Yesterday, like most days, I chose “Bull Frog” to protect my lily-white, first time in the sun this season, skin. During a lull in the action, I hurried over to the bleachers where grandma sat watching the kids and guarding all of the valuables. I set my Sony VX2100 down and out came the “Bull Frog”. The slather fest was on. I was applying it liberally to everything appropriate when I realized that the next event was about to start. Well, the Bull Frog is mostly alcohol and dries quickly after you put it on. So, I didn’t figure the small amount on my hands would be a problem. Wrong…

I picked up the camera by the top handle and away I went. I made it to the event on time but it didn’t take too long after that that I began to notice a problem. The plastic on the handle seemed sticky. At first I just thought it was sticky from the wet sunscreen still being on my hand and thought little of it. I just wiped my hand and went on about my business. Before long I was wiping my hand again…and again…and again. Problem still existed. Finally I tried washing my hands…nothing. Then I got a wet towel and washed the handle of the camera over and over…nothing. Before it was all said and done, the facility management was considering charging me for entry into the bathroom!

As the problem persisted, I put the equation together and figured it all out. There is something in the sunscreen that softens the plastic on the camera. I was sick. I have never had a camera so nice and here it was already getting trashed because I was in a hurry. I tried scrubbing on the handle but that just began scratching it. It was extraordinarily annoying for the rest of the day because my hand kept sticking to the handle when I would reach across the handle with my left hand to access the zoom rocker, it would stick to the camera handle. If I was really going for “smooth”, I was in trouble because as my hand pulled away, it would stick causing camera movement. I began to try to figure out what my next move was. Dare I tell my wife that I have damaged our $2500 camera? (I did.) What do I do about fixing it? Was it worth messing with? I wonder if I could just order the part and put it on myself, after all, it’s just a few screws.

So what did I do? Nothing immediately. When I got it back out at my house some time later, all seemed well. Though in the end, everything turned out OK, it is good advice to avoid getting sunscreen of any kind on your valuable equipment. If you find yourself shooting an outdoor wedding, of extended duration, on a bright sunny day and are compelled to drag out the sunscreen, be cautious – don’t let the Bull Frog eat your camera!

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.