Just got back from Spring Break.

[fuzzybabybunny]

Hey all. I just got back from my last Spring Break before graduation. This time was the first time I actually traveled with other people. We went to Carlsbad, Guadalupe, and Big Bend. Cavern tours in Carlsbad, Guadalupe Mountain hike in Guadalupe NP, and hiking + canoe trip in Big Bend.

Damage:

5 year old laptop is now dead. It has been dying on and off for the past year, but this time is probably final death.

4 year old Rebel XT is now officially dead (uneconomical repair). Pressing any button that turns on the LCD screen crashes the camera. The screen displays something and fades to black in a split second and the batteries need to be taken out and put back in for the camera to turn back on.

Three of my four 2GB Sandisk Extreme IIIs now have corrupted picture files as a result of shooting with the dying Rebel XT. One card has ALL of the pictures corrupted and the other two have partial corruptions. I'm going to try some data recovery software here. I am EXTREMELY (no pun intended) glad I don't shoot with 8GB or 16GB cards.

Camera was subjected to very mild dust but no water or shock.

Joy.

UPDATE:

Well, the Rebel XT is even deader than before. Now it just won't turn on at all. Like others have said, I'm going to take it apart (I've done it before.... )

I was able to retrieve ALL the pictures from the cards that I thought were corrupt. Whew. The cards themselves seem to be fine, so no Sandisk warranty needed.

My Tamron 17-50mm suddenly stopped zooming today in the middle of a photo gig. It wouldn't zoom out further than 30mm (stuck between 30-50mm).

So I took it apart. I noticed that one of the screws was stripped due to what looked like corrosion. And you know what you need to do to get out stripped screws....

So I found myself taking my dremel drill to my Tamron 17-50mm. Melted away a bit of the plastic, but I got the screw out. I poked around and found out what was preventing the Tamron from zooming.

A rock. It was about 1/3 the diameter of a quarter. Took it out and everything was fine. Put it back together and now it works fine again.

Ugggg... I want to just buy a couple of weathersealed bodies, a full line of good, bright, weathersealed lenses, and just be done with it...

 

[jpeyton]

How many shutter clicks are on that Rebel XT?

The only 5 year old laptops I consistently see still in working condition are ThinkPads. I'm on my third year with my Dell Latitude (which is really just a re-badged Samsung Q30); no issues with the laptop hardware, but the battery is losing capacity; most of my other laptops have died or been replaced in 2 years.

Too bad about the corrupted image files. Were only the images taken with the XT corrupted, or were other images (possibly taken by your 30D) on the same card also corrupted? The cards should still be good after a reformat, right?

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

The XT definitely has more shutter clicks than the rated shutter life, so it's about time for it to die.

I'm thinking that for my next laptop I'll get a really small and portable ~2lb-er. The reason I think my current one has died is because over the years the heat generated from the computer has actually started to warp some of the plastic and stuff so that things just don't fit together like it should anymore. This is actually kind of a documented issue that has affected my video card before, but now I think it's more than just the video card. And yeah, battery lost capacity a long time ago.

Not too sure which images were corrupted. I think it corrupted both the XT and 30D images

I sure hope the cards are ok after a reformat.

 

[jpeyton]

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
I'm thinking that for my next laptop I'll get a really small and portable ~2lb-er.

That's a good idea. ECS and MSI announced some Intel Diamondville-based ultra portables to compete with the Asus EEE PC, if you're looking for something low-cost.

My Latitude is about 2.5lbs, runs XP and Lightroom/PSCS3 just fine, but my workflow out in the field isn't very demanding...just image review, checking focus, exposure, sharpness, and doing some basic tweaking. If I'm prepping something for printing or critical work, stitching images or doing HDR stuff, I'll save the post work for my desktop. That's about all you can expect for a $500-ish ultra-portable.

Double the weight and double your budget, and you can probably find a nice laptop that can be a more robust mobile workstation. Mobile Penryns can make short work of most post-processing duties; that recent ThinkPad deal came with a mobile 2.4GHz dual-core Penryn for about $800.

 

[soydios]

bummer about the body, memory cards, and laptop. but hey, at least YOU didn't break of them.

if you require a decently tough laptop, I highly recommend a ThinkPad. my ThinkPad X61t is great for mobility; it gets ~5 hours surfing the web at half brightness and low performance, ~3.5 hours at full brightness and full performance, or ~7.5 hours at half brightness and low performance with the wireless off. the touch-screen is really nifty for taking notes in class, but don't get too excited about using the Wacom functionality unless you have an external monitor to mirror the desktop to, because the color/gamma/brightness/contrast aren't so great.

have you considered opening up your 350D and blowing away the internal dust? if it's out of warranty and currently inoperable, then I'd give it a shot. you'll learn something about how the cameras are constructed, too. it shouldn't be too difficult; I replaced the LCD display in my SB-800 when I broke it, and the part was only $49 shipped from Nikon's parts facility, instead of a $100+ repair.

also, please report on how your SanDisk RMA goes if you choose to attempt it. my SanDisk 2GB UltraII SD card died on me during an important photo shoot about a month ago. luckily I put an old slow 256MB SD card in my camera bag a year and a half ago, so I used that as a backup. communicating with SanDisk via email for an RMA hasn't been working for me, though I've only talked with them over the phone once.

 

[ElFenix]

that blows about the camera corrupting the cards. you'd think the electronics would keep working even if the shutter were to die.

i agree with the suggestion to clean the interior. worth a shot and at least you might learn something. it's gotta be either shorted or have a leaky capacitor somewhere.



my nearly 5 year old dell latitude is still working. the batteries aren't even that bad off.

 

[Jawo]

How was the actual trip? I have been to northern NM, and always wanted to go down south. That sucks that your cards, camera, and laptop died. Hopefully you will be able to recover some of the pictures you took.

I have an old Dell Latitude c840 that still runs, but I really havent used it much in two years.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: Jawo
How was the actual trip? I have been to northern NM, and always wanted to go down south. That sucks that your cards, camera, and laptop died. Hopefully you will be able to recover some of the pictures you took.

I have an old Dell Latitude c840 that still runs, but I really havent used it much in two years.

The actual trip is ok. Because I traveled with other people this time, I feel like I bypassed a lot of good photo opportunities.

1. Hiking: I'm slow, others are fast. I want to stop and appreciate the nature around me, and not feel rushed. I also want some alone time hiking, where I can be alone with my own thoughts and have a better chance of seeing wildlife. Couldn't do it with the noisy group.

2. Sunrise/Sunset: this is exactly when I'm most active for photography, but when others are least active. Because I had to stay with the group, this meant I didn't get to experience as many golden hours as I would have liked.

3. Didn't have my own car.

There were positives though. Not having to drive everywhere by myself is nice. The camaraderie is good. The things like group tours are nice. I think it could have been better if I were to go with a group of photographers though.

NM and TX are very dry, desert-y places. Texas is very flat and uninteresting at a lot of places, and it's absolutely huge and takes forever to drive through. But places like Guadalupe and Big Bend are exceptions. I have to say that I still like places like Yosemite and Rocky Mountain better though. Just more lush. I think going to these places during summer would be miserable.

The Mexican border is crazy. Because Big Bend is right on the Border of US/Mexico, with only the Rio Grande separating us from them and at times only 10 feet wide and 2 feet deep, things can get interesting. You can wade over into Mexico. Mexicans will cross the river into the US and place items like copper wire sculptures and wooden walking sticks for sale on the trails and then cross back into Mexico, relying on the honor system to get sales. Park rangers will often patrol these places and simply confiscate all this stuff. There will also be Mexicans staring at you from across the river at some places and there are warnings about people using the park to traffic drugs.

 

[Alyx]

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny

Originally posted by: Jawo
How was the actual trip? I have been to northern NM, and always wanted to go down south. That sucks that your cards, camera, and laptop died. Hopefully you will be able to recover some of the pictures you took.

I have an old Dell Latitude c840 that still runs, but I really havent used it much in two years.

The actual trip is ok. Because I traveled with other people this time, I feel like I bypassed a lot of good photo opportunities.

1. Hiking: I'm slow, others are fast. I want to stop and appreciate the nature around me, and not feel rushed. I also want some alone time hiking, where I can be alone with my own thoughts and have a better chance of seeing wildlife. Couldn't do it with the noisy group.

2. Sunrise/Sunset: this is exactly when I'm most active for photography, but when others are least active. Because I had to stay with the group, this meant I didn't get to experience as many golden hours as I would have liked.

3. Didn't have my own car.

I must agree. I always run into the same issues with groups. Normally if I'm going on a hike with a group more than 2 or 3 I don't even bring all my stuff, just camera and a walk around lens. Its fun going places with a group but not for photography reasons.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

update on the damage

 

[xanis]

Ouch. Sorry to hear about all of the damage. You've been on a bad luck streak is all... things can only get better.

 

[jpeyton]

Wow, how did a rock get in there?

I think Fuzzy left out the part where he went into Bear Grylls mode and used his camera as a makeshift shovel.

 

[ElFenix]

you need an e-3 or at least a k20d and some DA*s.

 

[theblackbox]

how'd you do so much damage? i just spent 7 months in my jeep tent camping, hiking, canyoneering, mtn biking, kayaking and other stuff all across the US and all i lost was my point and shoot digital due to a sandstorm in utah....

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: theblackbox
how'd you do so much damage? i just spent 7 months in my jeep tent camping, hiking, canyoneering, mtn biking, kayaking and other stuff all across the US and all i lost was my point and shoot digital due to a sandstorm in utah....

My stuff is old. I would even hazard to say that with how much I used the things that died that they were right on schedule for death. Plus I make very little accommodations to protect my gear (all I use are lens cases, no camera case). Not to mention during those 4+ years I've been all across the US as well and abroad pretty much shooting constantly.

 

[OdiN]

I know what you mean about the sunrise/sunset.

I went camping with some friends in RMNP and I ended up taking the truck out before sunrise and by the time I was back they had breaksfast ready for me. haha. That's the way to do it. Though it would definitely be nice to go out with other photographers.

 

[Jawo]

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny

Ugggg... I want to just buy a couple of weathersealed bodies, a full line of good, bright, weathersealed lenses, and just be done with it...

Who doesn't?

Thats good that you were able to recover all your pictures! Your pics are always amazing!