Have you ever lost or had a piece of your photography gear stolen?

Jacob1977 wrote: Well I'm near certain I've just experienced my first. We went to a New Year's party of course last week, that included valet parking. I brought my D90 with me, lucky for me I kept my camera bag home with my other lenses and camera. However I did have my SB-800 flash in the back seat of the car. I took it off before we went inside, as I didn't want to carry it around with me. So it was just me, my D90 camera and wife. 4 hours later valet was closed and everyone's keys were at the front desk. We go out to the car, and it wasn't even locked! At that point it didn't register with me to check for my flash that had been sitting in the back seat.

The following day, however I did check. And it wasn't there. I contacted the valet company and they said they weren't responsible for lost or stolen items. I explained the valet clerk didn't even lock my car up, and of course they said I was mistaken, that they always lock cars up. Hmmm I know for fact the car wasn't locked because the wife got into the car before I could dig the keys out of my coat pocket!

So that's my story. I've officially have had my first piece of equipment stolen. How about you, have you had anything lost or stolen before?

I'm sorry to hear that. That really sucks.

Karl Wertanen wrote:

Screamin Scott wrote: Many years ago (1980) my apartment was burglarized. They took almost all of my photo gear (2 cameras, about 8 lenses, several flashes including a Honeywell Strobonar 880 ,they left the 510 battery pack to it though, 2 slide projectors & numerous other items like filters & whatnot....Long story short, I didn't have the correct insurance coverage & only got $500 out of a 2-3 thousand dollar loss...Learned my lesson about insuring my gear...What hurt just as much was them taking an extensive coin collection & my wife's jewelry as well

how do you insure it now? home owners insurance?

Our homeowners policy can cover thousands of dollars on photography equipment alone.

go to this place.

www.stolen-property.com/


and put down anything that was taken from you.I am not sure how much good it will do but at least you feel like you are doing something. Also a good thing to check before you buy anything used from anyone. I have had a camera stolen out of my house a nikon SLR and two of my laptops. The nikon had two extra lens and a speedlight flash. I miss it.

My Canon P&S was stolen. I know a P&S is nothing compare to a DSLR, which I have now. But, seeing it was my only camera and I just photograph some awesome portraits it was at the time, the end of the world for me.

cwightmanphotos wrote:

Karl Wertanen wrote:

Screamin Scott wrote: Many years ago (1980) my apartment was burglarized. They took almost all of my photo gear (2 cameras, about 8 lenses, several flashes including a Honeywell Strobonar 880 ,they left the 510 battery pack to it though, 2 slide projectors & numerous other items like filters & whatnot....Long story short, I didn't have the correct insurance coverage & only got $500 out of a 2-3 thousand dollar loss...Learned my lesson about insuring my gear...What hurt just as much was them taking an extensive coin collection & my wife's jewelry as well

how do you insure it now? home owners insurance?

Our homeowners policy can cover thousands of dollars on photography equipment alone.

Most homeowner policies limit the dollar amount of the photographic gear loss unless you itemize the gear under a separate rider & different companies have different limits

Cjarvis wrote:

Stealthy Ninja wrote:

Cjarvis wrote: The same kinda story hapened to me. I went to a 49ers game and brought my camera when I got to the gate thay told me I had to check my camera bag becouse it wasent see thru, so i took my camera a tellephoto lense and was forced to leav the rest. After the game I picked up my bag and checked to make sure nothing was missing and sure enogh my sb600 flash was gone. When I told the maneger he simply told me that was not thear problem. I made such a sceen security had to escort me out, made no difrence tho still didnt get my flash back

I seriously would have called the cops in this case.

The cops are who escorted me out. The world can be unfair some times, you just gota roll with it.

You must have been making quite the ruckus. LOL

I meant I would have called the cops BEFORE going crazy.

Stealthy Ninja wrote:

Cjarvis wrote:

Stealthy Ninja wrote:

Cjarvis wrote: The same kinda story hapened to me. I went to a 49ers game and brought my camera when I got to the gate thay told me I had to check my camera bag becouse it wasent see thru, so i took my camera a tellephoto lense and was forced to leav the rest. After the game I picked up my bag and checked to make sure nothing was missing and sure enogh my sb600 flash was gone. When I told the maneger he simply told me that was not thear problem. I made such a sceen security had to escort me out, made no difrence tho still didnt get my flash back

I seriously would have called the cops in this case.

The cops are who escorted me out. The world can be unfair some times, you just gota roll with it.

Yeah I probly looked like a two year old kicking and screaming lol.
SF PD was standing thear the whole time thay told me becouse of the waiver on the back of my check ticket thay couldnt do any thing. Thats when I lost it
You must have been making quite the ruckus. LOL

I meant I would have called the cops BEFORE going crazy.

Cjarvis wrote:

Stealthy Ninja wrote:

Cjarvis wrote:

Stealthy Ninja wrote:

Cjarvis wrote: The same kinda story hapened to me. I went to a 49ers game and brought my camera when I got to the gate thay told me I had to check my camera bag becouse it wasent see thru, so i took my camera a tellephoto lense and was forced to leav the rest. After the game I picked up my bag and checked to make sure nothing was missing and sure enogh my sb600 flash was gone. When I told the maneger he simply told me that was not thear problem. I made such a sceen security had to escort me out, made no difrence tho still didnt get my flash back

I seriously would have called the cops in this case.

The cops are who escorted me out. The world can be unfair some times, you just gota roll with it.

Yeah I probly looked like a two year old kicking and screaming lol.
SF PD was standing thear the whole time thay told me becouse of the waiver on the back of my check ticket thay couldnt do any thing. Thats when I lost it
You must have been making quite the ruckus. LOL

I meant I would have called the cops BEFORE going crazy.

Oh yeh those freakin' waiver things. If you accept a ticket it's actually a contract... my friend's a lawyer you see.

I think my reaction would have been similar to yours.

Cjarvis wrote: The same kinda story hapened to me. I went to a 49ers game and brought my camera when I got to the gate thay told me I had to check my camera bag becouse it wasent see thru, so i took my camera a tellephoto lense and was forced to leav the rest. After the game I picked up my bag and checked to make sure nothing was missing and sure enogh my sb600 flash was gone. When I told the maneger he simply told me that was not thear problem. I made such a sceen security had to escort me out, made no difrence tho still didnt get my flash back

I'm just getting over mine being gone and reading yours just boils me over. There are some very shady people in this world!

As for me, I have been shopping around for my replacement. Looking at a SB900, I had been looking for used SB800, but decided this would make a good time to upgrade as a few of you have suggested.

All of my stuff is insured. So no fears on anything being stollen as i will get back its original retail price. However, when the new cameras are released this year i might secretly want my gear to disappear