Have you ever dropped your camera?

SuzyView wrote in post #17067668
It really did a number on the filter, could not take it off.

The filters seem to shatter quite easily, especially a sideways impact to the filter ring itself (I have broken 3 this way). The glass shards can scratch the front element, which is less likely to be damaged by such an impact, being embedded further in the lens, and being made of thicker/tougher glass.

Filters give some protection from objects coming (not so hard that it breaks) at the front element, such as airborne abrasives. They also complete the weather sealing on some lenses. Don't however assume that the filter broke instead of damaging the front element.

The filter gave way, which saved the front element. I sent the whole thing to Canon, and they did an amazing job taking the filter off and saving the lens. It works great. My son only dropped it about 12 inches. He doesn't carry my equipment anymore. :P

SuzyView wrote in post #17067668
Son dropped the camera bag on the ground, slipped out of his hands. Thank heavens I had a filter on the 24-70. It really did a number on the filter, could not take it off. Sent it to Canon Service and they took care of everything. The lens had a terrible rattling inside. It didn't cost me all that much to repair. And anyone who says filters are stupid, well, I think it's okay to be stupid sometimes.

SuzyView wrote in post #17069170
The filter gave way, which saved the front element. I sent the whole thing to Canon, and they did an amazing job taking the filter off and saving the lens. It works great. My son only dropped it about 12 inches. He doesn't carry my equipment anymore. :P

In my opinion you got lucky that the filter didn't break and scratch the front element.

davomate explain well the purpose of a filter which can be very effective in sands storm for example, but over all the hood will do a better job than the filter to protect the front element against shock and in the bag it's the cap who protect the front element

Heya,

My EOS-M with 22mm F2 lens attached (with lens cap on) fell out of my truck seat 3 times this evening and hit the floor board and bounced around as I sped around trying to get to locations in a limited time frame during the sunset hours.

Looks well rough and used. But works flawless.

Very best,

Reservoir Dog wrote in post #17069213
In my opinion you got lucky that the filter didn't break and scratch the front element.

davomate explain well the purpose of a filter which can be very effective in sands storm for example, but over all the hood will do a better job than the filter to protect the front element against shock and in the bag it's the cap who protect the front element

I agree the hood is better, but in the bag, the hood was reversed and offered little help. Hood is always on my lenses when being used.

Dropped...no. Knocked over...yes...into a lake with my Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L lens attached.

I had just bought a used Canon 1D Mark III (my first DSLR) the day before, and I was photographing some ducks etc at a local lake. The camera/lens was on a tripod and I went to turn and accidentally knocked the whole rig into the lake...lens first.

I quickly took it out, shook off the water, cleaned off the muck to see how much damage. The camera was wet but still worked like a charm. (Gotta love those 1D bodies). The lens however was toast. Water and dirt/sand inside...you could hear it grinding against the gears. Fogged up the lens from the inside. So I rushed home, put the lens in a bag of rice to see if it would absorb the water but it was too late. So now I have a very unique paper weight.

Ouch! Can't you send it to Canon to clean & service? That's got to be cheaper than paying for a new L lens.

Knock on wood: not yet. I'm pretty anal about my gear and so far have avoided dropping my camera or lenses but I certainly think about it when I'm handling things. I use a Rugger Gear cart when I'm out and about and it has a platform I use to stage lenses when making a change. That seems to prevent accidents though I do know, accidents can happen. I'm careful around my tripod because I've almost tripped over it several times but so far, I haven't knocked it over with my camera on it.

hokiealumnus wrote in post #17070026
Ouch! Can't you send it to Canon to clean & service? That's got to be cheaper than paying for a new L lens.

I suppose I could but it's probably a bit too late to do that now. (This happened about a year ago and right now I'm actually planning on buying another camera (1D4 or 1Dx and 4 or 5 lenses including the new series II 70-200 f/2.8L I.S.) So I may just chalk this up as a live and learn experience.

Pshh, if you want to send that to me, I'll send it in and see how much it costs. It's sure to be less than the lens itself.

Use it for Canon's customer buy back service to get something back from it. Maybe $200? I'm assuming it was the f/2.8 non IS model? I've heard of a guy with a 1D and f/2.8 IS that fell into an indoor pond and the camera/lens combo worked just fine.

Note to self: make a list of every klutz in this thread and be sure never to buy used gear from them.

Okay, okay, as the old timers may remember, I had a then brand new 1DsII, yes, an $8,000 camera body with the brick (24-70) attached, wandering the streets of Manhattan (NYC) on a Sunday morning near Adorama. I see two unsavory looking characters round the corner about 100 feet from me and begin heading toward me. The street was otherwise deserted. I immediately get paranoid that they may want to rob me so I swing my sling bag around and begin to put the camera away, thinking I still had the neck strap on. But I didn't. As I was trying to quickly stuff it in the bag and keep an eye on them, I let it go for a brief second and realized it was falling out of the bag to the concrete sidewalk below.

Cracked the top of the camera body near the hotshoe.

A mere $600 repair bill later and the camera was good as new.

About two years back I was out hiking with my 1DIV attached to a Cotton Carrier waist belt. The puck worked its way loose and the camera just fell. Luckily and thankfully, it fell about two feet into a bed of leaves and suffered absolutely no damage. My heart skipped a beat for sure though.

Picked my bag from a chair, turns out it was unzipped, throwing my kit lens and flash in the air. Luckily the camera stayed inside the bag, and everything kept working properly

oh, and if it counts, I recently crashed my quadcopter (drone) and broke the camera and gimbal. That would've cost only $700 to repair.

SuzyView wrote in post #17069170
The filter gave way, which saved the front element. I sent the whole thing to Canon, and they did an amazing job taking the filter off and saving the lens. It works great. My son only dropped it about 12 inches. He doesn't carry my equipment anymore. :P

Canon released a film on how to remove a stuck filter, if that was all that's wrong with it. you use a hacksaw to cut a few mm into the front of the filter, then -without taking the saw out of the notch- use the saw as a screwdriver and unscrew the filter. this is assuming there is little-to-no thread damage.