Kenyan rugby superstar Collins Injera may have made a big, expensive boo boo earlier this week when—in celebration of his 200th try—he decided to sign the broadcast camera’s lens.
No doubt this was a big moment for Injera, and he was well within his rights to sign the ball as he did, but when he emulated the common tennis practice and turned his permanent marker on the $96,000 broadcast camera lens, he may have overstepped.
According to ESPN, Tennis players are signing “a protective cover instead of the lens itself” when they do this. Injera put his autograph directly on the front element:
How much damage he did is up for debate. Very likely this doesn’t mean the lens has to be replaced—at worst it has to be taken apart and the front element needs to be replaced. But even that may be an exaggeration.
Acetone (ouch… scares us to even mention the option) and even isopropyl alcohol could potentially do the trick.
But given how many expensive coatings are placed on lens elements these days—and knowing how carefully crafted and sensitive that glass is—one has to wonder if adding some sort of chemical won’t do as much damage as it repairs.
[H/T SLR Lounge]
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