Rugby Superstar Celebrated by Ruining a $94,000 Lens
May 21, 2015
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Getting an autograph from your favorite sportsman will easily become the highlight of the game for you, and if the autograph was given on the day of a memorable event it might even be worth some money.
The problem – most autographs aren’t worth $94,000, which is roughly the price of the lens ruined by Kenya’s rugby player Collins Injera.
Injera had planned to celebrate by signing the ball, but on the spur of the moment he headed over to the cameraman and gave the viewers at home an autograph as well.
The unfortunate event took place during a rugby World Seven Series match, when Injera celebrated scoring his 200th try wearing the national jersey. Our American readers might be deceived by the term ‘try’ – It’s actually a successful move, analogous to a touchdown.
As can be seen in the video, the player had awaited the moment as he had a permanent marker tucked in his sock. Once he scored the try, he took out the marker and signed the ball that had entered his personal hall of fame. Next thing you know, he was signing the TV camera’s lens.
Obviously Injera didn’t intend to cause damage to the lens; he most likely just followed the footsteps of tennis and NFL players who will sign an occasional lens. What Injera’ didn’t take into account, however, is that his fellow sportsmen sign a protective cover and not the actual lens.
OOPS!
Perhaps sportsmen should rather follow in the footsteps of Italian soccer star Francesco Totti, who celebrated a record goal by taking a selfie.
Liron Samuels
Liron Samuels is a wildlife and commercial photographer based in Israel. When he isn’t waking up at 4am to take photos of nature, he stays awake until 4am taking photos of the night skies or time lapses. You can see more of his work on his website or follow him on Facebook.
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20 responses to “Rugby Superstar Celebrated by Ruining a $94,000 Lens”
Oh for a cheap UV/skylight filter eh?
“ruined” is not really correct here. “damaged” is more appropriate. All they need to do is send the lens off for a new front element – just like you’d do with a still camera lens. Not a cheap repair but definitely not $94,000.
“Ruined” is what you get when they pick the whole camera up and smash it to the ground, which causes mechanical damage that is unrepairable.
How come it cannot be washed by a few dubs of isopropenol?
My guess is the antireflective coating is probably shot. The glass itself would be undamaged. The factory might even be able to use the element and just recoat it…which would save some money.
I antireflective coating is baked on and fused to the glass surface, and I very much doubt that this would damage it.
It’s not that the marker would damage it, it’s whatever you’d have to use to get rid of the marker that would damage it.
All lens cleaner got alcohol in it. Just an over blown story, with some guys needed to write something for his daily quota.
Oh I totally agree that it was an overhyped story, but it’s not as simple as just using a little lens tissue and alcohol to remove. A lens like a Digisuper 100AF (common in the trucks we rent) isn’t designed to be a markerboard. Again it’s the coating that will suffer. Small spots here and there are de minimis…but some dude with a permanent marker scrolling his signature across the whole front will be a heck of a cleanup job and probably need factory help. The nice thing about these lenses is they’re workhorses and are designed to be maintained, so pulling the front element and swapping it out won’t be all that difficult – just expensive.
My exact thought. This whole story is complete BS. Sharpy ink comes right off with some alcohol on a lens cloth. If someone trashed a lens that had a little ink on it then they deserve to be punished for stupidity.
A little bit of rubbing alcohol and all cleaned up. I think “ruined” is way too strong a term here even if replacing the front element was necessary, which I don’t think it is.
Some lens coating can be damaged with alcohol, however, your still right. It may even had an UV filter on it.
If alcohol could damage the coating the so could water. They are both polar solvents (I am a chemist). So are you saying that a drop or two of rain or sweat would ruin one of these lenses. I don’t believe it.
Yes, because the fact that water is aqueous and methanol (or other alcohol) is organic would have absolutely no bearing on the solubility of a potential lens coating….Chemist my a**.
That being said, this article is rather bogus.
“ruining”
If he is writing on the front element, then this lens has an impressive a) size (given that his hand is fully visible and block only half of the view) b) most impressive depth of field (0.2 m to infinity).
BS
Yeah I thought about that, markings on the front surface of a lens aren’t in focus and if they are visible at all they would be a fuzzy blur.
Front element is usually just clear glass
It’s not a good news story unless he ruins it….duh!!
Yet another BS story from diyphotography, much more and it’s the unfollow button
guys … its a sharpie… isopropyl alcphol and a lens cleaner tissue and that is it.. why are the gear geeks sooo looking forward to blow things out of proportion??!!! The external coatings of lenses are fused to the glass NO sharpied can disolve or ruin those coatings they are design to stay for decades in that glass. Breath people. LOL!