[Recovered Thread: 37636]

[BillieIvy]

Here is my doubt. My little cousin yesterday picked up the camera and turn it on (a canon a95).
and he point directly to the lens with a small ultra bright red led! i want to know if by doing this the camera could be broken! ( he did not take a picture just point the lens)
hope anyone can help me!

sorry about my english.

[Mikefellh]

Well, do you have a problem with your camera today (you didn't mention that).

If your camera is broken today, most likely it was dropped, not because it was pointed at a bright light.

Many have pointed cameras directly at the sun without damage, however it shouldn't be done a lot because damage can accumalate.

[Setiprime]

BillyIvy-

Do not worry. The camera sensor is not hurt by high intensity light. A CCD or CMOS sensor only records the amount of light and then interprets it as digital data.

If the sensor becomes "overloaded" it just shows up as a streak of light on the image. It will sometimes look like a "starburst" similar to what you see with a filter designed for that affect. No permanent damage is about to happen.

I don't think that staring at a high intensity light source is a real good idea. That is just common sense.

[BillieIvy]

nop... i dont think the camera is malfunctioning... the only thing is that now the shots has all red eyes but perhaps it is normal and im just paranoid, could that produce red eye?

Im probably going to say something lame!
but one of my worrie is that the sensor or the little video camera that captures the video displayed on the lcd screen could be damage (i dont notice nothing wrong) and when the cam is at Auto mode could not adjust well the expousure etc etc etc.

but that is what i imagine that could happen!

so my question would be..
Could an intense light source damage the sensor or the video on the lcd screen not allowing the camera in auto mode adjust the shot?

I want to say that my camera seems to work well! but i will like to know if something like that could happen...

[Mikefellh]

BillieIvy wrote:

nop... i dont think the camera is malfunctioning... the only thing is that now the shots has all red eyes but perhaps it is normal and im just paranoid, could that produce red eye?

Red eye is not unusual on cameras with internal flash...especially if the subject had as little alcohol as a beer.

As for the pointing at bright light theory, I found a picture where I was testing my slave flash in the store where I bought it that is much brighter than an LED (I accidently had the flash on full power taking this shot):

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/08...n/preflash.jpg

[BillieIvy]

i dont think that by pointing the lens for 5 sec with the camera on with an ultra bright led could cause pictures with red eyes.... but... thats why i was asking here...

[BillDrew]

Do some reading on red eye: it is caused by reflection from the blood vessels at the back of the eye.

Can you think of *ANY* kind of damage to the camera that would increase that reflection?