Lens damage and Insurance

CabanSail

Last weekend I was at an event. It was an Italian Food Festival held at the Italian Embassy Yangon.

I knew it was going to be crowded so I decided to shoot wide. I packed my 14-24mm f2.8 Zoom and the 15mm f2.8 Fisheye. I started off with the zoom then moved to the Fisheye.

The 15mm is a lens that can be very useful. It is compact but the front element is quite rounded and it any filters are fitted at the rear.




A lot of the stalls were on the embassy tennis court, and there were quite a few people there. Being an Italian event there was quite a bit of their wine being sold too. While waiting to move to another area I was shoved from behind by what I would describe as a Left Handed Bottle Blonde Semi Inebriated Young Frenchman. I say this as he seemed to have the movement of someone who had had maybe one glass of Vino too much. His huge watch was on his right wrist and his hair looked like it had taken hours to prepare. He also vaguely apologised with a french accent after he pushed past me and the bezel of his huge watch smashed into the front of my lens. It now has quite a chip taken out of the glass.



Normally a slight blemish on the front element, while annoying, would not have much effect. On a fisheye with a short focal length that will not be the case. As I am away from home I did take out Insurance for my gear. It covers accidental damage with an excess of AU$100. The replacement cost is over AU$900 so I have put in a claim. I am not sure if they will repair or replace. If they go the latter I may add some extra cash and get the new 8-15mm Fisheye Zoom.

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Glad you had insurance.
Always thought about a fish eye but am afraid it would go the way of my canon prime which I bought years ago and remains unused.

CabanSail

It has to suit the way you shoot. Some seem to use long lenses. I do have them too but seem to use the wider ones more often.

OldGoat

So you end up with a new lens AND the old one to experiment with. You can dismantle it, remantle* it, you could intentionally scratch the lens, you can invert it, sandblast it, wash it with inks.
Thanks to the Frenchmans wrist-armour you now have a new playground.


*This should be a word.

CabanSail

It could go that way.

They may repair it too.

Anyway I am pleased I took out the insurance either way.

CabanSail

I took my 16mm Fisheye along to the Myanmar Nikon distributor yesterday. I was a bit surprised as they seemed to have very little stock in the showroom. A couple of entry level DSLR bodies and kit lenses. One quite impressive looking Bridge model but that was it. Lots of empty shelves and showcases.

There was a lot of hand gestures and pointing and the manager eventually realised I had something wrong with my lens. He grabbed a puffer and lens cloth and took it out the back. Some time later he emerged to tell me it was a scratch and cannot be cleaned off. That is something I already knew. I then asked if it could be repaired. He said "Not possible, whole front group, too much cost, replace" so I asked for a written report but apparently they were out of stationary and only had a notepad with their address on it. I got that. The replacement cost is US$715. I have submitted that to the claims manager.

Something in my water tells me that while they are the official agents at present that may not be the case soon.

If the insurance accepts the claim I think I may put the funds toward the more recently released 8-15mm Fisheye which has had some excellent reviews. It was not available when I bought the 16mm. It is a bit slower but will shift from a full frame fisheye with 180 degrees on the diagonal to a hemispherical circular fisheye.

There may be a silver lining on that cloud.