Friday 13 - Camera Woes on my Scotland Holiday

Friday 13 is a day I've come to dread. Although statistics show that in general it isn't a particularly unlucky day, it has been for me. I have had a string of unfortunate events on pretty much every Friday 13 since I wrote a blog post saying Friday 13 isn't actually unlucky. I'm tempted to think some god associated with Friday 13 is showing me the error of my ways :)

My bad luck today: my camera lens is broken.

OK, it had been playing up a bit over the past few days, ever since both I and it got thoroughly soaked in a sudden downpour. I've been on holiday in Orkney all this week, and the weather had been gloriously sunny when I visited Maes How chambered tomb. I walked across the open fields from my car wearing just a thin T-shirt and jeans and carrying my camera. When I went into the tomb the sky was clear and blue; when I came out there was torrential rain, thunder and lightning. I had nothing to prevent my camera and lens getting drenched.

Over the next few days I got a few error messages on my camera, gradually getting more frequent. Today, Friday 13, the lens and the camera have utterly stopped speaking to each other - I just get an connection error message when I try to take a photo.

A very kind man, Mark Findlay, who runs Findlay's Photo Shop in Kirkwall, Orkney, spent a long time trying to get my camera working. He managed to find out what the problem is, but didn't have the facilities to dismantle my lens and repair it.

Looking on Amazon to see how much a replacement lens costs made me realise that I would have been better off if the camera body had broken rather than the lens. Although my camera - a Canon EOS 40D digital SLR - takes great photos, it is an old model. The lens that no longer works - a Canon EF-S 17-85mm lens - has an RRP of over £500 and even on Amazon costs a few hundred pounds.

Mark the nice camera shop man gave me details of a recommended repairer - Camserve - and also a good place to order second hand photographic equipment - Ffordes Photographic, in Inverness. I'll check them out.

My camera does still seem to work with my telephoto lens and my wide angle lens, I can borrow my hubby's iPhone and I have an old compact digital camera at home. I also have loads and loads of photos I took earlier in the week to go through, so I can still blog about the amazing places I have visited in Orkney and show pictures of them.

I do hope your Friday 13 is better than mine.

Links
http://www.findlaysphotoshop.co.uk/
http://www.camserve.co.uk/
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2009/11/friday-13-unlucky-for-some.html
http://www.badwitch.co.uk/2009/02/friday-13th-lore-luck-and-superstitions.html
Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4.0-5.6 IS USM Lens