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I had an argument with another imager the other day, He said that flashing an iPhone flashlight at the camera CMOS sensor could damage it. To me, that sounds kinda silly. However, I wanted to double-check to be sure. Like if I shine a tourist 900-lumen flashlight at the sensor from 30cm will it get damaged? The camera is off during such a procedure ofc |
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| I wouldn't worry about it. I wouldn't point it at the sun for a long time, but any man made light I wouldn't even think twice about. |
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Quinn Groessl: Well I would be careful about a statement of 'any man made light'. I have several flashlights strong enough that they can melt plastic or cause severe burns in seconds at very close range (less than 20cm) and at full power. Those flashlights are 11,000 lumens and more. A 900 lumen flashlight still has potential to heat up something to the point of it melting but it would take at least 15s at pretty much point blank (less than 1cm). From 30cm away it would be perfectly safe and so would be an iPhone light. From what I was able to find CMOS sensors can handle temperatures up to 120°C - so you'd need to shine the light long enough for it to heat up beyond that temperature. Even direct sunlight shouldn't be able to do this unless it was focused through a lens and even then it would take a while for the sensor to heat up. Whether the sensor would actually heat up to the point of damage while looking directly at the sun probably depends on the lens - something like an 18mm lens at f/8 likely won't let enough light in to cause any significant heating, but a 50mm f/1.4 probably would. |
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I have a security cam that the sun traverses every day. No damage or artifacts. The heat is shared and dissipated by adjacent pixels and their circuitry. Plus, the sun is in constant motion. Not so when zoomed in on the sun (as with a telescope). The heat is magnified, covers a larger area, and has nowhere to go. Damage is likely. I’m a pro photographer and have many times had my camera on a tripod with the sun in the shot. Never experienced any damage. Ditto with mirror and chrome reflections of the sun. The modest output from any common human light source would be thousands of times weaker and have little to no impact on a CMOS. BTW, can you see a phone’s light beam outdoors in sunny weather? I can hardly tell if it’s on. Its output is much lower than even ambient outdoor sunlight. |
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Quinn Groessl: Great info! Could you send a link to those sources on CMOS? I'd love to use them in case of a similar debate down the road. Thanks a lot. |
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I did find a 2017 article on DSLR and mirrorless cameras affected by that year's eclipse. Damage was assured from the cameras' being zoomed in and tracking the sun, holding it in one position. Mirrorless are damaged the most because their sensor is exposed all the time (which is similar to astro cameras). And those who used filters improperly experienced unexpected damage elsewhere. For example, those who didn't use a filter in front of the lens suffered physical damage to the lens interior itself. Very interesting. https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2017/09/rental-camera-gear-destroyed-by-the-solar-eclipse-of-2017/ So CMOS isn't invincible when unfiltered sunlight sits on the same pixels for several seconds. The sensors are strong enough to handle it when there's even a little movement; for example, the sun is small in the view and tracking across the sky, or when the camera is handheld. There are few light sources terrestrially that could do the same. Lasers. As mentioned, maybe Xenon beams purposely focused tightly on the sensor, etc. But those artificial light sources would have to approach the sun's 127,000 lumens per square meter, 8900 of which is focused onto a few pixels by a 70mm lens. |
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Alien_Enthusiast: Honestly I just googled 'cmos sensor temperature limit' and read a few results. It does make sense though - sensors are made of the same stuff as CPU's and in a similar process too. And most CPU's also have temperature limits around 110-120°C. |
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Alien_EnthusiastI had an argument with another imager the other day, I have a ZWO ASI178MC mounted in an all sky camera that has been on 24/7 for 8 months, day or night. Temperatures in that casing sometimes exceed 150F during daytime.... I wouldn't recommend treating a camera this way, but so far it doesn't seem to care. The image quality on that camera hasn't changed a bit in that entire time, and I still sometimes use it as a AstroCam for planetary. A smartphone isn't going to harm a sensor  |
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I feel like I should back up that daylight photo with a night time one to prove that it is absolutely perfect... This is the current image. We are just in the last few minutes of Astronomical Twilight at 9:17pm... Lights in the east are light pollution, light in the west is the last gasps of the setting sun. |
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| Ah, to see clear weather again... |
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Dave Rust: It only just started... I got my first imaging run of the season done this week. Its been about 6 months of either wind, rain, or belligerent moonlight. My wife and I joking that it better start raining, because its almost new moon! The whole winter sky escaped. |
