Last week I was able to get out a little with some guys on the Caney to float in canoes. Naturally I wanted to fish in the process so I took the streamer rod and pounded the banks here and there. Problems started when we were nearly at the end of the float.
I had just hooked a large striper and as it was running straight up river, somehow the canoe flipped. Now this was during generation and anyone that has every floated the Caney knows that even one generator is pushing a lot of water. We watched equipment floating off downstream while we swam our swamped canoe ashore. Quickly bailing the water out, we through the few things we still had back in the boat and started downstream at top speed to catch everything.
Thankfully we recovered all the the lost items except I had a stream thermometer disappear and my sunglasses vanished at some point in the chaos. Now for the bad part. Sometime during the confusion, the tip on my 7 wt broke (already have a new tip in hand, thanks to amazing customer service from TFO!!!). Most costly though was the fact that my DSLR was in its case, lashed to a cross bar in the canoe. When it flipped, the camera was soaked. Most likely the camera is toasted along with the lenses. I can't afford the expensive cleaning and can't justify the cost when I can add a couple of hundred bucks and just get a new camera. So for the time being I'm without a good camera.
Unfortunately, my old Pentax Optio W-20 has an extremely short battery life now. That is being fixed as I just ordered another battery. However, I still need to replace my DSLR. Hopefully over the next few months I can save up enough to make the purchase. In the meantime, please forgive me if the content (especially pictures) is not of the quality you have come to expect. I still have some reports from Yellowstone to add, complete with good quality pictures from before the camera died... Hopefully by sometime after the new year I can come up with the necessary cash to buy a new camera.
David,
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about your camera.
Have you considered buying refurbished. I have bought three refurbished cameras, two of which from B&H, that are still ticking like new. My D90 as a matter of fact was refurbished, and is in excellent condition.
Travis,
ReplyDeleteI may look into the refurbished, especially as cost will be a major issue. Do the refurbished cameras come with any guarantees or warranty?
David Knapp
It depends on where you buy it. I believe my D90 came with a 90 day warranty. Definitely less than the typical 5 yr warranty, but in my experience if your camera is going to have any problems they will show up in fewer than 90 days.
ReplyDeletePlus it depends on what you are looking at buying. My D90 was a mid-range DSLR, and I got it for about 50% of MSRP. Some of the entry level DSLR's that started around $500 were only like 20% off MSRP. In that case it probably is not beneficial to buy refurbished.
Could I be a little impertinent and suggest you look at an Olympus E-5 and their pro quality lenses? They can survive a lot of water and still function well. Most of my pictures I take with a shirt pocket Olympus ("Tough") but for serious photography in arduous conditions my E-5 and 12-60 FD lens has been very reliable. It isn't an underwater set up but certainly a very wet splashproof set up...
ReplyDeleteAnyway the most important thing is that you came to no physical harm. It is so very easy to drown even in only a little bit of water.
Best wishes
Regular Rod
Regular Rod,
ReplyDeleteI would consider another system except I already have extra Canon lenses and can't really afford completely changing systems at this point. I'm pretty tied into Canon until I win the lottery or otherwise come into large sums of cash...
David Knapp