Today, at approximately 2:48 pm, my D300 was fatally wounded by a gust of wind.
No joke.
I was shooting at my church. Had the D300 on a tripod (a big, beefy, manly tripod too). I set it to timer because I wanted absolutely no movement. I pressed the shutter, and walked back to get out of the frame (I was shooting a reflective wall of windows). A gust of wind came and was enough to knock over my tripod with D300 and battery grip attached.
Upon picking up the camera, I noticed the damage:
There are also scuffs on the power switch and the UV filter.
Issues: Screen does not work at all, flash does not fire, camera is stuck in Vivid +3, Contrast +3 PC. Autofocus is stuck on, so the camera is constantly focusing.
The camera does still fire shots, and appears to be metering correctly... but I can't look at the images. I still get 8 frames a second in manual.
With the issues the camera has, I am now reduced to very limited shooting. Moral of the story, don't leave your camera unattended with high winds.
I am currently shopping for a new D300 body... so if you know where I can get one for cheap, let me know.
