Disaster - sort of - good thing it is a Pentax

The unthinkable happened, while pulling my camera out of the case I had strapped to my chest it caught on something and popped out of my hand and out of the case and dropped from chest height onto a granite slab. CRASH. I said a choice word (or 2 - loudly) and picked it up. The flash had popped open but otherwise it was in one piece, except for the large cracks across the front of the lens - luckily they were just the clear filter on the front. I turned it on and it seemed to work, although it had trouble focusing with the cracks across the front. Still, the pics appeared to be ok and with a different lens it seemed to be 100%.

This looks like a good place to drop a camera - NOT

resulting in this

the cracks actually didn't degrade the image as much as you'd expect

especially with a larger aperture and zoomed in a bit

It took 4 hands and a skeletool to get the busted filter off the next morning, but then that lens (Pentax DA* 16-50mm) seemed to work fine too. That is good because I would have been extra super grumpy to have both busted my camera and to be carrying an extra 12 or so pounds of useless dead weight on a 3 night backpack trip. Thanks for building such a solid tool Pentax (the K5 and 16-50). Needless to say, after all the trouble getting the camera out of the case I went to the Cotton Carrier shoulder strap carrier the next day. Not only was it easier to get the camera out and back but it had a backup attachment so even if I fumbled it the camera wouldn't hit the ground. It still sucks to have fumbled my camera and to break an expensive filter, but it is so much better than it could have been.

luckily the camera seemed to still work fine (taken with different lens)