Since around 2006, this is the third or fourth time this has happened. Somehow, the Little League World Series playoffs have become he most dangerous place on earth for a home plate camera. You would think by now, someone would have added a Plexiglas shield to shoot through. If you’ve never seen a picture shot through a broken lens, you are about to. -Bobby Ellerbee
Jack Hopko Shatters Camera Behind Plate
Jack Hopko hits a foul ball that shatters the camera positioned behind home plate in the bottom of the 3rd inning
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I’m not as familiar with television camera lenses as I am still cameras, but isn’t that a protective filter that was smashed, not the lens’s front element?
I worked that event in 2002, and it happened twice that year! I agree with Frank, when the front element goes the picture turns to a blur.
Yeah, that was the cover glass. But a direct hit can still do damage to the front element, and possibly screw up the focus and zoom mechanism.
looks like that pitcher put a little heat on it, too.
I was the camera op, and what you’re seeing shatter is, indeed, the glass shield that got shattered. The lens itself had a couple dents on the front frame from earlier hits, and a patch of very tiny scratches from the shattered glass, but it was fine.
that front plate looks like it was a bit more substantial than the UV filter that still cameras often use. For 40 years I have been telling folks to always use a UV filter just for that reason.
One of the issues in Little League is that the distance from the wall to home plate is much closer than in a major league park. It effectively makes the camera a bigger target. Plexiglas won’t work because it induces distortions in the image as the lens is zoomed. It also won’t stop a baseball as we found out long ago in the College World Series. At the old Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha they installed bullet-proof optical glass behind home plate…. worked great. It took hits without a mark that couldn’t be cleaned with a little Windex.
Was that two hits in a row?