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Unbelievable rental "disaster". . . can I check my Canon calibration?

Stephen Pruitt

Stephen Pruitt

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Okay. . . this is one for the books, I'm sure:

I rented my entire RED set-up and grip truck to some wonderful people near us. However, on about the seventh day of shooting, the director's brother drove his Chevy Suburban over the top of my lens bag! That's right. . . the rear wheels rolled right over the top of the bag (one of those rolling bags like an overnighter), shattering two filters, bending part of the lens bag's metal frame, and damaging (for certain) my 24mm L-Series II and my 16-35 L-Series II. The crew was so panicked (rightfully so!), that they literally ran over and picked up the rear of the Suburban and dragged out the lens bag from under the car.

I am sending those two lenses in for repair, but I want to know if it is likely that the other lenses have been in some way knocked out of alignment by the abuse. If so, is there any way for me to check that sort of thing here at home? I have no test equipment at all.

Other than wringing the guy's neck, what would you do to verify all is well?

I live in Kansas City.

Thanks much.

Stephen
 
Ohh No @ "rear wheels rolled right over the top of the bag"

Send the whole bag for Inspection and Try avoid wringing his neck Unless you have 2
 
I'd send every single lens to the manufacturer for a routine CLA as if nothing had happened. If they detect something on cal, they'll tell you right away.

My 2¢... and good luck!
 
Showing my ignorance here. What is a "CLA"? "Cleaning, Lubrication, Adjustment"?

Thanks.

:-(

Stephen
 
Stephen Pruitt said:
... However, on about the seventh day of shooting, the director's brother drove his Chevy Suburban over the top of my lens bag! That's right. . . the rear wheels rolled right over the top of the bag ...
Click to expand...

Dead. I want him dead. :gun: :emote_hanged: :violent5:
 
Got to ask who was AC-ing that left the lens bag on the road, in front or behind a vehicle unattended?!
 
Where was the first AC? WHERE WAS THE FIRST AC?

Behind the wheel of the Suburban.

:-)

This was not a professional crew by any means. But, as I said, they are SUPER nice guys. Albeit not the most attentive drivers.

:-)

Stephen
 
Stephen Pruitt said:
Where was the first AC? WHERE WAS THE FIRST AC?

Behind the wheel of the Suburban.

:-)

This was not a professional crew by any means. But, as I said, they are SUPER nice guys. Albeit not the most attentive drivers.

:-)

Stephen
Click to expand...

LOL! Wow, you are taking this very well Stephen! :-)

Insurance or no, it's a major pain making a claim and waiting for payment, losing jobs, etc.
 
I've long been proposing the implementation of such extra rental fees, such as the "asshole fee" or the "moron fee."
 
if a moron fee existed, a lot of productions would be going bankrupt day 1...


I would just look for a local or semi local lens technician and they can probably look into the lenses for you and see if they are ok. Time to invest in a big pelican this time around!
 
Jonathan Stevenson said:
I've long been proposing the implementation of such extra rental fees, such as the "asshole fee" or the "moron fee."
Click to expand...

I have a friend who is a building contractor who told me in all seriousness that he has a PITA (pain-in-the-ass) surcharge that he might include in bids for certain jobs.

He explained that if it was obvious the customer was going to be a nightmare he had to factor the time spent dealing with that as part of the job.
 
:angelsad2:
Stephen Pruitt said:
Where was the first AC? WHERE WAS THE FIRST AC?

Behind the wheel of the Suburban.

:-)

This was not a professional crew by any means. But, as I said, they are SUPER nice guys. Albeit not the most attentive drivers.

:-)

Stephen
Click to expand...

Okay, fine. So his family can live.

But him?

I want him dead. :gun: :emote_hanged: :violent5: :angelsad2:
 
Not condoning it at all, and I feel your pain, but in life, ridiculously harsh stuff happens to the best of people. We have all looked back and shook our head at something we've done. And then laid in bed at night analyzing it over & over, still stunned that we could of let something happen... Those are things we never let ourselves forget.
 
Would I be out of line to say that since these are Canon SLR lenses, it may just be a lot cheaper and a lot less headache to replace them. Insurance should pick up the tab, of course, but I've seen many repairs to lenses in this class cost nearly as much or even more than simply buying a new lens.

I would definitely get all the lenses that were in the bag checked though.

And yeah, stuff like this happens more than people want to admit, even on professional sets with experienced personnel. With my rentals, I always have a refundable damage deposit in addition to the rental charges. Actually I call it a small items and miscellaneous damage deposit. I started doing it late last year because I was tired of getting RED RAMs returned without the cables and/or AC adapters or rental customers dropping stuff or leaving me to do extra cleaning -- usually to remove stupid amounts of gaff tape and grease pencil marks or there's always the dumb ass that uses a sharpie or other mostly permanent marker on the FF marking discs...
 
I agree with Jeff...
Give them the lenses and say "you broke them you buy em".....

Prorate some use like 10% and go buy new lenses.
 
Absolutely right Chris, in the end it is all about how you carry yourself after you screw up.

For example, if he handed the bag back, laughed and said sorry, that's not enough.

But if he handed the bag back, told him what happened and offered to do whatever was necessary to make it right, that's a guy worth having around.

When I was 7 I accidentally broke our neighbor's window. I paid for half the repair and they paid for half. To this day I still don't know why they were happy to pay half. Hmm, maybe I should send them $50...


Chris Pickle said:
Not condoning it at all, and I feel your pain, but in life, ridiculously harsh stuff happens to the best of people. We have all looked back and shook our head at something we've done. And then laid in bed at night analyzing it over & over, still stunned that we could of let something happen... Those are things we never let ourselves forget.
Click to expand...
 
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