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| RIP Leica 50mm f/0.95 Noctilux. Photo credit: Leica Store Manchester |
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, here’s your 1,000 words about why you should never check in your camera gear when flying. This $ 11,000 Leica 50mm f/0.95 Noctilux ASPH lens and the $ 7,000 Leica M10 it was attached to are both broken, possibly beyond repair, after the owner checked them into the hold on a flight instead of carrying them onto the plane.
The lens showed up like this at the Leica Store Manchester, who posted this photo to their Instagram and Facebook pages as a warning for other photographers who have considered checking their camera gear. It might be easier, but you never know what kind of treatment your bag is going to get.
Case in point: the murdered Noctilux above arrived at its destination with two front lens elements shattered… through a filter. What’s left of the poor filter is stuck in the lens’ filter threads. The owner has sent the lens and and camera to a Leica service center, but while the camera might be fixable, we doubt there’s anything to be done about the lens.
Shall we consider this lesson learned?
Photo by Leica Store Manchester and used with permission.
