Not born to be a camera repairman
The other day my camera took a hard bang and the next day I noticed that once I zoomed in (extended the lens), I was unable to zoom out again (contact the lens) without a lot of fidgeting. After a inspection, I realized that there was a small piece that had broken off and was inside the lens, sometimes jammed in where it shouldn't be, preventing its proper functioning.
This was the cheapest lens I could find (used) when I purchased it. It was out of warranty, probably costing more to fix than to get another one, and besides, I need it for work tomorrow, so no time to send it to a shop. I decided to take matters into my own hands - carefully disassembling it as I record where each screw went and how it all fit together. I never made it deep enough to extract the piece because the further I got into the lens, the smaller the screws got, until it was beyond the reach of my tiniest screw driver.
Attempting to put everything back together proved futile. Although it looks (almost) the same, something seems to be wrong, as I now have a camera that will not focus. It does however, make a nice macro lens. Hence today's photos - all taken with the broken lens either in my house as I was testing it, or on a walk to the local shop for some beer to drown my sorrows once I realized I would have to purchase yet another expensive piece of equipment to fill my photo addiction