Now the story gets interesting. Marius mounted it on a rig attached to his helmet, on a custom designed plate, side by side with a video camera. The set-up looked something like this:
It seemed to work just fine, until it didn't... After shooting some good exposures of his fellows skydivers having fun free falling, he opened his chute, the helmet came loose in a forward motion, he grabbed it with his hands but the cameras detached from the helmet, and down they went. Fast, tumbling, falling from approximately 3000 ft.
After landing safely a couple of minutes later, he went to the area where they must have been crashed, looking for the dead metal, plastic and glass carcasses. Less than half hour later, he found them in in a terrible condition, covered with grass, sand and mud. Don't try this at home, it's really not recommended. Think about the fine electronics and glass incorporated in those devices.
The video camera cracked open, dead, done deal. The Rebel took the fall a little better, just a crack in the left side of the plastic body. With a glimmer of hope, Marius presses the playback button:
Quelle surprise! The camera turns on, displays the last image taken, like nothing happened. Mental!
He cleaned it thoroughly, learned to live with the creaking sounds coming from the lens while zooming (sand inside) and kept shooting the resilient Rebel until this very present day.
I was shocked, amazed and happy to see a Canon product withstanding such an abuse. It might very well be a world height record for a camera taking a fall and surviving. Kudos for Canon!
Video added:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpy1c5xlTso&feature=player_embedded
