartment...my 30D survived the fall to the concrete floor, but my Sigma 12-24 attached to it did not. The repair cost was a substantial fraction of the cost of a new one, but it does work fine on my 70D. I now think of it as a camera body protector.

Last year, frigid day out shooting ducks in my buddy's impoundment. I had been out there a couple times before and walked in the front side. Pretty easy walk, nothing more than about 2 ft. of water. This time I decided to walk in the backside. Had my 1DIV and 400 2.8 on the tripod over my shoulder. Little fact I forgot - there is a 4ft deep ditch running the perimeter of the impoundment to control water flow. Without thinking, I took my first couple steps with no problem, then WHAM! I hit the ditch. One foot on the 2 ft. side, one on the 4ft side. The only thing that kept me from falling completely over camera and all - I had my tripod legs extended and was able to use it as support until I got my footing back.

Same impoundment, couple days later went in the front side this time. Get to about 10 feet form the blind and make the left turn to go into the blind. Guess what surround the blind - all but a 4 ft. portion? Another ditch. This time, right leg hit the walkway and slipped into the ditch. Same this using the tripod for balance this time was a little tougher as I had to contort my body 90 degrees to the right to catch my balance.

I've also had a leg not get tightened on my tripod enough to support the weight and had it collapse within inches of taking a bath.

In 1981 the porter in Hotel Carter, NYC stole my camera gear from the luggage check room while we were at lunch. This was the last day of our first trip to the US, and his haul included about 6 rolls of shot film.... All we could do was get a police report number and then leave for the airport.

We were young and very naive, but I'd love to have those images of the twin towers back...

I guess one should forgive and forget, so I hope he finds out who his father is one day....

In 2009, I picked up my camera bag while in Leubeck, and my 70-200 Siggy dropped out the side rear end first onto the cobbles... Not good. Took about a month to get it repaired. It's been good as new since..

Had just taken shots at Broke Leg Falls near Red River Gorge in KY. Camera and tripod, while sitting on a level concrete surface 10-12 feet away from a friend and me, leaped, yes, leaped to it's demise on the boulders below. The 40d's body was compromised and the lens came off the camera, while the lens' mount remained on the camera. Luckily, I'd left the 5dII in the car!

PHOTOBUCKET EMBEDDING IS DISABLED BY THIS MEMBER. Photobucket sends ads instead of embedding photos from their free galleries. Click the link (if available) below to see the image in a gallery page. http://i138.photobucke​t.com …50/jlogic_2000/​Eulogy.jpg

Logicus wrote in post #16479469
Had just taken shots at Broke Leg Falls near Red River Gorge in KY. Camera and tripod, while sitting on a level concrete surface 10-12 feet away from a friend and me, leaped, yes, leaped to it's demise on the boulders below. The 40d's body was compromised and the lens came off the camera, while the lens' mount remained on the camera. Luckily, I'd left the 5dII in the car!

IMAGE LINK: http://s138.photobucke​t.com …000/media/Eulog​y.jpg.html

Well the strap survived without a scratch......

I'm glad I'm part ninja. Went to the buffet at a resort in Cancun with my wife and I had my camera. When I came back with my plate, I set things down and inadvertantly pushed my 5D3 off the side of the table. I quickly dropped my fork and knife and was able to cradle the camera before it hit the ground. Guy sitting two tables away looked at me and said, "Nice catch."

I experienced a near disaster thanks to a stupid mental lapse on my part. I was out on a pre-dawn architectural photoshoot and had both my TS-E 17 and 24 II with me. At some point I switched lenses and temporarily set the 24mm down on metal structure. Unfortunately my short-term memory failed me and I had driven almost all the way home after the shoot before the sickening realization struck me: I had left the expensive TS-E 24mm II sitting on a ledge in plain sight out in the open. Oh what a sickening feeling!

Thankfully, I had the building security's phone number and, after calling them, they quickly secured the lens for me. Man, what a boneheaded mistake on my part!

My TS-E 24mm II must be cursed or something, because I also irretrievably lost a the tilt knob in a hayfield. I wasn't able to find either a needle or a tilt-knob in the stack of hay.

I stopped to take a few photos on the way to a relative's house. When I got there, I pulled my backpack out of my car, not realizing I had not zipped it up. Sure enough, my 70-200 F4L fell out from waist-high to the cement below and put a large crack in the body near the mount. I sent it back to Canon to get repaired, which they did, but it doesn't function like it used to. It doesn't pull the same colors, contrast and sharpness that it used to...

Why couldn't the 50 1.8 have fallen out instead?

No disasters yet. However, I experienced an extremely close call not to long ago. I inadvertently left my camera equipment spreadsheet up on my computer screen. It lists date purchased, serial numbers and cost paid. Wow, if the wife saw that.....

While traveling, I dropped a lens off a very high bed.. Luckily only the b+w lens filter shattered.
Another time while waiting for the car rental, I dropped a non padded bag and it shattered another b+w filter on a lens.
7 million dollar crumpler cured my dropping woes.. but I was happy that the impact was on the b+w and not on the lens glass.

Too many happy endings here!

Over a decade of shooting weddings - dropped camera, fell on 24-70L which snapped off its lens mount base. Another time did the same thing, didn't snap but zoom mechanism jammed up badly, was an expensive repair.
Had a 50mm 1.8 break into two parts from a one foot fall to the ground, two almost perfect halves. Happened to a friend too. Worst was it was a loaner from a friend as my 1.4 was in the shop being calibrated. Luckily it was the time of very cheap Canon lenses, replaced it for £70 if I remember right.
Have broken off more 580ex hotshoes than I care to remember, £30 fix a time and I wanted them to give me a 'break 9 get the tenth free' card!
Shot an outdoor gig in such heavy rain that the screens of both my 5D's went on the fritz, weird colours, etc. Problem would go away if you hit the screen just right.
My 50L arrived from abroad, a friend brought it out for me, broken focus window and broken filter ring. Had obviously been dropped. Problem was they had been doing me a big favour, I couldn't prove anything and yeah, it's still like that. I replaced the focus window but the focus meter sticker underneath got badly scratched and I hadn't bought a replacement. Such is life..
My 85mm 1.8, I put an old filter ring on it to preserve the filter thread as I didn't like filters and didn't use a hood. It got jammed on and one night after a long wedding and just 2 hours of sleep, drunk on exhaustion I went at it with pliers. Horrible sight, looked like it had been mangled by a fire by the time I finished. Got it taken off eventually years later by a tech.
My 16-35LII has a bent filter ring, annoyed about that one, no idea how it happened, didn't realise till I tried to polarise a scene on a commercial gig and it refused to screw on. Tech tells me it's not possible to straighten, have to replace the front part of the barrel. Not bothering to be honest, expensive fix. More to the point it's working perfectly, doubt it will come back with the elements so well aligned.