At the FredMiranda forums is a thread we were directed to via Twitter. It features the tale of a Canon DSLR Rebel XT that found its way into the hands of a skydive instructor who mounted it to his helmet (along with a video camera) and used it to shoot fellow skydivers in free fall. However, the ‘mounted to his helmet’ status of the Rebel changed dramatically…
The story is told by contributor Calin Leucuta,
“The mounting plate detached when he opened his chute and both cameras (photo and video) took a fall from approximately 3000 ft. Amazingly, the Rebel survived the fall and my friend is still using it to this very day. It has a crack in the plastic body and the kit lens is a little jerky when zooming, but functional. I’d like to know if there is a similar story or something close to this but I doubt. It might me a world record indeed (for the height of a camera drop which survived). Kudos to Canon!”
It is an amazing story. Although the camera did hit relatively mushy ground, the impact on landing is estimated to have been at about 100-110 mph. As you can see from the pictures it was clear it had suffered a trauma, but a fall from 3000 feet and to not be in tiny pieces, let alone still working?!
Fellow contributors have been amazed by the Rebel’s survival with AGeoJO suggesting,
“[…] report it to Canon, they may put that into the record book and if they induct that particular body to the “hall of fame” for what it went through.”
And of course there is also some humour to be found, such as this play on the old Timex slogan from docnlaw24,
“Takes a lickin’ and keeps on clickin’”
Have you got anecdotes of Canon cameras coping with excess brutality? Ole’s recent weather testing of the 7D proves their built tough, but a plummet to earth from 3000 feet is in a new league of survival.
