Moby lasers at a concert kill a camera...

[Soulstorm]

A video clip on a blog about a green laser from a Moby show causing the CCD to die. I have also noticed some dead pixels on my Sony high def handycam - this is exactly why I won't audience scan until I can get my hands on a PASS system. It hasn't even had a proper beam hit it, just scanned effects. I'm assuming my laser is at fault but who knows.

http://francoism.wordpress.com/2008/...led-my-camera/



If that kills a CCD i'd hate to see what it does to peoples eyes who get hit
Looks to be a highly irresponsible laser operator...

[mikkojay]

Man, that is a textbook example of how dangerous audience scanning can be/is. Not only that, the scan being fanned around was not even that interesting at all (not that it would justify anything of course). It just added to how much the whole situation sucked.
Thanks, Mike

[drlava]

Zap! cool video, but you are right, seems dangerous. Arent' you glad your eyes are parallel processing and data out, not scanned matrix.

[dave]

Another aquamarine?

[carmangary]

I was at a small concert in Austin Friday night. It was in a dance club. The band had a green laser scanner behind them and was scanning directly into the audience with slow beams. I was shocked. It was a German band. I wonder if that makes a difference. It was a great effect, though.

[Dr Laser]

1st very UGLY lasershow.
2nd if CCD got killed then basic safety was compromised.
3nd Audience scan is not dangerous if it's done properly.

[Soulstorm]

1st very UGLY lasershow.
2nd if CCD got killed then basic safety was compromised.
3nd Audience scan is not dangerous if it's done properly.

Agreed on all points. Nothing wrong when it's done properly for shows but for me, working out MPE etc to be 100% sure is not an option due to the sheer number of calculations needed. PASS can take this load off my hands for me, plus moncha ain't the best thing in the world...

[liteglow]

Hmmm

I have 1 ehm 2.. ah now 3.. ooh yes and my dads Hitachi camcorder, 4 broken Cams that I have terrorized with my lasers

But never ever had any of my lasers manage to completely broken the CCD that bad !!
On every cam I have that was hit by a laser, only some of the pixels was dead !

The cam on the video look more like a broken CCD (like broken glass) and you can see movement on the video (just like there was some Liquid Chrystals) ??


Anyway, I for sure don't like audience scanning that not is setup properly

[White-Light]

Are you sure its laser damage and not just an electronic malfunction?

1. You can't tell from a video but those lasers look weak, their fanned and thus very quick scans. The fans are also scanned fast themselves. Not typical of the type of scans that are dangerous.

Compare those scans to these which did no damage at all to my camera despite being the 1st one being pencil beamed:

http://www.vimeo.com/2770513

http://www.vimeo.com/2505542

The second video is multiwatt lasers but entirely safe.

Like I said you can't tell from video, but those fans look very very weak in yours as well as being very quickly scanned.


2. Camera damage tends to be individual pixels that are taken out through being heated rather than the entire unit. If it was all taken out then I'd expect the effect to be uniform. However, the bar down the centre again is more typical of electronic failure and it shimmers suggesting an electronic signal that's varying rather than a CCD of dead pixels which would either be dead or OK and thus static.

That looks to me to be more like an electronic fault.

Personally, I'd take it back to the shop as faulty (don't mention lasers) and see if they'll replace it. If not send it back under warranty (again don't mention lasers) and see what happens. You have nothing to lose at the end of the day. If you mention lasers though they'll use it as an excuse, so I'd keep quiet and just say you were filming and it suddenly went dead.

[mixedgas]

Thats why its getting so you are gonna need a license to drive a laser. Oh, wait, in the states you already do. Its just too bad that only a obscure undermanned federal agency enforces it.





CG, next time your offended, turn the band in to Texas rad safety, if they didnt pay their 320$ fee and have a variance, they are toast in HangEm Hi Texas.



Steve