[varky]

The closest my gear came to danger was when I slipped on ice back in February. The camera and lens were in my non-camera backpack, so quite exposed. Thankfully my left arm and pride took the damage, while the camera came out unscathed.

But in general I'm probably too protective of my gear.

[MJKoski]

I fell into ice cold sea with K-1 and 15-30 after sliding off icy cliffs during a winter storm. Both the camera and lens died. I did not but it was not far off.

[amoringello]

Mine was sending my camera back to a Pentax certified repair center.
Multiple times, multiple products came back in worse condition than it went out, but the worst was for cleaning and warranty 'repair' back when the K3 had the sensor spots issue.
The body came back with the weather seals improperly re-installed. 5 minutes in very light rain a week later, and the camera was bricked.

[anemone]

My ist*DL got hit by a rock. I was photographing blasting of the end of a tunnel and I had camera in the middle of a tunnel. Setup was 15 sec timer on the camera, 15 sec shutter time. I armed camera went behind the corner, when the shutter opened, the explosives were fired (or actually their delays). When the rocks started to fly, one hit my straight to the old tele M lens front of my camera. Tripod fell on the ground, camera got scratches on the back and still worked. Mirror box was full of broken glass so the lens didn't survive. Anyway on next week I got the photo with new tele M lens and cleaned up DL.


Same thing happened to Sony camcorder. Only camera in 500m from blasting zone and single rock flew away. That camera didn't survive. But it had same tripod. So if somebody blasts some rock, the safest place to be is five meters from the camera

[fwwidall]

Back in 2008 I managed to knock my K10D off a coffee table to the ground. I had my Pentax-A 400mm F5.6 mounted at the time and the weight of the lens ripped the mount out of the camera body. It was only a fall of a couple of feet but I guess it landed just right to do the maximum damage.

I was quoted CA$600 to have it repaired. I thought that was too much, so I sold it for parts, and used the money I got to pay the sales tax on a new K20D.

Every cloud.... etc, etc.



Fred.

[UncleVanya]

Knock on wood: not a major scratch in almost 9 years of shooting Pentax.

Once, being a little late to my sister-in-law's wedding, my wife slipped in her dress shoes on some slippery stones and saved my Tamrac Expedition photo backpack that she happened to carry (because I was carrying bulkier stuff) by tossing it into a bush rather than letting it just drop on the stones.

Wife sustained a considerable bruise, poor heroic girl, but photo gear survived without any perceivable damage whatsoever - phew. Checked first on the wife, then on the K-7, BTW.

Smart man and a keeper of a wife!

[reh321]

I purchased my first Pentax SLR in 1979. Two years later, it got damp at Niagara Falls and quit. I sent it in to a local repair guy, but it was never the same, and two years later I purchased another one.

[DW58]

While in Costa Rica last year visited Mistico Arenal Hanging Bridges Park. Beautiful place but it rained a lot while we were there. Sheltered my K-3 with 18-135 WR under my jacket. Mostly. Took a lot of pictures. Knew at the time I was probably pushing it as far as the WR was concerned. No problems for the next 4 or 5 days. Then a very thin line showed up running vertically on the rear screen. Kept using the camera for the rest of the trip. Another 5 days. One morning after I got home the K-3 would not power up. Took it up to Advance Camera in Portland Oregon. They found corrosion when they opened it up. Offered to fix it best they could but said it would not be cheap and they could not guaranty it would be a permanent fix. Wrote it off as lesson learned. I now use K-70 and wait for next APS-C flagship to be released.

[SSGGeezer]

Went from a very cold rainy to very warm dry environment with my DA* 60-250. Had to put it in a container with rice overnight to dry it out. Had a canary when I saw the fog inside the lens!

You can buy bags of desiccant packs on Ebay cheap and as long as they aren't broken, won't get dust and unknown agricultural chemicals all over your lens when you need it to dry. I bought a two pack with lots of smaller packs in them for shipping sold lenses as well as to go in with the foam of my storage chest. and each lens' bag or pouch.

I have heard rice is not that great for drying purposes, (but it is definitely better than leaving your gear wet.)

---------- Post added 07-30-18 at 10:33 AM ----------

I fell into ice cold sea with K-1 and 15-30 after sliding off icy cliffs during a winter storm. Both the camera and lens died. I did not but it was not far off.

Ocean water in the winter only gives you moments to get yourself out and into a warm place, sounds like you were a lucky person that day. Brrr!

[normhead]

A K-x was blown over by a gust of wind unattended on a tripod with the 21 ltd. on it . 250 to fix the lens. $300 for a second hand K-x. It was cheaper to buy one second hand than it was to repair the broken one. Altogether, a $550 mistake. I've come close to that a few times with DA*60-250 accidents, altogether over the last 10 years, probably about $1500 in damage to cameras and lenses.

[bienvenueici]

My K-5iis with DA*16-50 and AF540FGZ dropped from waist height on asphalt while on a shooting. DA*16-50 give up, flash foot broken and K-5iis with vertical grip just fine. Reach out my Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 and continue shooting with handheld flash in wireless mode. Pentax rules !

[Kevin B123]

Some years back, while taking my shoes off and leaning against a wall, I dropped my K-50 with 18-135 inside a Crumpler Jackpack 1500 (about zero padding) grip side up.
The strap slipped out of my thumb and the bag slammed hard against the laminate flooring. Uh oh!. I checked it out carefully and found no damage. Great!.

Awhile later while cleaning the mount, I saw a miniscule crack at about the 4:30 o’clock position.

I kept an eye on it as it grew over the next six months to 1/4” long. Then when zooming back from 300mm (55-300 WR) I felt a rush of air over my fingers. WTH?. The crack propagated right across the casing.

JPS first quoted tier standard charge, about £175 but I refused as K-50’s were on sale for £205 at that time. They held on the phone a moment then they came back with a very reasonable £50+vat for the repair only.

It took a while but was well worth it

[TER-OR]

A few years back walking the three dogs (two huskies and a malamute) a mama deer followed me for about 50 yards. I had my K5 with 55-300, dragging about 300lbs of dogs while this deer followed. I got wrapped up in cords a couple times, going down hard. Finally the Malamute broke free, tearing the camera with him. It flew probably 15 feet, as he chased the deer into the woods. By the time I got the huskies tied to a tree and retrieved the camera the Mal comes back all happy. Too bad he wasn't dragging the deer with him... Lens was trashed, camera was OK.

Another time the camera got pretty wet with the 18-135 and was acting buggy the next day but it seems to have dried out without trouble.

I did trash two of those 55-300s over the years from falls and that deer incident. I don't take the camera on solo walks in fawning season anymore. It's not worth the risk. Kiowa the Malamute doesn't care about squirrels, rabbits, or small animals. If it gets to the size of a big raccoon he's interested and deer he really wants to go after.

[ffking]

I dropped my first Pentax (ME Super) in a stream while doing something or other heroic - I was on holiday in South Africa at te time, so I dried it out as best I could, and it seemed to be OK, but it ground to a halt a few months later - rust must have got in. It was a good excuse to get something more modern (SFXn at the time), but I miss the MESuper.

I also dropped a 67ii on its prism when I picked it up on the tripod and for some reason the centre column wasn't locked and slid straight out. The glass of the prism sheared through some of the electronics, and I never got it satisfactorily repaired and couldn't afford a replacement.

---------- Post added 06-08-18 at 06:10 AM ----------

My worst was I left my camera case open with camera and lens present and accidentally locked the cat in the same room. Well the camera case turned into a litter box and my girl friend found the can and closed my box without checking. Box stayed closed for 2 weeks and the cat pee decentigrated much of the components of my K-5 body and 55-200mm lens. Ruined... I still have my isD.

Well it's original, at least

---------- Post added 06-08-18 at 06:14 AM ----------

And these are the "Memorable" ones......lol.

You make me look ultra-cautious- and that takes some doing

[adjutant]

I was fishing from the beach and I caught a nice fish. It was my first fish from the surf, so I definitely wanted to capture it on camera! Took a photo, but in my excitement I dropped it on the sand! A small wave came in and completely soaked my Pentax Q-S1 with black standard prime lens with salty, sandy water....

This is quite possible the worse thing you could do to a camera short of dropping it in the ocean, but if the salt water wasn't bad enough, it had tiny sand particles in EVERY little crevice of the camera. I doused the camera is clean water to try and displace the salt and sand, but thought for sure this camera and lens were a goner....

This occurred about 2 months ago, and I still USE the camera to this day. It's absolutely unbelievable that it's still working!

As an aside, my Q telephoto zoom lens stopped working, it can no longer focus. It's kinda funny that the lens that was nowhere near the beach was the first thing in my Q system to fail.