My tale of new toy woe.

[Tucson T4R]

This is more of a whine session but since it's photo equipment related I thought more folks would appreciate this here in this section.

Yesterday my new Canon 7D and a 580EX II Speedlight was delivered.:wings:

Today I had the camera with flash attached connected to my laptop while I was transferring a few test images. I was sitting in a chair with the laptop and the camera was next to me on small end table.

I briefly heard that little voice in my head point out the risk when I first started this but made the highly intelligent decision to ignore the voice and press on.

Well for some reason my dog woke up, freaked out and started barking at something outside. Without thinking I got up with my laptop to check on her and pulled the new camera and flash right off the table.:yikes:

Luckily the floor here is carpeted but it still hit the floor flash unit first with enough force to break off the base shoe mount from the bottom of the new flash unit. Saying I was just bit bummed is an understatement.

When I checked out the damage the base of the flash is held on with 4 screws and it just pulled the screw heads through the plastic casing but caused no other damage and still functions fine.

I embarrassingly called Canon and ordered a new base shoe assembly for $38 plus shipping and I'll be able to repair it myself.

Nothing more rude than breaking your new toy the second day you have it.

I think from now on when I attach my camera to a computer it will either be tucked away on my desk or sitting on the floor if I am using my laptop.:bigbossHL:


BTW My prior camera was Canon 50D and is now posted in the for sale section. I never dropped that one. :elkgrin:

 

[Pathfinder]

I feel your pain.

I have dropped more cameras and lenses than I care to count. 40D, 1DMkii, 17-55 IS. Fortunately, on carpet they usually are fine.

The feet of on camera flash units are weak spots, that is for sure. But if they were not, then it might be the shoe or the penta prism on your camera that your broke, so.........

Glad your flash will still work after a minor repair.

 

[Tucson T4R]

I agree. I bet the engineers designed it to break away like that on purpose to save more critical parts.

I'm just happy it was a short fall onto padded carpet. Everything else is fine and the damage is easily repaired.

I don't think I want to repeat that experience again though. :elkgrin:

 

[Wander]

Oh man-serious D'OH! moment. Glad to hear it wasn't worse, looking forward to seeing pics from the new body!

 

[Redline]

Sorry to hear that amigo, glad the damage was not worse!

 

[ywen]

I've dropped my body with a lens attached to it and the lens broke in half from the impact. This is by design

I'm pretty sure the hotshoe breaking off is also designed to break like that.. better the hotshoe breaking apart than bending the hotshoe mount on the body.

Same thing with my L lens. They engineered break sections into the lens barrel so that will break apart before messing up the lens mount.

You might want to check the sensor or viewfinder alignment. After my 5D took that fall, either the sensor or the viewfinder became skewed..

Point at a straight line while the camera is leveled, see if the line looks straight in Live View.

 

[taco2go]

Ouch. I agree with ywen post about the alignment. It may be worthwhile to send the body in to Canon-I've also experienced the lens-breaking-in-half drama, and Canon magically glued everything back to new. :victory:. Their technician was very informative and helpful, and suggested I send the body in as well- however, my camera dropped on a rock. :Wow1:

Looking forward to your pictures and vids. and congratulations on the new camera

 

[Tucson T4R]

Thanks for the commiseration and suggestions.

I checked the alignment this morning and all is good. The 7D has a cool built in level that displays on the LCD so it was easy to verify against a level rod iron fence. :victory:

I'm not worried about the camera body. I don't believe it took much of an impact at all. The padded carpet softened the landing a lot and it was a reasonably short end table. I agree the damage to the flash was by design and happened just because of the way the flash hit first with the weight of the camera on top of it at an angle.

I am enjoying learning all the new features of this upgrade and looking forward to getting out shooting with it.

 

[ywen]

The coolest new feature with the 7d is that the pop-up flash can act as a Master Flash. This means you can control the 580EX as an off-camera slave flash.. You can do some creative lighting with it being off-camera.. such as throwing a bit of lighting on the rig from the side...

 

[Tucson T4R]

The coolest new feature with the 7d is that the pop-up flash can act as a Master Flash. This means you can control the 580EX as an off-camera slave flash.. You can do some creative lighting with it being off-camera.. such as throwing a bit of lighting on the rig from the side...

Yep, that was one of the big attractions of this camera for me. I already have 430EX II and now with the 580EX II it opens up a lot of off camera strobe options all controlled from the camera's flash with no wires. Pretty sweet.

I'm reading the Speedlighter's Handbook by Syl Arena now to better understand the set up options. From there I just need to practice on the creative opportunities. I predict a fun year ahead.

Of course it may be a challenge getting the right composition when the camera is duct taped to my hands. :elkgrin:

Fun stuff this hobby is.

 

[Michael Slade]

Must be going around...I knocked my 105 macro off of the shooting table last night. Took a hit on the concrete floor right on the filter ring and dented it. Man I feel like an idiot! :Wow1:

It has been years since something like that happened to me. Hopefully it will be years until the next one.

 

[nwoods]

The coolest new feature with the 7d is that the pop-up flash can act as a Master Flash. This means you can control the 580EX as an off-camera slave flash.. You can do some creative lighting with it being off-camera.. such as throwing a bit of lighting on the rig from the side...

I have yet to figure out how to do that. I have the 580ex and a 7D.

 

[ywen]

I have yet to figure out how to do that. I have the 580ex and a 7D.

I don't own the 7D so I can't tell you.. but I know it's capable of that.. flash settings are buried in the camera's menus..

 

[Tucson T4R]

Check out your camera's owner's manual. At least in my 7D manual there are detailed instructions on how to set up the camera flash for remote Speedlight control.

If you want to get deep this book is awesome: Speedlighter's Handbook by Syl Arena

 

[Tucson T4R]

Must be going around...I knocked my 105 macro off of the shooting table last night. Took a hit on the concrete floor right on the filter ring and dented it. Man I feel like an idiot! :Wow1:

It has been years since something like that happened to me. Hopefully it will be years until the next one.

Ok, we need a group hug to get over this and all agree to not be boneheads in the future. At least for a few years. :elkgrin: