I recently photographed the Orange Battles in Ivrea, Italy. It basically amounts to people hurling oranges at each other as hard as they can. I took more hits than I can count (afraid the old Capa philosophy was the best way to shoot this) and my cameras took a few direct hits too--my R5, R6.2 and a few lenses. Everything fared well considering they were covered with orange juice for much of the event. The only problem I'm having is with my current-version 28mm 2.8, as the aperture ring is very problematic. It freezes in one place if I haven't used it in a while and I have to force it free, after which it turns but in a rather gummy fashion.

I am hoping I don't have to send this in. Anybody have any thoughts on how to best handle this?

-- dave yoder (lists@home.com), March 03, 2002

Answers

Send it in. What I would have done in your place is stick my M6 in a ziplock and put it away, and use my Olympus Epic (weatherproof). You have more balls than I do, and my hat's off to you.

-- Anon Terry (anonht@yahoo.com), March 03, 2002.

It's the sugar that gums things up - in one of the first reviews of the original (1970) Canon F1 the shutter jammed on the reviewer - he turned it over to a repairperson friend who showed him where a drop of sweetened coffee had glued the shutter curtains together...

Unless the juice got way down in the actual aperture mechanism, having the ring taken off and cleaned should be a fairly fast repair - almost 'while you wait' IF there is a repair place handy.

One concern - orange juice has citric ACID in it as well as sugar. I think you need to get the ring off and cleaned pretty soon.

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), March 03, 2002.

Get that lens cleaned. Even mildly acidic solutions are very corrosive to metal over long periods of time. Think of a piece of metal in a concentrated strong acid for an hour, or diluted 10000:1 but immersed for a bit over a year or about 10000 hours; this oversimplifies a bit but illustrates the dangers of just leaving equipment lying around for a few weeks after geting soaked.

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), March 04, 2002.

OJ is murder on Leicas, too :>) Get the CLA. You might want to pick up a used Nikonos for next time...they even made it in bright orange, so you'll blend in with the crowd ;>)

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), March 04, 2002.

If someone can tell me how, I will post a picture from the event...

-- dave yoder (lists@home.com), March 04, 2002.

Dave, just check out the html from a thread which has posted pictures and do what they do, it's straightforward - although everyone gets it wrong at least once ;-)

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), March 04, 2002.

yes, please post your pictures!

-- stefan randlkofer (geesbert@yahoo.com), March 04, 2002.

I agree with Jay.....a used Nikonos II or III (fully mechanical) is a great camera to have in "splashy" situations. Even a used Action Touch does a good job (its lens is ultra-sharp) if you can live with total automation. But when dodging oranges AE and AF aren't bad options!

-- Todd Phillips (toddvphillips@webtv.net), March 04, 2002.

Dave: Send it in STAT!!! The citric acid is corroding your lens as we speak and the sugar part is gumming up the works. Make sure that you explain what happened so that they do an extensive CLA. Good luck. Next time, use a Nikonos and leave the Leicas behind in a safe place.

-- Albert Knapp MD (albertknappmd@mac.com), March 04, 2002.