I mentioned in an earlier post about having broken my camera while in Nova Scotia.  Here’s the story.

We were driving around the Grand Pre’ valley late one afternoon, doing some sightseeing in the beautiful light that was so common there.  Driving down a country road, Kathy – the eagle-eyed eagle spotter – spotted this bald eagle perched atop a telephone pole.  I slowed way down to see if I could get a place to pull off, but there were ditches on both sides of the road, and the road was lined with rows of corn, so there was not a lot of choice.

Fortunately, I chanced upon a tractor path that I was able to back into, which gave Bill on the passenger side of the van a good shot out the window.  My camera, of course, was in the back of the van.  Keeping the van between me and the eagle, I was able to work my way around the back, open the door without causing too much of a fuss, and assemble my 70-200 and 2X teleconverter.  He was still a long way off, but that was all I had.

I’m not sure why I decided to put my old 5D on this lens setup.  I was probably thinking that I didn’t need to use 22 megapixels on what would probably amount to a bunch of sleepy eagle photos, and that 12 megapixels would be plenty.  I just don’t remember.  So, by my count I had taken 34 sleepy eagle photos, he was just sitting there, posing and looking cool.  He would occasionally turn his head to one side or another, but that was about it.  Zzzzzz….

On the 35^th frame, the camera made a strange clunking sound.  It sounded like the shutter was still open, since I didn’t hear the mirror return to its usual position.  The camera sounded like I had used mirror lockup, just a lot louder.  I turned the camera off, and the mirror – or at least the mirror mechanism – finally came back down.  Looking through the viewfinder it was immediately apparent what happened, but I wasn’t exactly sure why or what was going to happen next.  The mirror had become separated from the mirror-holder-thingie that it attaches to.

Kathy and our friends up front were still marveling at the eagle and our amazing fortune to find it with such a great place to watch, and I was standing in back of the van saying, “umm, guys?  My camera just broke.”  Fortunately I had the presence of mind to pull off the old body and put my new one on.  Of course all the time I knew the eagle was going to fly off while I didn’t have a working camera in my hands.  Fortunately, he was kind enough to wait for me, and allowed me to get another dozen or so shots off before he flew off.  And I got a couple of decent flight photos.  No prize-winners, but considering the circumstances, not too shabby.

After I returned home, I packaged the camera up and sent it off to Canon Professional Services for evaluation.  A few days later I received an e-mail stating that they are going to repair the camera at no charge, calling it an “in-warranty repair.”  A friend of mine asked me if it was covered for a period of time or a number of shutter actuations.  I told him that it was covered under an “ain’t suppose to happen” warranty.  I’m still waiting for it to come back, but I expect it shortly.

So that’s the story of the broken camera.  Hopefully there will be a happy ending in a few days.