60D sensor hit by laser

[Trey Dillen]

GIF of laser hitting sensor:
http://makeagif.com/i/gSqJ7t

So I'm guessing I'm screwed? What's the cost to replace the sensor...or does it just make more sense to get a new camera?

[Steve Game]

If the laser was strong enough to damage the sensor in the camera, I would be concerned that it meets health and safety standards for eyesight protection.

You may have a claim against the laser operator.

[Paul R Johnson]

I'd agree. The responsible laser operators have a code of practice than is designed to prevent the beams hitting eye - and after all, your eyes were in the same plane when shooting!

Some very powerful lasers are being bought by unaware operators and just plugged in and used - totally unaware of the dangers. The only problem would be that here in the UK, the response to claims for laser damage are that before staring operating, your own risk assessment should have revealed the potential safety issue to your operators/yourself before the damage. They'd no doubt point out you made the decision to shoot in the presence of clearly defined laser light that was obvious to everyone. You also took the decision to make the camera position high, thus exposing yourself and the camera to the beam.

Playing devil's advocate here - they could also perhaps produce risk assessments that would state they were unaware you were going to shoot from that position, and had taken steps to prevent the audience and performers looking into the devices - your choice to operate from an unexpected position being out of their control.

I'm not sure what a court would think - but I do remember a few years ago a colleague trying to claim for a sun damaged sensor - and he got nowhere because the sun was obvious, and they deemed him negligent in taking care?

Sorry if that's a bit of a downer!
Paul

[Chris Medico]

These imagers are very sensitive to laser damage. Even those well within the legal limits for "reasonable safety" to the eye.

No laser is completely eye safe by the way.

Its best to not use the camera in a area where lasers will be operating. There are many examples of digital cameras being damaged by lasers easily found by doing a quick web search.

[Dustin Moore]

This topic is discussed on a number of other threads. It suffices to say
though that eye safety is based on the power per unit area. The entrance pupil of
the eye is not very big, especially under dance floor conditions,
so the amount of power it collects is small.

The entrance pupil for an f/2.8 SLR lens is much larger and
hence collects more light putting more power on a pixel than would
be going on to the retina.

It is likely that the laser is eye safe but not camera safe. Same thing, you
don't want to go photographing the sun at high noon with an f/1.2 lens. Bad
things may happen.

[Chris Medico]

Here is a snip describing what the classes of lasers mean. Note that Class II (most common consumer lasers) are "safe during normal use".

So is bleach.

---------------------------------

Lasers are usually labeled with a safety class number, which identifies how dangerous the laser is:

Class I/1 is inherently safe, usually because the light is contained in an enclosure, for example in CD players.
Class II/2 is safe during normal use; the blink reflex of the eye will prevent damage. Usually up to 1 mW power, for example laser pointers.
Class IIIa/3R lasers are usually up to 5 mW and involve a small risk of eye damage within the time of the blink reflex. Staring into such a beam for several seconds is likely to cause damage to a spot on the retina.
Class IIIb/3B can cause immediate eye damage upon exposure.
Class IV/4 lasers can burn skin, and in some cases, even scattered light can cause eye and/or skin damage. Many industrial and scientific lasers are in this class.

[David Sholle]

Originally Posted by Dustin Moore

The entrance pupil of
the eye is not very big, especially under dance floor conditions,
so the amount of power it collects is small.

Yes, the entrance pupil of the eye is small compared to a typical DSLR camera lens, but remember that typical laser light is highly collimated and in a very narrow diameter beam, so the size of the entrance pupil is not very relevant in that case. That is, if you had a broad beam of light, whether collimated or not, the entrance pupil of the eye would be the limiting factor in how much light enters the eye, and a typical DSLR camera lens would let in far more of that broad beam of light. But if the diameter of a laser beam is smaller than the entrance pupil of the eye (likely true for all of the lasers I have ever used), then all of the laser light will be admitted into the eye to hit the retina, and the size of the entrance pupil will not be relevant.

Now, if the laser beam has been spread with optics into a much larger diameter or a diverging beam, then the entrance pupil size would be the limiting factor in light admitted.

[Murray Christian]

I know it's no help but, that looked so cool.
What does the picture look like now ?

[Dustin Moore]

Originally Posted by David Sholle

Now, if the laser beam has been spread with optics into a much larger diameter or a diverging beam, then the entrance pupil size would be the limiting factor in light admitted.

I believe this is often the case in entertainment laser systems used for audience scanning.

Look up "fat beam laser" on google for off the shell systems that maintain eye safety
by increasing beam diameter. Alternately, there are a couple of papers on this topic
that describe the situation but I could only find one at the moment:
http://iopscience.iop.org/0952-4746/...pdf/jr7401.pdf

The laser display people do a good bit of calculations involving scan rates and beam diameters
to make sure they are safe. None of this involves assumptions about being camera safe.

[Trey Dillen]

The point of this post wasn't about the laser safety, it was more about what to do now that it has been hit. Do I need a completely new camera, or can just the sensor be replaced?

I was advised and warned by the laser operator before doing the event, so we knew it was a possibility (just tried to keep the camera away from the laser as much as possible, obviously failed). I was faced away from the stage w/ a monitor while the camera was faced at the stage so that my eyes couldn't get hit.

WS of the fraternity party at UGA before sensor got hit:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7233/7...64b9f7d3_b.jpg

After sensor being hit:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7265/7...7f31117c_b.jpg

[Chris Medico]

I would reach out to Canon and ask the question. From what I've read from others the cost to replace the imager on the 60d is about half the cost of the camera.