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Rental camera gear destroyed by the 2017 eclipse

lensrentals.com

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Re: Rental camera gear destroyed by the 2017 eclipse

#71

Post by PeachPlum »

f_allwein wrote: post #41
jmiserez wrote: post #2

Now imagine that kind of damage being done to your eyes. It hurts just thinking about it, yet some people don’t seem to really believe the warnings.

I just googled for reports on the eclipse's aftermath the other day, and there seemed to be noting about widespread eye damage (or I did not search hard enough). It was interesting how most of the post-eclipse reporting was hijacked by a certain politician not wearing his glasses (probably he only looked for a split second anyway). Anyway, this eclipsed (sorry) any reports about the actual event, which must have been…

Just like the picture of the pope not smiling for a moment.

Or when the Queen of England is at an event and doesn't smile for a moment.

Or "woman wears shoes"

or "look at the number of people in this place compared to this other picture where the numbers were different at a different time of the day"

it's all so tiresome

Re: Rental camera gear destroyed by the 2017 eclipse

#72

Post by chrissnell »

matthewrudy wrote: post #68
fencepost wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have an in-house repair shop that dealt with most or all of it, and they charge the customer for the cost of the repair. From the comments the fact that they don't gouge on repairs is one reason some folks use them.

How do you fix a burnt cmos sensor? I feel like canon would charge you near enough the full replacement price.

I wish the blog post had talked more about that. I'm curious about their repair process. What capabilities do they have in house? Can they replace a broken sensor?

Re: Rental camera gear destroyed by the 2017 eclipse

#73

Post by gambiting »

matthewrudy wrote: post #68
fencepost wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have an in-house repair shop that dealt with most or all of it, and they charge the customer for the cost of the repair. From the comments the fact that they don't gouge on repairs is one reason some folks use them.

How do you fix a burnt cmos sensor? I feel like canon would charge you near enough the full replacement price.

You fix it yourself, most likely using a sensor from another broken camera.

Re: Rental camera gear destroyed by the 2017 eclipse

#74

Post by matthewrudy »

chrissnell wrote: post #72
matthewrudy wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you fix a burnt cmos sensor? I feel like canon would charge you near enough the full replacement price.

I wish the blog post had talked more about that. I'm curious about their repair process. What capabilities do they have in house? Can they replace a broken sensor?

I know about 12 years ago I blew the firewire connection on my video camera (Canon xm2), and to fix it they would have to replace the full board.

So I feel like they don't make them repairable.

Re: Rental camera gear destroyed by the 2017 eclipse

#75

Post by lostlogin »

grepthisab wrote: post #3

Interesting! My assumption is that this could not happen with a phone camera though, correct? Because then one would think just leaving one's phone face down on the table in sunlight would ruin it.

A thread higher up discusses the damage being related to the aperture size - phones have a tiny aperture.

Re: Rental camera gear destroyed by the 2017 eclipse

#76

Post by lostlogin »

dekhn wrote: post #47

I got lucky while testing my camera, which is mounted at prime focus in a refractor scope. I had it in Live View which meant the mirror was up, and I removed the solar filter for just a second. The camera said "error", turned off, I replaced the solar filter, and it was fine. Much longer, and I'd have had a burn. The telescope really collects and concentrates a ton of light.

According to the thread above, the telescopic lens is safer to use than a shorter one. Only here would someone give a mathematical proof!

Re: Rental camera gear destroyed by the 2017 eclipse

#77

Post by selectodude »

monochromatic wrote: post #69
selectodude wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can feign ignorance. It doesn't change the fact that the lens has a burn hole on it now.

Deny, deny, deny.

It's like denying you murdered somebody when you sent the police the murder weapon with your fingerprints in the victim's blood. Unless you're OJ Simpson, you're going to jail.

Re: Rental camera gear destroyed by the 2017 eclipse

#78

Post by Obi_Juan_Kenobi »

matthewrudy wrote: post #68
fencepost wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have an in-house repair shop that dealt with most or all of it, and they charge the customer for the cost of the repair. From the comments the fact that they don't gouge on repairs is one reason some folks use them.

How do you fix a burnt cmos sensor? I feel like canon would charge you near enough the full replacement price.

They might send that back to the manufacturer to fix.

In the Reddit thread, they talked about replacing the aperture module for some of the lenses; that's just a simple swap, along with cleaning the adjacent elements.

Re: Rental camera gear destroyed by the 2017 eclipse

#79

Post by gist »

nxc18 wrote: post #42

I think my favorite part of this article is how the author is so understanding and positive about his users. I think if I had rented out cameras to people, told them not to point it at the eclipse, and then got a bunch of damaged cameras back, I'd be pissed. In fact, I might have choice words for those customers. I think there's a lesson here in targeting inexperienced consumers. Perhaps a good preventative measure w…

> and then got a bunch of damaged cameras back, I'd be pissed

It might not be good business to express that in a blog post

Re: Rental camera gear destroyed by the 2017 eclipse

#80

Post by oliwarner »

dingaling wrote: post #6

It's a shame that Lens Rentals had to suffer such material loss, but that report is absolute gold-plated first-hand evidence for my perennial debates with other photographers who insist that they don't need Solar protection for eclipses. "But I took a landscape shot at midday with the Sun in frame and it didn't melt my sensor". The difference being the length of exposure and the concentrations of energy.

When you hire a lens, you're contractually and personally on the hook for anything not insured.

So yes, somebody owes LR a considerable amount of money for repairing or replacing that £11,000 600mm lens.

The admin of dealing with this crap is built into the rental price. A well looked after lens doesn't depreciate fast.

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