As a photographer I cringe any time I see a broken piece of gear, but this one totally threw me of the chair.
Photographer Daniel J. Cox was leading a photography tour (if you can call this type of freezing weather a “tour”) at Churchill (Manitoba, Canada) with the aim of photographing polar bears. One of the photographers on the expedition sadly dropped a $10,000 600mm f/4.0G Nikon lens on the frozen tundra from about 4 meters. The lens literally broke in half. The image above shows the results.
“This year it seems it must have frozen fairly fast. When it does the ice is smooth and holds no snow. It’s simply beautiful with the blowing ice crystals, the marble colored surface and the setting sun on the horizon off to the west. One of our guests got so excited one afternoon she dropped her lens from the buggy. It wasn’t pretty. Her lens of choice was a Nikkor 600mm F/4 and it fell 12-14 feet onto the frozen tundra, breaking completely in half. She was an amazing sport and shared her grief by mugging for the camera”#
Here is amazon’s picture of the lens complete for referanace:
Luckily the lens was insured, though I would not want to be the agent getting this call.
[Another Phenomenal Season of Cape Churchill Polar Bear Photography via Nikon Rumors]
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