last night a filter saved my wallet from a broken heart……

last night a filter saved my wallet from a broken heart……, originally uploaded by yellobagman.

…or the importance of ALWAYS sticking a UV filter on the front of that expensive 24 – 70mm f2.8 lens.

Stupid me perched the camera with a SB900 in the hotshoe on the arm of armchair whilst shooting Callum a few weeks ago. It fell about 2 feet landing lens first. The impact point is pretty obvious. Now I’ve just blown about £30 on the filter and I’m know shitting myself as its £1200 lens and the filter is refusing to come off, the thread being crushed. I drive home in crappy mood.

A fair bit WD-40 and elbow grease later I manage to get the fiiter off. The zoom action is no longer smooth either. Stick the lens back on the camera fire a few shots off it seems OK. Phew…big sigh of relief. A few week later the zoom action is also back to normal after being used a fair bit. Pro lens – tough enough to handle a serious knock and I’m super grateful to Calumet for making good filters.

Strobist info – Filter is sitting on a piece of black acrylic, SB900 TTL +0.7 in softbox bouncing off a sheet of blue polypropylene camera left another SB900 TTL -1.3 with a snoot and two cuts full CTO aimed at the front of the filter also camera left