During one of our night class meetings at the Chicago Botanic Garden, I was photographing some of the students who were quite involved in their night photography assignment. I decided to move the camera and tripod to new location but failed to notice the two devices were not actually connected and the camera was merely sitting on the ballhead not locked down. You’ve probably beat me to the end of this story if you’re thinking “oh no, the camera and lens are going to hit the sidewalk when Jack moves the camera.” Well, sometimes you don’t want to be right even when you are. Of course, the lens hit the concrete first and you just know it was my personal favorite, but don’t tell the other lenses. Yes, the 28mm f1.4 landed with enough force to bend the filter to the point where it can’t be unscrewed since it’s that far out of round, and the A/M ring that changes from manual to auto focus is, of course, cracked beyond repair. This lens has been out of production since 2006 but it’s difficult to find one since images are really sharp at f1.4 so current owners don’t sell theirs very often. PLEASE use a light source when you are going to attached your camera to your tripod outside at night. the world should not have two invoices that read like this one.
Tonight at 8, let’s all lower our ISO settings and open our apertures for a moment of memorial respect for this valiant low-light stalwart performer.
