Last summer I was set up with my Nikon D200 on my Velbon travel tripod on the beach on the Oregon coast. Specifically, I was standing right up against the high point of the wave wash up near the town of Oceanside. I had my camera all set and the scene well composed when a strong wave washed up much higher than the previous waves. Instead of ditching the shot and starting over, I made the split decision to keep my feet dry, leaving the tripod standing. The water, as you can imagine, undermined the tripod and the D200 went crashing down. I caught it just as it splashed into the cold salt water of the Pacific. Argh! I rushed back to my trailer (we were staying at Cape Lookout State Park) and dried it all off, rubbed it down several times with a damp cloth, carefully took everything out and apart, and let it dry overnight. It worked, but only with that lens and I had some gunk on my sensor. Still, I was able to get off some decent shots, like this:
When we returned from our trip I had the entire camera cleaned by an authorized repair shop. Twice. It has been working fine ever since.
The moral of this story is: Save the camera, not the shot!
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