After three and a half years of faithful service, by Nikon D80 DSLR suffered terminal trauma in the Darien jungle. I was climbing through dense undergrowth on a steep hillside, trying to get close to an army ant swarm so I could photograph the birds in attendance. I lost my footing and slipped. I didn't land heavily, but the camera slung over my shoulder contacted the ground first. Well, more precisely, the SB-900 flash unit mounted on the camera's hotshoe contacted the ground first. The flash ripped off, taking the hotshoe with it. What you see above is the decapitated D80, missing the hotshoe. Below is the flash, with the D80's hotshoe and associated circuitry still attached.
Fortunately, the flash was not damaged, which is a good thing as it is probably worth considerably more than the camera at this point. The camera still works too - just not with flash! Which was pretty limiting in the dark rainforest interior. Interestingly, the built-in pop-up flash no longer worked either - some important innards must have been ripped out with that hotshoe. Camera performance seemed to be otherwise unaffected.
Ah well, c'est la vie - at least it bought the farm while in pursuit of a photograph. The upside of this is I have an excuse to move up to a grown-up camera...
