In a message dated 7/16/2001 Ken Norton <image66@xxxxxxxxx> writes:
<< The EOS-1 is solidly made and could be used to prop up your car
with. I've seen war abused (honest) EOS-1 cameras that stood up to the
most extreme banging around in the worst conditions. >>
While I always value and respect Ken's opinions I will add a datapoint
on this from a racing photographer I know who uses EOS-1s of various
vintages who has one EOS-1 body he now calls a very expensive
paperweight. This body still looks perfect on the outside. At the (CART)
Long Beach GP a couple years ago he dropped one of his EOS-1 bodies with
Canon 300/2.8 attached from about 3 feet (~ 1 meter for our metric
friends) onto concrete lens first on a Friday morning of a race weekend
(just got to the track, first time wearing one of those silly vinyl
photo-vests they have started to make us wear at many tracks now and his
strap slid right off his shoulder--talk about bummed!). He took his
wounded kit to Canon pro services in the LA area (nice to have that
available and lucky it was Friday morning and not the weekend already)
and they were able to repair the 300/2.8 (while he waited but to the
tune of several hundred dollars) and get him back to the track by about
3:00 that afternoon. The body was a write-off. Despite having no visible
signs of damage the casting was internally bent and cracked. This, I
would have to assume, was due to the portly mass of wunderbrick/battery
pack. In this case I would have to believe an OM-4T would have had a
better chance of survival, even with a MD2/CP2 attached. And no, I do
not wish to duplicate this experience to find out for myself...sorry.
Mike Veglia
Motor Sport Visions Photography
http://www.motorsportvisions.com
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