how to check damage
 

Happy Holidays all! unfortunately as part of my own holiday, a disabled family member knocked my 7d with the 50mm 2.8 attached off a table and it took about a two foot drop onto carpet. it does turn on...but i realize it's not tupperware. is there any process i can go thru to check for likely areas of damage, or am i stuck with paying canon to give it a going over? any advice is much appreciated!!

Re: how to check damage
 

If it is mine, I would leave it alone if everything still function fine. The 7D is a pretty well built can easily take a 2 foot drop on to the carpet. Just my thought.

Re: how to check damage
 

If it works, just leave it!

I've once had a spec on my camera sensor that realistically didn't need removing, but became so OCD about it that I ended up smearing more dirt on to it trying to clean it! and in the end had to spend £30 on some liquid and special brush tips to clean it properly. If I had just left it alone, I wouldn't have had to go through that hassle at THAT point in time.

Re: how to check damage
 

I wasn't quite sure how to advise you on this without having experienced it, myself, so I intentionally dropped my 5D MK3 with the 70-200mm attached to see what would happen.

Just kidding. It was only the 24-105mm.

Okay. Okay. So I lied. I made the whole thing up. The Nyquil made me do it.

Anyway, this brings to mind an old saying: If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Hope all is well with your rig.

Happy New Year.

Re: how to check damage
 

My 7D has survived -40c, being dropped on tile and ice, scraped along the road while I was hanging from a car, snowstorms, dust in the Nevada deserts, and I've never serviced it.

Landing on carpet sounds like a luxury ;)

Re: how to check damage
 

Is yours the one on Craigslist that says "pristine condition?"

Re: how to check damage
 

Something like this you would have to send it into Canon for servicing. It may be fine.

My only experience was with a lens sitting out on a table while getting swapped got knocked down about 3 feet and seemed OK. Next week, at some point I realized the aperture wouldn't change anymore. I guess that it was damaged, but it was some smaller jostle in my camera bag that broke the camels back.

Re: how to check damage
 

Haha !!! i've seen some nasty pieces of equipment passed of as pristine condition!

Re: how to check damage
 

Other than obvious cracks or dents, when you have time, shoot a blank, white wall. If you see uneven vignetting, your lens mount may be bent out of alignment. Also check that your lens distance scale is correct. An object 5 feet from your focal plane mark should read exactly 5 feet. If not, the camera could have landed on the lens which pushed the mount inwards, closer to the focal plane.