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Re: Lost digital SLR camera and photos - lost on May 25 2012

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Lost digital SLR camera and photos - lost on May 25 2012
June 03, 2012 10:11AM
On Friday 25 May 2012 I lost a camera in the Yosemite Valley. I was parked at bus stop E5 at the foot of the 4-Mile Trail - as I was setting off again at approximately 7pm, I put the camera on the roof of my car and drove off. I heard a thump, and thought nothing of it till I realised I didn't have my camera. When I went back, I couldn't find it on or near the road.

The camera was a Nikon D80 with 18-200mm lens (lens slightly damaged). It's a large semi-professional digital SLR.

The camera is less important to me than the SD card containing beautiful photos of Yosemite in the mist and the snow, which I'll never be able to take again.

I don't know whether the finder was intending to return the camera/photos, but either way I offer a $100 reward for return of the photos and $200 for return of the photos+camera. No questions asked - all I want is the photos back.

Thanks,

Franky
Re: Lost digital SLR camera and photos - lost on May 25 2012
June 03, 2012 10:37AM
Quote
Franky
On Friday 25 May 2012 I lost a camera in the Yosemite Valley. I was parked at bus stop E5 at the foot of the 4-Mile Trail - as I was setting off again at approximately 7pm, I put the camera on the roof of my car and drove off. I heard a thump, and thought nothing of it till I realised I didn't have my camera. When I went back, I couldn't find it on or near the road.

The camera was a Nikon D80 with 18-200mm lens (lens slightly damaged). It's a large semi-professional digital SLR.

The camera is less important to me than the SD card containing beautiful photos of Yosemite in the mist and the snow, which I'll never be able to take again.

I don't know whether the finder was intending to return the camera/photos, but either way I offer a $100 reward for return of the photos and $200 for return of the photos+camera. No questions asked - all I want is the photos back.

Thanks,

Franky

You've probably already done this but here's the number for lost and found in the Valley: 209-379-1002.
avatar Re: Lost digital SLR camera and photos - lost on May 25 2012
June 03, 2012 12:03PM
I hope you get those back Franky. I'm sorry you lost it.
Re: Lost digital SLR camera and photos - lost on May 25 2012
June 03, 2012 12:22PM
Re: Lost digital SLR camera and photos - lost on May 25 2012
June 05, 2012 06:29AM
Thanks for the replies. Mtn Man, I already reported the loss to the L&F office in Yosemite Valley, and with the National Park L&F office.

Bbb, I'd be surprised if my photos turn up online but I'll keep a look-out!

Franky
Re: Lost digital SLR camera and photos - lost on May 25 2012
June 05, 2012 08:08AM
Quote
Franky
Bbb, I'd be surprised if my photos turn up online but I'll keep a look-out!

Franky
The camera embeds a unique identifier in the exif so if someone posts ANY pictures from your camera, you might be able to trace it.
Re: Lost digital SLR camera and photos - lost on May 25 2012
June 05, 2012 08:19AM
Bbb - true... But from tracing it to reappropriating it might be a long journey :\ Thanks for the tip anyway, I'll keep my eyes peeled.
avatar Re: Lost digital SLR camera and photos - lost on May 25 2012
June 05, 2012 06:55AM
It isn't much help now, but for future reference I once read of a helpful tip that I have done: make the first image on your memory card a "sign" with your name and phone numbers. I typed up such a "sign" on my computer screen and then took a photo of it.

This camera belongs to: _____, home number, cell number, reward if found and returned.

Hope you get your camera and photos back.
Re: Lost digital SLR camera and photos - lost on May 25 2012
July 24, 2012 03:57PM
A bittersweet update...

Firstly, thank you to bbb for suggesting www.stolencamerafinder.com. Amazingly, through that site I found some photos taken with my camera, and by way of a bit of detective work identified the new owner.

With help from the local police, I recovered the camera and now, after a long struggle getting it shipped back to the UK, it is back in my possession.

The bad news... I ran a data recovery program over the memory card. The temporary owner had, in the short time he had the camera, filled the card with his own photos, and my own shots were unrecoverable.

The owner had bought it off the "finder" of the camera and I'm very grateful to him for being honest and handing it over to the police.

Anyhow... this amounts to a recommendation for www.stolencamerafinder.com!

Cheers,

Franky
avatar Re: Lost digital SLR camera and photos - lost on May 25 2012
July 24, 2012 04:03PM
To bad your photos weren't abled to be recovered, but glad to hear you got your camera back!

Now, to replace those photos, you must schedule a return trip to Yosemite! wink
.
Re: Lost digital SLR camera and photos - lost on May 25 2012
July 24, 2012 07:46PM
Wow. Glad to hear to that you got your camera back. Sorry to hear that the pics are gone, though.
Re: Lost digital SLR camera and photos - lost on May 25 2012
July 26, 2012 10:01AM
Something that I do is to take a picture of my address and a reward if the camera and files are returned. Hopefully they will scroll through the pictures and eventually see the hand written message and return it. Something like this
Re: Lost digital SLR camera and photos - lost on May 25 2012
July 26, 2012 10:48AM
Ataim - nice idea, but don't rely on the finder's goodwill.

The person who found my camera sold it immediately. When asked about it by the police, they claimed that they had asked at the Yosemite lost and found office if anyone had lost it. I find this story improbable. Firstly - yes, someone had lost it, and they reported it lost the very next day, at two separate locations in Yosemite Valley. I also reported the loss to the park-wide L+F office. Secondly, why didn't they actually hand the thing in - I mean that /is/ kind of the point of L+F offices!

Moreover, the finder claimed that they had found the camera in the snow. Now... I hesitate to call someone a liar in the absence of 100% proof... but this putative snowstorm must have been very local and very brief. There was not a flake of snow at stop E5 when I lost the camera, and not a flake of snow at the same spot when I returned 40 minutes later. (There was some snow arond the Valley, but only much higher up the mountains.)

By contrast, good karma to the chap who bought the camera. He handed it over immediately to the police, and was kind enough to reply to a rather cheeky email I sent asking him if by any chance he had made copies of the photos of Yosemite. (He hadn't.)

I do still have one photo of the Valley - taken with my crumby cameraphone (below). I make no claims for my photographic skills, but you can see how dramatic the scene was, and why I was so gutted to lose the Nikon photos.

Franky





Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/26/2012 10:57AM by Franky.
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