Cursed Beast (or, I'm a careless idiot)

Man, it just hasn't been a good weekend for my 28-70 AF-S. Yesterday was my first real outing with the lens, I went with my friend over to his church to take some shots of the interior and exterior. They ended up really just being test shots to try some different angles, figure out what time of day would be ideal, etc. The plan is to use them for their website at no charge, but maybe with an opportunity for some future business/referrals.

Anyway, at one point I asked him to hand me my camera bag (Velocity 9), but alas I hadn't properly closed the bag and when he picked it up the Beast came spilling out and landed on the floor. We both about had a heart attack. Luckily the lens seemed to be OK, I went on to use it for some of the exterior shots and noticed no problems at all and they came out quite sharp. Catastrophe avoided.

This morning, I drove down to Nasa for the Ballunar Festival (hot air balloons). I was putting the camera in and out of the tripod mount repeatedly as I changed from portrait to landscape and did a few handheld shots. At one point I must not have seated the bracket properly in the clamp because after tightening it down and letting go the camera promptly fell to the ground. This time, I wasn't so lucky; the lens is jammed up something fierce and won't zoom at all. The lens does focus fine but it's definitely going to have to go to Nikon for repair, which means I'm going to be without a standard zoom for who knows how long.

And of course being the procrastinator that I am, I haven't updated my scheduled insurance coverage for all the recent purchases I've made so no coverage there. Luckily, I bought the lens on an AMEX card with 90-day Purchase Protection so I should be able to get them to foot the bill for the repair (up to $1K I think). I feel like such an idiot. I just hope I can get the lens back in plenty of time for the two trips we're taking second half of Sept.

I guess I can at least be thankful that the D2x wasn't harmed in the drop.

 

I'm wondering the same thing. I also found out this week that it's going to cost around $2K to fix my A/C (hasn't been keeping up on hot afternoons, turns out coil has a leak among other things).

 

I hope so too. I hadn't gotten to use the lens much yet, but from what I've seen I definitely have (had?) a sharp copy.

Pretty decent, I think. Will definitely have to go back to re-shoot when the light is right, but I think some of the Church shots show some potential. I'll probably be posting a thread to get some feedback/critiques once I find out which angles they like and want me to reshoot.

The Balloon event this morning was OK. Skies were mostly cloudless and a bit hazy, but with some PP I think some of the shots will be OK. I'll probably post some of those tomorrow.