24-70 f2.8 took a tumble...OUCH!

[westerner]

I was recently taking portraits with my D90 mounted on a flash bracket, with SB-900 connected to the camera via SC-29 cord and my 24-70 f2.8 on the front (pretty heavy gear). The whole setup was on a tripod, as I was using slow-sync with the flash for balanced lighting. Unfortunately, one of the legs on the tripod collapsed because of a cam-clamp breaking. The gear did not just tip over to the ground, but fell off a ledge into the bottom of a drained water fountain (see attached photo). The fall was about 9 feet, about the distance from the top of the water bridge to the bottom where the people are standing in the photo. The posted shot was taken 5 minutes before the fall. As you can imagine, I practically had to change my underwear after I watched this horrible sequence happen before my eyes, with no way to do anything about it. Remarkably, the only damage was a tweaked tripod mounting socket on the camera, with a crack on either side of the socket in the body plastic, some scratches on the SB-900, some fairly deep gouges on the flash bracket, and the lens has 3 dents on the end of the lens, 1 of which makes it difficult to screw in a filter due to the threads being pushed in a bit. To be honest, I expected to find the end lens element shattered since I had no protection on the end. I did not have a filter or the lens hood on at the time (stupid me - I usually have both on most of the time). Luckily, the glass is perfect.

As for the tripod, it is in the landfill where it belongs (still cussing it today!)

All the other equipment still functions fine, and even the lens is still taking pretty good photos, but...now the zoom ring has a bit of a grinding sound, especially between 24 and 35mm. Also, a soft spot (CA) in the extreme bottom right of images taken at 24mm that I did not notice before. I am wondering what other's opinions are about sending in the lens for a repair. I would like a new end installed(the one with the filter threads that also holds the end lens element) to replace the dented one, and the grinding fixed. Can Nikon fix other problems with the lens while they have it too? Like maybe checking alignment of the lenses and testing it to make sure it is calibrated as good as possible? If so, how much is this likely to cost? Any experience with similar issues or repairs to higher end lenses that others can report would be helpful. Thanks!

Click zoom out if this opens at 100% (it did on my screen).



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K.B.

 

[PeterToronto]

Internal grinding is never good. I would send your 24-70 in right away to get repaired. That's a workhorse lens for many shooters. As for the tripod, as the old saying goes... buy a very good one (and expensive one) and buy it for life. I wonder if the tripod manufacturer would cover the cost of the repair if you showed them that the damage was a direct result of the tripod failure. Out of curiosity, did you have your gear insured?

Good luck with this.

Peace
Peter

http://www.peteranthonyphotography.com

 

[PMJD42]

Can you post pictures of the damage?

 

[westerner]

No insurance on the gear. The tripod is almost 20 years old and had just seen a ton of use. I guess I just pushed it too far & should have upgraded/replaced before now. I will post pictures of the damage in about 12 hours or so - on my way to work for the day now.
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K.B.

 

[bab99]

I am wondering what other's opinions are about sending in the lens for a repair. I would like a new end installed(the one with the filter threads that also holds the end lens element) to replace the dented one, and the grinding fixed. Can Nikon fix other problems with the lens while they have it too? Like maybe checking alignment of the lenses and testing it to make sure it is calibrated as good as possible? If so, how much is this likely to cost? Any experience with similar issues or repairs to higher end lenses that others can report would be helpful. Thanks!

I had my 24-70mm with me in Alaska last summer. I was riding in a bus, and lacking the needed three hands to conveniently change lenses, I set the 24-70mm on the empty seat next to me. Just at that moment, the bus lurched and the lens rolled off the seat. It dropped only about 14" and landed flat on a vinyl mat, but the lens was a basket case! No damage could be seen on the outside, but the zoom was binding, especially from 50 to 70mm, and the aperture blades formed an ellipsoid. Exposure was completely off from 50 to 70, and at all focal lengths the sharpness was uneven from left to right and top to bottom.

I sent the lens to Nikon and they repaired it for a little over $300 (the lens was still under USA warranty, but I don't know if that made a difference). All of the glass was OK but the barrel was out-of-round and they ended up replacing several of the metal parts. They also cleaned and tuned it, and when I got it back it was sharper, smoother to zoom, and better than ever. I was impressed.

Your 24-70mm took quite a tumble and it is amazing that it still works. However, I would recommend that you send it to Nikon and at least have them assess the damage and give you an estimate. I think you can expect that they will do a good job with any needed repairs, clean and tweak it, and it will look and work great when you get it back. If you are like me, your 24-70mm spends more time on your camera body than any other lens, so it is important that it is working up to its maximum capability.

Bruce