Don't you just hate it when.....

[Jim Pascoe]

....you get back from the store 30 miles away with a new spindle of 100 blank, printable DVD-R's, open them, settle down to burn a few, and find they somehow have been transformed into CD-R's.  Even after picking the wrapper out of the bin and re-reading it twice - it still says they are CD-R's, and they were DEFINITELY DVD's when I paid for them.  Hang on - I will check again....

You spend 20 seconds in front of a client fumbling with the shutter release because the damn thing will not fire.  Take the lens off and replace, switch off and back on again, check the AF is working, then realise your wife who had borrowed the camera yesterday had switched off the vertical grip control thinking it was the on/off switch.  That switch had not been 'off' for 6 years......

Jim

[David Sutton]

My general rule on foul-ups, formulated when I used to do my own repairs on Italian and English cars, goes something like "the likelihood of being given the wrong part increases directly in relation to the distance to the supplier and the difficulty of getting back before they close. If someone is watching me work, that likelihood increases exponentially."
Only fumbling for 20 seconds is pretty good going.

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

- Took me 30 minutes to get the flash on my new Fuji X-E2 working until I found out "silent mode" was activated and does not only silence the beeps, but also deactivates the flash ....
- Leaving the house with the camera and forgetting the akku in the charger ...

[Rob C]

You stick on a medium telephoto, have to go vertical, and the bloody camera tilts about the screw and the view sinks down to your socks. Worse: it didn't happen with my old 4/200 Nikkor but it does it now with even the 2.8/105! On two different tripods: a small, cheap-but-rigid Slik and a hugely expensive and heavy Gitzo and Gitzo head!

I hate things that don't work, especially when they are expensive and don't work.

Let me add my Fiat X1/9 to the collection: as close to the looks of a Ferrari as I shall ever get, underpowered in reality, traded at under two years because the factory loaded wheel-balancer weights directly to the alloy rims, and the general, on-the-house replacement of cathodic-damaged wheels ended before my dealer let me know...

Even with memory working in fits and starts, one could still create a long, long list of moments of intense anger. In general, we get a bum deal for our buck. Having just written that, I now worry about the new computer I ordered yesterday just before lunch.

Rob C

[Justinr]

Spending vast sums on a new bit of kit only to discover/remember that you already have something that will do the job the day after the purchase.

[Jim Pascoe]

Spending vast sums on a new bit of kit only to discover/remember that you already have something that will do the job the day after the purchase.

Ha - now I am sure that we all have a cabinet full of gear that is quite sufficient for the job at hand!  Where would the camera industry be though without a bit of lust.... (for new gear that is).

[Jim Pascoe]

Even with memory working in fits and starts, one could still create a long, long list of moments of intense anger. In general, we get a bum deal for our buck. Having just written that, I now worry about the new computer I ordered yesterday just before lunch.

Rob C

Hey Rob, I'm sure you're new computer will be fine - as long as you did specify it with the newly released Hyper-Connector that will become the new industry standard next year.  You did Rob didn't you..?  Oh no Rob, surely you didn't order the soon to be discontinued/defunct PC with the USB3/Thunderbolt option - tell me you didn't.  Never order a new computer on an empty stomach.

Jim

[Rob C]

Hey Rob, I'm sure you're new computer will be fine - as long as you did specify it with the newly released Hyper-Connector that will become the new industry standard next year.  You did Rob didn't you..?  Oh no Rob, surely you didn't order the soon to be discontinued/defunct PC with the USB3/Thunderbolt option - tell me you didn't.  Never order a new computer on an empty stomach.

Jim

Oh NO!

Bang!

Rob C

[Rob C]

If one is allowed to include regrets in this thread, it has to be trading two perfect 'blads (500C and 500CM), 45° prism and three lenses.

Blame? Other than myself, stock agents who were 6x7 fixated.

Rob C

[RSL]

Jim, There's no solution to the first problem. I can't begin to remember all the times I've checked the label on the bin, then picked up and checked out the article that was in the bin by mistake. The solution to the second problem is: buy your wife her own camera.

And Rob, the solution to the sinking camera is the L bracket. Mine stay on my cameras all the time. And Jim's got a point about not ordering a new computer on an empty stomach, but the improvements in computers keep coming, and in addition to the unnecessary bells and whistles the things keep getting more and more dependable.

[Jim Pascoe]

There is a postscript..... Nicky went to a more local store just now - only seven miles away and bought another spindle, this time of 100 DVD-R's.  Only problem is when she got back they turned out to be non-printable ones!
We had a bowl of soup, then she went back - because this time we had taken the precaution of reading the label before opening them.  So she gets back to the counter with the replacement set off the shelf to exchange and gets chatting to the assistant.  She relates what happened to the first set in the story, to which he says "Oh, you mean you mistakenly bought CD-R's - like these you have just picked up again"!

A near miss that.

And Russ - she does have a camera, but likes to use mine as it has a better range of focus points!

Jim

[David Sutton]

Then there are CD-R plus and minus. The two types would often be mixed together on the same shelf in dim lighting in the shop, and on my first laptop the "plus" ones wouldn't work at all.
After going back to the store to get the correct boxed set, it sometimes happened that a particular brand would burn very slowly. Think 20 minutes for a few songs. This of course only happened when a student was watching me.

[Jim Pascoe]

Then there are CD-R plus and minus. The two types would often be mixed together on the same shelf in dim lighting in the shop, and on my first laptop the "plus" ones wouldn't work at all.
After going back to the store to get the correct boxed set, it sometimes happened that a particular brand would burn very slowly. Think 20 minutes for a few songs. This of course only happened when a student was watching me.

Everything happens more slowly when you are being watched.  And I always stall the car when I have a passenger.  Not that I always stall the car, just that when I do I always seem to have a passenger.

[Rob C]

Everything happens more slowly when you are being watched.  And I always stall the car when I have a passenger.  Not that I always stall the car, just that when I do I always seem to have a passenger.

That's why they invented auto-boxes. You didn't stall one of those, did you?

Rob C