pic: Pittsburgh - 1114 breaks the camera

Originally Posted by Dan 1038

Wow - FIRST people over-analyze everything... In reality, broken lenses don't focus very well - so you are correct in that this was a quick Photoshop job to illustrate "What coulda happened". I did, in fact, get nailed by the ball while I was shooting the champion alliance's drive team during the eliminations. I am friends of 1114 - I sort of play the part of their unofficial photographer at matches we both attend - and was kidding with them about it after I got nailed... I was not attempting to mislead anyone into thinking this was real, just playing with Simbotics a little...

Having experienced the real thing with a video lens I can confirm had the real thing happened the rest of the picture would not be in such sharp focus.

However, it's a good time to take the opportunity to point out the usefulness of a clear filter on video or still camera lenses if at all possible, a hit from a ball can so easily damage a lens.

I remember carrying my video camera into a press conference and a police officer opened the auditorium door outwards just as I was walking up to it and the door handle went into the lens and the glass from the filter fell to the ground but the lens was perfectly ok, had the filter not been there it would have been a minimum $5,000 accident.

I was not so lucky a year later when I fell/flew/landed badly on ice (not wearing proper footwear!) and paid the price, $5,000.

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