This is why I cant have nice things...

Some of you may have seen the video I made the other week of the engine change in the MPH. During filming for this I had a whoopsie and dropped my camera, my valuable Nikon D800E (both in monetary value and scarcity (I cant run down to the local Stallard's and replace it)), with my extravagant 14-24mm f/2.8 Nikkor lens. From the top of a 7ft high cabinet. Onto a ceramic tile floor.

Warped baseplate

My first thought was "there goes a few $$'s" quickly followed by "what will I do for the rest of the winter without a camera!"

Bit of a 'hump' in the lens ring (down the bottom)

I picked up the 2kgs of magnesium, glass and unrepairable circuitry from its final resting place and was surprised at the initial lack of damage. The battery door had broken off, along with the internal battery clip. I put the battery back in and surprisingly it turned on straight away. I tried a few test shots and found it to be business as usual. Dodged a rocket there.

Broken battery clip (The door reattached fine)

This experience has had me contemplating carrying around a camera that is quite expensive on a regular basis. Some may think the risk of damage is too high. Through all this mulling over, I have come to the conclusion that spending a small fortune on camera gear and damaging it while using is far less of a waste than having the same gear sitting in your room and collecting dust because of the fear of breaking it. Or maybe I am just justifying my purchase??

Still good as new!

Anyway...

Just to prove the camera still works, we headed out on a Jolly last Friday night to Watts hut to explore the freshwater lakes in the area. Myself and Adam had a few ideas for some experimental photography which involved drilling holes in the glass-like ice and sliding in powerful lights to light up the frozen lakes from the inside out. Although the darkness of the night was reduced by a moon doing sun impersonations I think it turned out ok...

"Everybody look at da moon"

We had a LED aircraft landing light. It was actually classified as a Class 2 UV product so we couldn't look directly at the light itself and it seemed the cameras struggled too.

Even though it was incredibly bright, the red colour didn't penetrate the ice very well.

Then we tried a 24v rotating machinery beacon. Although due to the exposure the light looks solid, it was actually spinning around which was creating quite a 'trippy' effect. If there was going to be anyway of signalling aliens, this would be it...

But most successful was Adams 'lightsaber'. Simply 12v LED strips attached to a length of conduit. The clear, white light penetrated the ice amazingly and really bought out the blue of the fresh water!

The team.

Needless to say, we have got some even bigger ideas planned for next time! Stay tuned...