I was filming some B-roll for a video and had my camera on a tripod pointing downwards as I went to take the camera off the quick release. The camera slipped out of my hand and went thud on the grass lens first.
The lens is the Panasonic 12-32mm was using with my little Panasonic G100 micro four thirds camera and got damaged and as it was zoomed out the one side is sloped down and cannot use the zoom function and is completely stuck. The lens still works I did try to force it back in but wouldn’t budge.
Before I was going to sell it for spare and repairs on ebay, I thought I would see if I could still take reasonable images with the lens. The focus in the centre was ok, but on edges especially one edge was very blurred, so this was going to be a challenge to get some good shots. I went to a local lake and nature reserve to test it out.
You can watch the video I did on my youtube channel below.
This was just a bit of fun and some images did come out ok. As the images were blurred the one type of image you could take is ICM (intentional camera movement) photos as these are blurred anyway.
As I was walking the shadows of a fence on the path caught my eye, it was just the shapes and because it is a shadow again not too much of a problem with the blurriness.
Some of the other photos came out ok i think, well anyway was just an experiment to see if you can still use a broken lens, though you have to remember my broke in a certain way and the glass wasn’t damaged, so if you have a broken lens your results may vary, but why not just have a bit of fun with the lens and you may get some interesting results.
UPDATE – I was able to fix the lens by having to forceful;ly twist and pushing down, though there was something rattling inside, so I took the back screws out and a very small metal part came out, it looks like a spinning top toy. Though the lens works perfect, the zoom is fine, aperture blades work and still take sharp images.
Though I’m glad I messed around with the lens in its broken state first and was more of a challenge looking for the right composition but was really fun, which is what photography should be. Below are some of the images from that shoot.
