This is what Burning Man playa dust will do to your camera [horror story]
Sep 17, 2016
Udi Tirosh
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
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Burning man is probably one of the best places in the world to get some exciting photos going. Sadly, not without a price.
Roger Cicala of LensRental tells that after each Burning Man festival he s faced with the task of cleaning (and sometimes scraping) the gear that came back from the Playa. It is not that the cameras are getting sand in them. They are getting dust. And lots of it. If you’ve ever been to Burning Man, you know how all encompassing the Playa can be. And by all encompassing, I mean getting everywhere.
Sadly, everywhere also means inside your camera. Even an hermetically, weather sealed camera would need an occasional card replacement and battery swap. (I think you would know better than to change lenses). But most cameras are not hermetically sealed, and they take some damage.
Add to this the fact that the Playa dust is really fine alkali dust, it can really get your gear. This Nikon D810 was on the playa, and LensRental opened it up to see the results.
The lead photo on the post and the one below, show the exterior of the camera. you know the saying, “Dust which appeared in the first act, will kill your camera on the third“.
But, the dust does not end here. The Playa dust is a special kind of dust, it’s extra fine so it really can get anywhere, here are some sample courtesy of LensRental:
For the full horror story, head over to the LensRental blog.
Udi Tirosh
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
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10 responses to “This is what Burning Man playa dust will do to your camera [horror story]”
I hope LR is charging for this accordingly. That would seem above and beyond normal wear and tear that the rental agreement allows. Personally, I would be embarrassed to send a rental unit back in this kind of condition.
I totally agree. This is just bad on the photographer. I would never take a rental unit anywhere I wouldn’t take my own lenses and bodies. You rent to get gear you can’t afford or don’t need all the time, not because you want to avoid damage to your own equipment in a harsh environment.
FYI, In the original article, Roger states the customer was charged, that this was beyond normal usage, even with their “Lenscap” coverage.
Using such a protection (http://www.ewa-marine.com) would probably have been helping…
I have taken cameras to Burning Man and I have friends who have taken cameras there for many years (https://www.facebook.com/Curious-Josh-22087348739/ for example) and I regularly shoot in dusty, sandy conditions spending a lot of time in our desert parks. Whoever did this woefully mistreated this equipment and looks to have failed to take even the simplest precautions. This looks like a case of “it’s a rental what do I care” more than “it’s Burning Man”!
Well duh.
My “beater” camera –– an ol’ Nikon D7000 –– has survived two Burning Mans (Burning Men?) and is still going strong, though I do have kinda’ a weird method for keeping dust, grime, and salt out of the camera’s body.
That weird method?
I wrap my camera in a bread bag.
I wrap my camera –– from the viewing screen on the back to the filter ring on the front –– in a clear, plastic bread bag: the sort of thing that’s more typically found wrapped around a gluten-laden slab of baked wheat.
Myself, I don’t eat bread, but I am willing to spend $2.99 at my local grocery for some sort of crappy loaf –– I, of course, toss the bread out –– and then drop my camera into the bag, viewfinder end first, leaving the lens sticking out. Next, I use a thin strip of gaff tape to make sure the bag is wrapped tight around the lens, right up to the frontmost filter ring.
There’s enough slop in the bag to allow for focusing. And bread bags are transparent enough to allow for halfway decent viewing through the eyepiece.
Three quick things to mention:
1) Having a fully charged battery in the camera is a must.
2) Always use the biggest memory cards possible.
3) Don’t –– DON’T –– change lenses, batteries, or cards while outside on the playa.
Myself, I purposefully limit myself to one particular lens per day (i.e.: wide-angle Wednesday; telephoto Thursday; 55mm Friday; etc…), and make my lens, battery, and SD card changes at night, back in the shelter of my monkey hut and tent.
This was a hire Camera and this person showed no respect Hope they have been banned from hiring again….
What about using underwater enclosures. Yes, they are pricey but if water can’t get in neither can dust. :) LR should rent those as well…
That’s exactly what I was thinking! I actually came here to post just that.
Great article. It teaches me to bring a lesser DSLR to environments like Burning Man. For those of us who cannot afford complete “teardown cleanings”, we might have to toss the body Which leads me to the next question — how did the lenses fair?