A potential sabbatical

[orionid]

Ugh…. So I may be taking a break from farktography for a while. Which sucks because I was really looking forward to shooting for some of the upcoming themes. But instead, I must say goodbye to my dear and trusted friend, my D50. Here’s my tale of whoah. And yes, even though I can’t spell amateur to save my life, I did mean whoah and not woe.

So, I had a fishing trip planned out for this weekend, it was supposed to be cold but nice, and it’s the time of year where salmon and trout sit at the mouths of the streams flowing into lake george and eat everything that passes by their way. And I took the camera with in case there were any lunker bass that needed recording (bass don’t come in season in NY until june).

Instead, as it turns out, the boat I rented decided it didn’t want to play. I got to be the first rental of the season, and they forgot to test the motor. It wouldn’t even sputter. I tried priming, checked all the switches and throttle cables several times over, and nothing. I even let it air out for 30 or so minutes in case all my other attempts had flooded it. And still nothing. And all the while, we were getting bashed about by the shorebreak and the wind while trying to paddle the boat hard enough to keep it off shore far enough to let the screw turn without scraping sand.

We eventually gave up, pulled the boat back out of the water, loaded it back on the trailer, cursed the rental place, and started unloading the boat back into the truck so we could look for a pier or pylon to fish from.

Which is where I noticed that one of the waves that overtook the boat also overtook the bucket (and knocked off the lid) where I had my camera sitting safe and sound. I pulled it out of two inches of standing water, and looked at it and the water pouring out of every cover, hatch, or seam. I feared the worst, pulled the battery right away, and brought it home.

After letting it dry for a total of about six hours, I gave it a go and got no response. I’m pretty sure it’s done. I’m going to check it again in the morning, but I’ve got no hope for it. So I may step down for a bit while trying to balance the checkbook between cars that need work, cars that want work, bills, and a camera that — even though it was an entry-level — can’t be replaced by any of the current entry levels because none of them are back-compatible with the older nikkor lenses, where the D50 is.

I will however throw out things from the archives, or attempt to use my P&S (HA!) when possible.

On the bright side, I find humor in irony, and that much going horribly wrong on a day that was supposed to relax and unwind screams of irony.

[nobigdeal]

Dude!!

Major bummer!

Sorry for your loss. You have my condolences. 🙁

[staplermofo]

Ouch, that really sucks.
I don’t suppose you’d deign to get a used D50?

[nobigdeal]

Ouch, that really sucks.
I don’t suppose you’d deign to get a used D50?

I just checked eBay. Used D50’s can be had for a song.

[linguine]

That sucks, and I was thinking you were going to be getting to do something really cool from the title.

[olavf]

oh, shiat man. I’m sorry. 🙁

As has been suggested have you tried a used one? ebay and/or amazon…

I got a pretty decent deal on a refurb 40D from the latter which has the missus all atwitter over my old 20D 😉

[orionid]

Thanks for the condolences, guys.

And, yeah, I did check out ebay, amazon, B&H used, and a couple other places. I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet, short ot taking out a mortgage on a D3.

As of this morning, the D50 still shows no response to installation of batteries. Not even an error message. Given everything else that’s going on, outside of farktography, I’m thinking I’ve reached a point where I actually need to tap into my emergency money and reset back to baseline. I’ll have to bounce that around with one of my best freinds, and the only person I trust financially more than myself. If I go that route, I’ll probably roll one of the mid-range frames I’ve been looking at into the mix like a D90.

Heh, as Pangolyn pointed out to me last night, when it rains, it pours.

[soosh]

as it wasn’t saltwater, it may be possible to revive what you have. I’d call Nikon support and ask.

Bummer all around, though. I have had vivid dreams where keeping the camera dry becomes more and more impossible.

[Elsinore]

Damn, orionid, that really sucks. I hope you can revive the camera or get it replaced soon 🙁

[lokisbong]

That is a huge drag .I also hope it revives soon instead of buying a replacement.

[corsec67]

Yeah, breaking a camera sucks:

(Wait, I have never accidentally broken a camera…)

Hope your camera situation improves.

[orionid]

Downside: D50 is d-e-d, dead. It kinda turns on enough to flash an error message on the lcd, and the viewscreen goes completely white if you try to open the menu or view a photo. Nikon tech support says the error code means the cpu is fried. yay.

Upside: I found a [barely] used D90 at a local camera shop. Half the stuff in the box was still in the factory cellophane. Apparently the original owner bought it, fiddled for a few days, and decided it was above his comprehension level. So I picked it up for $200 below original. Score.

Downside: My 2 gig cards now only hold 80 raw images, instead of the previous 190. So I need to learn to be more judicious on the shutter button.

[nobigdeal]

Glad to hear you got a deal!

Now you get to spend a ton of money on lenses!

[bucky_bacon]

Upside: I found a [barely] used D90 at a local camera shop.

Yay! Welcome… back?

[orionid]

Now you get to spend a ton of money on lenses!

I’ve already done that! That was one of the requirements, it had to work with all my old lenses. Including my old-school AF-G series. Fortunately, about half of the nikons maintain full back-compatibilty for anything with an F-mount.

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