Last Shot in the Life of a Lens - a photo on Flickriver

            Last night I headed up to Twin Peaks to do a little shooting.  Those of you who've followed my stuff know that this is a favorite place of mine to shoot.  I had a dinner for a non-profit thing earlier in the night where I was speaking and had the suit on and the whole thing so I thought I'd head up there and take a few night shots of the City and freshen up a series of self portraits I'd shot there a few years ago.

The views on the top of Twin Peaks are spectacular.  So I put my 24mm on my 5D and began shooting a series of timer shots.  After this shot I went to adjust my camera and take the next shot.  Everything was set.  But it was dark up there and as I walked around my camera and tripod to return to the scene for the next photograph I accidently knocked one of the legs of my tripod with my own leg.  And down she went.  Hard.

The 24mm f/1.4 broke the fall.  And after that it no longer works.  It's pretty banged up and won't focus and sounds loose and I guess I finally killed it.  The thing was pretty much on it's last leg anyways.  I've shot with it almost every day for almost 2 years.  I'd broken the manual/auto focus switch off a while back.  So it only worked with autofocus, which is a pain.  But, I'll miss that broken old lens.  The Canon 24mm f/1.4 has been a favorite of mine and it's an old friend that is now gone.  

So this morning I hopped on to B&H's website and bit the bullet and bought a replacement 24mm f/1.4.  It should arrive on Friday.  The nice news is that it's about $500 cheaper than what it was a few years ago.  Still expensive of course.  

To try and make myself feel a little bit better over the loss I also splurged and bought the L Series 14mm ultra wide angle prime.  

Anyways a sad story that ends unsatisfyingly (is that a word?) with promise, but also with me being out a chunk of change.  I'm sure I'll grow to love my new 24mm as much as my old.  But me and my old 24mm had some great days indeed.

Taken in: United States / California / San Francisco / Twin Peaks (show map)

Taken on: May 8, 2007

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Sets appears in: • Delete10 • Self Portraits more » • Some Photographs Taken at Night • Twin Peaks • Twin Peaks « less

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Camera: Canon EOS 5D, f/3.2, 4 sec, 24mm, ISO 400 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 5D
Lens:	EF24mm f/1.4L USM
Aperture:	f/3.2
Exposure Time:	4
Focal Length:	24mm
ISO:	400
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Shutter speed priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Unknown (0)
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
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