09
2008Moby killed my camera!
At Rock Werchter, on Friday 4 July 2008, a thin beam of intense green energy caused my 1-month old camera’s CCD sensor to have a stroke. Yes, dear readers, it’s true! Moby killed my camera. The high-powered(?) stage laser went straight into the lens, and – zap!
Here is what happened:
I thought cameras were designed to survive bright lights, but actions speak louder than words, and lasers shine brighter than than the brightest star.
Now, every picture I take with the camera looks exactly like this:
And now with a whacked camera, blasted ears and a stunned mind, I have also realised that this little blog has an existential crisis. In my opinion, successful blogs have a guiding theme or topic of interest – something this one has lacked thus far. That, and content. But now that will change… Over the coming weeks I’ll try to add more of the latter, so that the former might start to emerge. And I even made it a bit more pretty, by adding some eye candy to the to top bar… But then again, it’s only words, words, words. :)
Update: 15/07/2008
Indeed it seems as if things sometimes do go wrong at professional laser shows, as illuminated by the article in New Scientist entitled Party laser ‘blinds’ Russian ravers.
Ravers at the Aquamarine Open Air Festival in Kirzhach, 80 kilometres northeast of Moscow, began seeking medical help days after the show, complaining of eye and vision problems.
“They all have retinal burns, scarring is visible on them. Loss of vision in individual cases is as high as 80%, and regaining it is already impossible,” Kommersant quoted a treating ophthalmologist as saying.
Not cool.
yesbuts
It wouldn’t have happened with the good old fashion film camera. :(
They call it progress.
But your blog does raise an interesting question. If the laser did that to your camera what are the dangers to the human eye?
mnr.muller
laser killed the photography star.
…bly om te sien jy’s van plan om meer gereeld te blog! …wil graag lees hoe jy daar anderkant in klompe dans :P …moenie skrik vir ‘n initial lack of a guiding theme nie; die koherensie-faktor is immers jý.
Enka
Paintball hurts? Damn! I’ve been invited to a pantabill skirmish, I think perhaps I’ll just stay on the sidelines with my camera.Lovely to see kids running around freely in open spaces, it’s not always possible in the city. Even in parks you need to be alert for bullies and predators.
Boer sonder roer
Miskien kan jy ‘n paar klompe hier na Engeland toe stuur. Ons kan dit gebruik as ‘n boot! Dit is nou Somer hier maar die weer is absoluut belaglik. Dit is klaarblyklik die natste Somer in die geskiedenis. Dit is nou tipies Engeland – dit is of die verkeerde reen, die verkeerde blare, te kouer sneeu en nou die natste Somer. Hierdie Eiland het nie ‘n klimaat nie, dit het “weer”.
Jammer om te hoor van die kamera – haal maar jou vetkryte uit en maak sketse. Gelukkig is alles in Holland so plat jy sal nie moeilikheid he om berge te teken nie.
Richa
I had a DX true 30mw green laser 3 years ago that could burn electrical tape with no mods. Now I have a true 50mw but it has less power than my old 30mw. I’m tiknihng that the potentiometer on the 50mw may have been set too low from the factory Does anyone know if the DX 30mw and 50mw have different diodes or if the pot is just set higher in one and lower in the other?
Hugo
Hmmm, did you sneak in your camera despite “no photography allowed” warnings? Karma got the best of your camera? ;)
yesbuts asks the exact question I wanted to ask…
Francois M
I understood it as “no professional photography allowed” ;)
Jensumvegubnub
Thanks for the post
Alex Smtih
i think you will find on the publication that it says “no photography allowed”… not “no professional photography allowed”
i to be honest…. how do you it was a laser that killed your cam….. perhaps a dodgy ccd and at a month old i would send it back
Francois M
Well, it could have been coincidence, but
* there was a laser
* the laser was shining directly toward the camera when the sensor blew
* CCD sensors are generally quite reliable
* it is well documented (and logical) that CCDs can be destroyed by laser light (due to a voltage spike, for example)
Moby gets (partially) electrocuted « F-pixel
[…] like Moby’s electric problems go the other way too. In the past I blogged about how his laser show fried my camera’s sensor (video), and now the tables turned when he was partially electrocuted at a performance in […]