April 21 my wife and I left for our 10 day trip to the Galapagos Islands.
Fantastic place!
Before going I was assembling the gear I planned to take and suddenly decided it might be a good idea to install a 77mm clear filter on both the 24-70 AF-S and the 70-200 AF-S lens.

We were staying aboard the National Geographic Islander ship for the 10 days.
On the second night the ship started to roll a bit with 3 to 4 ft swells.
Nice sleeping! But at 2AM both my wife and I awoke to a loud thump on the floor.

My D700 with the 24-70 lens attached had rolled off the shelf sitting 5 ft above the floor. It landed with a thump and I did not want to even look at it until later, when we got up.

There was damage.
The clear filter was cracked at the point of impact.
The filter unscrewed easily and no damage was done to the lens threads or the lens or camera.
Wow! I am now a believer in the value of using a filter at all times!

We continued to have a fine trip and I encourage anyone who thinks they may want to go to the Galapagos to do so as soon as they can.
Truly the trip of a lifetime for my wife and I.






After talking to many of the other guests aboard, and hearing of their other travels, she now wants to go to Antarctica next.
What have I got myself into?
Perry

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Attachment #1, (jpg file)
Attachment #2, (jpg file)

Is that bird eating the head of the other bird in the second pic? Nice capture!

I've always been a true believer of protective filters. I know there are some that don't believe in them. I was on an ATV with my Hasselblad one day and I opened my case when I stopped and saw glass all over the bottom of my bag. Apparently the lens cap came off and it banged up against something and shattered the filter. That just reinforced my use of filters. I'd rather break a $50 filter (it was a deep red filter) than a $2200 (at the time) lens.

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The mother Frigate bird is on the left and this is how she feeds her chick. She will bring up the food for her chick in her throat, but the chick has to reach in to get his meal.

The bird on the right is not a chick any longer, but these immature Frigate Birds feed this way for some length of time until they finally are on their own.
They just sit there in low trees squawking until Mom flys in from the sea with there meal.
The first pic shows what happens when Mom shows up.
The other Frigates are hoping to nab lunch from the youngster, but Mom keeps the meal down in her stomach.

The Frigate adult can have a wing span of up to 8 feet.
They also can hover in one place with a good breeze blowing.
Like a helicopter.
Perry.

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AHEM! I agree with you there.
Had I not had the filter attached the least that would have happened would be the lens threads were damaged. And perhaps the glass as well.
Perry

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Filters save. Obviously, cheap no-name filters may or may not cause deterioration to the image. But Nikon, B+H and other top quality filters don't cause MUCH quality loss. If you shoot a lot of brick walls and test charts you may disagree, but they protect glass and reinforce filter rings.

Alan
Waterloo, IL, USA
www.proimagingmidamerica.com

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Hi Perry,

Glad to hear your camera and lens survived without damage.
When using a quality multi coated filter the degradation in IQ is negledgable.
Very nice images.
Thanks for sharing.
Good Luck and Enjoy your Nikons!

Best Regards,
Marty

This isn't just a testament to using filters. I don't because I don't want to have to remove them to use a polarizer, I don't want anything between my lens and the image and I don't mind repairing the odd lens if that is needed. It never has been necessary but it could happen. I also don't see the value of spending high dollars on a premier lens only to add layers of glass to the front of it - might as well shoot all your pics through a window.

Further to the topic, your story says more about the tank like build quality of higher end Nikon bodies than it does about the filter. The body and lens hit the ground at velocity also.

I somewhat agree but in this case the filter sure saved damaging the lens.
The camera took a full 5ft fall onto a carpeted floor. Glad it was not concrete!

There was damage(?) to the body, as the battery door popped off.
All I had to do was snap it back into place though.
No dents or dings anywhere on the lens or body so I consider myself very lucky and it taught me a lesson....... To be careful where I lay my camera.
Perry

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