Many of us travel, sometimes for work and sometimes as a tourist, but one thing I'm sure most of our readers have in common is that no matter where you travel, a camera is coming with you. This video serves as a sobering reminder that at any given time as a photographer in public you have hundreds if not thousands of dollars of equipment by your side, and as you can see this proves to be very temping for thieves with some skill in deception.
So how can a theft like this be avoided? I can think of a few ways.
1) Carry your camera by your side, not your neck. In the video we can clearly see that the photographer was distracted by the crowd and didn't notice/feel the lens being removed from his camera from a simple press of a button and turn. By holding the camera in such a way that someone can't do this as obviously, like by holding the grip in your hand by your side, you'll be able to tell when someone else is trying to mess with it.
2) Cover the lens lock button with electrical tape. This will make it less discoverable, and harder to press down all the way, giving you some time to realize what's going on.
3) When confronted by a large group at once, secure equipment. At this point it doesn't matter how paranoid you look, in a lot of tourist areas it's common practice for thieves to overwhelm a victim by quickly surrounding them in a group. If you find this happening, shield that camera like your own child and move to a safe location.
4) Get insured. These things will ultimately happen and sometimes it's unavoidable, making sure you're covered will take a lot of stress out of the situation.
Have any of your own theft stories or tips to share? Let me know in the comments!
Yeah yeah! This is easy to say when you're at home! I live in Paris, and, I never had problems gear, but trying to doesn't look like a tourist it's impossible, you got tourists from everywhere, including french people, so, everybody looks tourist, it's impossible... And, with thousands of cameras in the streets, the gypsies don't want to know if you're local or not! There is only one way to don't look tourist, being with a crew recording a short film or something like that!
"Yeah yeah!" ??? O.o
I'm talking from my own experience. I traveled a lot around the world, including pretty unstable regions in Middle East, with expensive gear and it never happened to me that someone tried to steal my camera, lens or any other piece of equipment. Maybe I'm just really lucky, or my approach to this problem gives results.
Thanks for the tips. The same happened to me and it also was in Saint Petersburg down town... My Nikkor 24-70 was unmounted when the camera was on my neck... I spent another 2 hours in the local police to get some paper for insurance (they worked so slowly, they even said they just had no time for me because they got calls for two murders in their zone...).
I looked for some smart ready-for-use solution, but failed to find anything for lenses. Probably it's not common problem (yet?), but when we are going to Russia, we all have to be well prepared. Electrical tape seems to be a nice idea, at least for immediate use. However I still hope to find something more reliable and secure.
Anyway I think it's very important that you shared your experience!
One tip I have is to bring a printout with all the serial numbers and equipment list of everything you bring.
When you have to file the police report, you can include this information in the report. It will make the insurance claim a little easier.
I had a printout of the serial numbers in each bag of luggage, so when my camera was stolen in St Petersburg, I included this information in the police report.
stupid easy steps..." Cover the lens lock button with electrical tape"... you might as well cover your whole camera with electrical tape....
thats crazy... ok canon nikon 3rd party kickstarter guy.. make alock for our lenses or come up with a common sense pill.... tisk tisk...