Danish golfer Thomas Bjorn struck an ESPN camera worth $80,000 at the British Open yesterday, smashing the front element.
Ouch: Danish golfer Thomas Bjorn accidentally struck a golf ball straight into one of ESPN’s cameras at the British Open yesterday, resulting in a completely smashed front element filter (see the update below).
Take a look:
According to the commentators, the camera in question is worth $80,000, although we suspect the damages will be less than that if only the front element needs replacement.
Update: Our Pro Broadcast manager Juanne Whyte has commented that it is probably just a double layer 127mm UV filter that got smashed, and further pointed out that it’s most likely a Canon HJ22ex7.6B lens. So luckily the damage is not as extensive as initially thought!
Here’s two shots of the broken lens filter:
The Open Championship is live on ESPN, and we've already lost one camera to an unfortunately placed golf ball: pic.twitter.com/ljO9ZzbD2s
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) July 18, 2013
ESPN TV camera on first fairway after Thomas Bjorn's second shot from the rough!! pic.twitter.com/wKo76Qt6Md
— Mark Donaldson (@Donaldson007) July 18, 2013
The accidental hit reminds us of this similar video of Tiger Woods striking a ball into a camera – although that time the director asked for it!
Via PetaPixel.
I’m pretty sure that’s a filter that got hit, not the front element.
It could be, but to my eyes it looks like the glass is far too thick to be a filter. Also, the front element on long zooms like this one are typically nearly flat, which makes it look more like a filter than a typical convex front element.
Reason I think it’s a filter, even if a semi-permanently fixed one, is because I imagine they’d have such filters in place on lenses like this specifically to protect the lens itself from damage – such as from stray golf balls. Downtime can be significantly reduced if all they have to swap out is a non-intrusive filter, after all.
If it forms part of the lens’ normal design, the glass for that filter could well be thicker than typical DSLR filters’ specifically to better serve as a protective one than one influencing the picture in some way.
You’re right, Juanne has pointed out that it’s probably a double layer filter, hence the thicker glass shards. Well spotted!
EINA!! Lucky he did not take the cameraman’s eye out.