Being old enough to know better doesn't help. Being rich, or pretty, or powerful doesn't help. Being witty doesn't even help...when physics, geometry, and circumstance combine, you are going to go for a tumble.
This was the case recently for one of our staff members who qualifies on all the above criteria. He was on holiday near Bluff Knoll and had taken his Leica camera for landscape shots. Pausing to admire the scenery, he set the camera down on the solid rock behind him.
Bad move - the camera was obviously a renegade as it made an immediate bolt for freedom - starting to slip away down a crevasse between two rocks. The unnamed staff member reached around in a flash and just caught it as it went - getting it just by the metal lens hood.
After he had calmed down, wiped off the cold sweat, stopped screaming, and could see again, he inspected the runaway. The pictures show where the rock face had scraped away at it - you can see the big old scratches down the LCD screen and two small chunks off the metal surround. What Fate did not know on the day was that the camera screen was protected with a Hoodman Hoodskin screen protector.
These things are held in place by the static attraction - they come in a packet of two for under $ 16 and you cut them to fit whatever screen you have.
The happy ending to this story is: when the Hoodskin was peeled off the Leica LCD screen was completely undamaged. That is disaster averted for $ 8. If they had Hoodskins on the HINDENBURG history would have been different.
