Ever wonder what would happen if you left your camera gear outside, on the ground, for a whole year? Yeah, me either, but my camera gear has been found!
It was about 70 yards from my front door. Whoever took it went to the end of my street (A dead end) pilfered through it, and then just tossed down into the woods, near some railroad tracks.
A friend of mine that recently moved here for school was doing a design project down there, and I jokingly told him to keep his eyes peeled for a camera bag. He calls me a couple of days later, and said he found it! Here's what the contents look like, spending one full year, and one full weather cycle outside, on the ground.
My M 100 wasn't in the bag, so the next day, we went to where he found the bag, scratched around a bit, and found the 100mm lens! It spent the year outside the bag!
The camera (Vivitar 3800N) is trash, but the lenses seem like they will work. I took apart the M 100 and cleaned all the dirt out of it, but I didn't clean the optics yet. I'm going to do a project with this equipment, as is.
There is some fungus in 24 and 100mm lenses, but they are otherwise fine. You can't even tell the A 50 was outside. My circular polarizers are shot, and the right angle finder is still missing, but who cares- I never thought I'd see any of this stuff again!
Sorry for the old bump, but I figured y'all might get a kick out of this!
Andrew