Your Very Favourite Lens Is...

Gone. Gone forever. It has rolled off the roof, where you were taking pictures of the nurse's quarters, and fallen into a newly-opened bottomless pit that has appeared in your back yard.

What are you going to do?

This depends upon whether you had the foresight to purchase a Mack Diamond Warranty when you got the lens. If that was under three years ago you can breathe a sigh of relief.

Ring up the Mack people, tell them the sad news, and wait for them to send you a cheque for the replacement cost of another Very Favourite Lens. They are men of honour - if you have a Diamond Warranty you are covered for three years against impact damage, manufacturer defects, sand/grit damage, accidental or unintentional abuse, mechanical malfunction, and abnormal wear and tear.

You are still required to keep your gear secure against human thieves - they cannot really insure you against patently criminal activity. For that matter, neither can some police forces...

Well, philosophy aside, the prices are geared to the price of the equipment. here's a number of examples:

1. $ 499 and under.............................$ 99.00

2. $ 1999 and under...........................$ 399.00

3. $ 3999 and under...........................$ 479.00

Now like all insurances, it is a calculated bet. If you don't use it, they keep your money, and you have the satisfaction of having your Very Favourite Lens with you to squeeze and hold and...If you do use it they are down the price of a new Very Favourite Lens - not you.

Sort of a win either way.

Note, the Mack Warranty does not cover the sulfurous sinkhole in the back yard, or your fate if you also roll off the roof and fall down it. Consult your religious adviser about this one.

When It All Goes To...Queensland...In A Handbasket

Following on from our previous blog about a disaster averted, here is one that deals with the situation when disaster arrives, unpacks its bags, and sets up a deckchair and an esky - in short when things really do go wrong.

If you have a camera/lens/flash that becomes wet/crushed/scratched/full of sand/abused...and it is unintentional...then the Mack company may well be your best friend ever.

Photo equipment is sold with proprietary warranties here in Australia. They vary from one year onwards for new equipment - some manufacturers have two-years or even longer. Good deal - if your new camera has a manufacturing flaw, they will make it good. But they have no responsibility to do so if you drop it down the blowhole in Albany.

Well, that is where a mack warranty comes in. Call it insurance, call it a bet, call it an invitation to Fate...but if you need to cash in on it, you are in a far better position than if you didn't have it. Sort of like a Ruger Redhawk...

They will cover the cameras and lenses - but also printers, projectors, and other photographic equipment. They base their prices on the sales price of the gear and the terms are world-wide. There is 24/7 support online as well.

If you'd like to read more, the site is:

www.mackcam.com

Needless to say, we have their warranties for sale here at our shop. Not that we are trying to hex you, but just sayin'...

Wham Bam, No Thank You, M'am...

So I arrive at work and put my satchel onto a wheelie bin, preparatory to taking in all the emptied bins from the curb-side. As I work there is this almighty crash, and when I look around, the satchel has fallen onto the concrete driveway.

Anglo Saxon, Anglo Saxon, Yiddish, Anglo Saxon, Western Canada....

Having relieved my soul for a few minutes I hauled it up here to the editorial desk and opened the thing. It has some internal padding and the editorial camera and computer seem to have survived the impact fine. The editorial Nokia phone is dead. The editorial apple was not squashed, so all in all it seems to have been a light blow.

My complements to the makers of Macbook Pro, Fuji X-10 and apples. Also my admiration for the Crumpler people for a fine satchel - it is the Boston Heist, if you want to go buy one.

What if it had been an expensive professional camera that hit the deck?
They do, you know - we can introduce you to a man who dropped on off Bluff Knoll, and another man who dropped one in a volcano. You might meet the chap who crossed a river and opened his backpack in the middle and....

Disasters happen. If they happen to your old camera we can fix it - that's what we have a repair department for. If it cannot be repaired we have a sales department and sympathetic faces.

What if it is a new camera...the manufacturers honour warranties that cover internal failures and material flaws for one to two years - and as we source our cameras from the proper Australian distributors, there are no problems getting the warranty repairs. But they aren't liable for you dropping it off Bluff Knoll or a council rubbish bin....

Here is where the Mack Warranty system comes in shining. When you buy new cameras and lenses from us you can buy extended warranty coverage from us with Mack. They have pure extension policies and also what they call " Diamond" policies.

Essentially, the " Diamond" covers repair or replacement for whatever specified period that includes ALL forms of disaster. Drop, boil, bake, douse, ignite....The only thing they will not reimburse you for is theft - you have to keep your cameras and lenses safe from other humans.

I wonder if there is a warranty for computers? Or mobile phones? Or apples?