When I was shooting all the welding footage, I had a UV filter on, but no ND filter. I wonder if I popped on my ND4 if that would be sufficient protection? Or maybe even a darker ND filter? I can compensate for the ND filter, but there's no way I could compensate for the nearly solid-black Welder's Mask glass. At that point, I might as well not even shoot the footage.

I certainly won't be shooting any lasers now, after reading this thread.

Tyson, did you shoot the laser head on or just the bounced light that it emits from the side? I think it would have to be a direct hit to burn your CCDs.

Laser is an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. The light from a laser can be of just about any wavelength from infrared through visible through ultraviolet and is typically collimated (made into a coherent beam) to yield a surprisingly high power for the amount of energy expended to create the light (high efficiency).

The only way to know how to protect yourself or the camera is to know the specific wavelength, pulse length, and energy of the laser. Then an appropriate filter can be used. A filter that is totally opaque in the visible light frequencies might be entirely transparent to an IR or UV laser, for example.

Lasers are so ubiquitous and have been making so much news lately that we all know they can be dangerous. I have to agree with others, that although the doctor apparently did take appropriate precautions for human safety in his laser suite, your equipment and its use are a bit beyond his scope of responsibility. Ultimately it was up to you to consider dangers to your gear when going into an unusual environment. The XL2 manual does warn in a couple of places not to expose the viewfinder or lenses to direct sunlight or other bright sources of light...hope replacement of the CCD block isn't TOO expensive. :-( Chalk it up to "live and learn."

I was and always use a UV filter on the front of my lens from the very moment I opend the cam out of the box. I asume a UV filter only protects aginst ultra violet light that we cant see - and this laser light you can definatly see-

No, the laser was not pointing directly into the camera, as it disolves fleash with any color in it. ie>The tatoo. The light comes out of the emitter and I guess bounces off the skin of the patient. Like a green strobe light. -And maybe we shouldnt be video taping strobe lights either...

I was never considering asking the doctor to pay for the equipment...that would be a moraly jerk thing to do... and I back up all of your reasons why not to ask him to pay for it - to those that think I should. - I probably wont even tell him it happend out of proffesionalism.

As for Pete Bauer, who said:

"The XL2 manual does warn in a couple of places not to expose the viewfinder or lenses to direct sunlight or other bright sources of light"

Pete, I have checed the manuel and I cant seem to find any mention of any light behing harmful to the camera (at least not from normal shooting purposes) not in the safty insturctions or on the warenty card. - What page do you see this on -if you dont mind?

It only says on p.19 that the viewfinder LCD could be damaged by sunlight due to maginfication threw the lens (like army soldiers and a magnifying glass I guess)...

On page 22 -it says when mounting/unmouthing the lens not to do so in direct sunlight or around bright light.

But no mention I cant find of being able to damage the cam due to shooting bright lights... Some have sugested I may have a legal elbow to threaten the law if I am made to pay for this...and again its only lasted 9 months. But I have do do my research and find out if they did warn us against this sort of thing.

Just think, crazier cases have won. Think of the woman who sued McDonald casue she spilled hot coffie on her lap. Perhaps Canon should have warned us all about laser light...

Sorry, but see page 108:

"Do not point the lens or viewfinder at strong light sources. Do not leave the camcorder pointed at a bright subject."

Just a quick update for anyone interested in this thread, Tyson has lost track of us but did respond on another site that Canon replaced the entire CCD block free of charge as a warranty repair. Not bad considering the circumstances!

Let him Know!
 

Tyson,

Even if you don't feel right trying to charge the doctor for the damage, and even thought you got it fixed under warranty, I think that you should let the doctor know what happened. He might call another unsuspecting person to do the same job at another time.

I sure a filter of some kind would stop the problem, but he needs to know this.

Mike

Do you think that he told Canon what really happened?

Chris, I remember when I shot my music video a couple years back with the XL1S I remembered to read the manual because I wanted to do the standard "Terminator" shot where an assassin had a laser dot sight pointed at the POV. The manual then warned against bright light, etc. (maybe it was the very same manual) so I told the actor to point it just off the lens and I was careful that the laser pointer was never pointed at anyone else's eyes.

Tyson's example is a bit different as the laser bounced off something else.

I dunno, but I'd be surprised if nobody at Canon had read his post here. Beyond that, it is a matter of whether the left hand knows what the right hand is doing -- an uncertain premise in any corporate bureaucracy. Good of them to do the work for free, in any case.