Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
Last week we reported on the Sony A1 that took its life into its own hands at the Beijing Olympics and launched itself on its own luge track down a snowy mountainside.
It appeared from the footage that the camera would not be in good shape, with plastic pieces flying off it on its way down the slope. I know you’ve probably all been losing sleep awaiting news of the camera’s health so I’m pleased to be able to provide an update.
We’ve all heard of the Highland Fling, but have you heard about the Downhill Camera Fling? One unlucky photographer at the Beijing Winter Olympics decided to try their hand at creating a new competitive event when their Sony A1 somehow freed itself from their grip and went off-piste down the snowy ski slopes to what looks like an untimely death.
It looks like Leica cameras are expensive even when they’re completely unusable. A fire-damaged, broken Leica M4 was recently sold at an auction for £1,200 (~$1,700). With premiums and taxes, it reached the final price of £1,488, which is around $2,100.
Some photographic accidents are lucky and end up in fantastic images. Sadly, way more of them just end up in broken gear. This photographer knocked over his camera simply by opening a collapsible reflector, and it’s caught in a video that’s pretty painful to watch.
These days I spend most of my time living and traveling between Serbia, Hungary, Ukraine, and Finland, exploring and researching the global analog photography scene as best I can. I do this for my own personal endeavors such as my store Cameraville.co as well as my continuing journey with Camerarescue.org (formerly Cameraventures) headed by Juho Leppänen – which I will get into a bit later.
Even when all repair services discard your camera or lens as “irreparable,” there’s still a way to repair it. Mr. David Hilos can fix all the gear others can’t (or won’t). This 49-year-old Filipino based in Singapore is communications engineer, but he is also a hobbyist camera repairman who can save your gear no matter what happened to it.
Photographers know him as “camera whisperer” and he is a miracle worker when it comes to repairing photo gear. He converts digital cameras to black and white, “transplants” pieces of one camera to the other, and even brings drowned cameras back from the dead.
I’m breaking tradition here, both in style and also in asking for help. Please, if you read this, share it. Link to it. Copy from it and Tweet about it and post it. Help me get the word out where, perhaps through the power of social media, a wrong can be righted. Thank you!
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