Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/04/04

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Pre-school...no lobsters, lots of sand
From: "Steve LeHuray" <icommag@toad.net>
Date: Wed, 04 Apr 2001 10:13:56 -0500

Johnny Deadman wrote:

<<snip>>
> 
> Funnily enough, dropping a camera, even a $100,000 video camera, into water
> isn't nearly so bad. Oftentimes you can just dry it out and astoundingly
> everything works as normal.
>
> The exception that proves the rule, though, is what happened to a cameraman
> I know who had just invested in a new digitbeta camera. These things cost
> the same as a house, and this guy had bought it to rent out with himself.
> Unfortunately he had forgotten to up the insurance on his equipment, which
> was set at about $30,000 as he had previously had a beaten up old Aaton or
> something. So his first shoot is a swimming pool. He puts down the camera on
> the pool surround and instantly someone dives in, knocking it into the
> water. Cameraman dives in in his clothes and pulls the camera out, thinking
> 'I'll just let it dry out and say a few Hail Mary's'. But it turns out
> highly chlorinated water and circuit boards do not mix... and now the guy is
> in the hole to an extent I do not even want to think about...

Reminds me of when my friend, DP John Toll (Oscars for BraveHeart & Legends
of The Fall) was shooting his first feature film, WIND, the location was
Naragansett Bay, Newport, Rhode Island and we were all on a 60' camera boat.
A camera assistant was transferring the cameras and gear from a inflatible
boat. As he handed one of only two new Aaton 35mm prototype cine cameras, a
wave caused the boats to lurch at the moment the assistant had the Aaton in
mid-air between the two boats. Plop!! Into 50' of Atlantic salt water.
Within an hour a diver retrieved it, they rinsed it out with fresh water,
sent it to New York and it was back at work shooting the movie two days
later. The assistant kept his job.

Steve
Annapolis
>