This $11,000 Camera Lens Shows Why You Don’t Check In Gear When Flying

Michael Zhang

If you’re flying with camera equipment, bring the gear onto the plane in a carry-on bag with you if at all possible. This $11,000 Leica lens shows what can happen if you entrust your pricey equipment to the hold inside checked baggage.

This Leica 50mm f/0.95 Noctilux ASPH lens was recently brought to Leica Store Manchester by a woman who checked in a semi-firm camera case with this lens mounted to a Leica M10. When she arrived at the destination, she found that her $10,995 lens had been smashed and her $6,895 camera would no longer turn on.

“She had only had the camera and lens for 2 weeks,” Leica Store Manchester’s Ben Stephens tells PetaPixel.

The 2 front elements of the lens had gotten completely shattered through the filter that had been on the lens, and filter ring was jammed onto the threads and couldn’t be removed. The woman has since sent both the lens and the camera to a Leica repair center to see if there’s anything that can be done.

Leica Store Manchester snapped a photo and is using it as a PSA to warn photographers about the dangers of placing equipment in checked baggage:

“It’s crazy, we have never seen anything like it,” Stephens says.

Image credits: Photographs by Leica Store Manchester and used with permission

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