Camera warehouse worth over half a billion dong severely damaged after flood

Hundreds of old film cameras cannot be used after the flood. Photo: NVCC.

As of November 26, many households in Khanh Hoa and Dak Lak have gradually overcome the consequences of the floods. This is also the time when property losses become clear.

Mr. Tran Nhat V. (residing in Nha Trang ward, Khanh Hoa province) said the flood had damaged his family's collection of hundreds of film cameras, lenses, and DSLRs. He said his father was a photographer, and the above cameras had been collected by him since he started his career, and were considered his entire career asset.

According to many previous hydro-meteorological forecasts, Khanh Hoa province has had heavy to very heavy rain, causing the water level of the Cai Nha Trang River to rise rapidly, making it difficult for people to react. Moving furniture becomes even more difficult for families with young children or the elderly.

Mr. V., who was in Ho Chi Minh City at the time, said his family reported that the flood was rising very quickly, the water level was said to be the highest ever in the area. "Because the film camera was quite heavy, I was far away and at that time there were only elderly people in the house, so I told the whole family to protect their lives first, and leave their belongings behind," he shared with Tri Thuc - Znews .

Mr. V.'s family's camera collection dates back to the time when film cameras were the only tool for photography. The equipment spans the vivid history of cameras, with brands including Nikon, Canon, Minolta, Olympus, Pentax and a line of mechanical, electromechanical, and early DSLR cameras.

Equipment damaged by mud flooding. Photo: NVCC.

To this day, Mr. V. inherits the legacy and still hunts with his father for new machines that he has never owned. However, when natural disasters strike, the family still has to choose their own safety, accepting the great loss of the collection.

In total, the collection has 500-700 damaged devices. Mr. V. said he could not calculate the details yet, but if each damaged item is worth about one million, the estimated damage is about 500 million VND.

In reality, the number can be many times larger. In Vietnam, the average price of a popular film camera is from 800,000 to 3 million VND, MF/AF lenses and old DSLRs are about 2 million.

A camera that gets wet with mud is more likely to be damaged than a camera that gets soaked in rain or seawater, because mud contains many impurities that clog, corrode, and damage the complex mechanical parts inside the camera. Meanwhile, the lens will be heavily moldy, the aperture blades will be pitted, and often permanently damaged. With DSLR cameras, there are many electrical parts inside, so when soaked in water, the possibility of repair is very low.

In addition, with a large number of devices, repairs will cost a lot of time and money, while local reconstruction after the storm and flood is still underway. After the flood, Nha Trang's sunshine is becoming an involuntary "dryer" for damaged devices.

"The current way of handling it is probably just to dry it for display and not to exchange or sell wholesale," said Mr. V.

Source: https://znews.vn/kho-may-anh-hon-nua-ty-dong-hong-nang-sau-lu-post1605908.html