Red Epic Camera Sensor Destroyed By A Laser In A Party

This event happened in late May this year but only gained media attention recently. At the Electric Daisy Carnival 2013 which took place in Chicago there was a huge laser light show which was shoot by several cameras. Two of them – $20k professional Red Epic video cameras were hit by the powerful laser light from the show and their sensor was basically destroyed as you can see from the video shot with one of them (before during and immediately after the sensor got hit by the laser).

This is not the first event where a camera sensor gets hit by laser, but this is a very powerful (and expensive) demonstration. There is apparently very little photographers in these types of events can do to avoid this type of catastrophic damage except from trying to find an angle where the laser will not be able to hit the sensor (for example way above the show, but even there you have no guarantees).

Update: For some unknown reason the user who posted the original video removed it abruptly from YouTube and so we post an image from the original video below plus a video of a similar incident which took place a few months ago in another show which included lasers and a Epic camera.

An image from the original (removed video) just after the laser hit – look at the green and red lines – this is where the damage to the sensor occurred

Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.