Hot answers tagged equipment-damage
27
I thought I'd offer a completely different, perhaps complementary way to look at this question: There's more risk to more than 99% of the camera users out there of not using their cameras than there is of ever wearing their cameras out. Use your camera! Break it if you have to! But get it out of the case and learn something! Don't get hung up on what ...
19
The camera's shutter has usually a rating for 50,000 to 300,000 actuations, depending on the camera. For yours, I think it is closer to 50,000 but you should check the manual to be sure.
That means you can take that many pictures and still be within the manufacturer's life-expectancy for your camera. When you do time-lapse, you take a lot of pictures, so ...
19
I would say it really depends on if you have a SLR, DSLR or P&S (Point-and-Shoot) - and maybe even possibly it more (or less) depends if the sensor is CCD or CMOS.
My own experiences says it doesn't occur with P&S cameras - ever. I have 4 cheap P&S (Canon PowerShot) cameras which I have used exclusively over the years for shooting time-lapse ...
18
Taking direct photos of the sun can destroy your camera, not to mention your eyes. It's exactly as you are afraid, the lens will act as a magnifier and multiply the suns intensity right on your cameras internals. What this effects can vary. Long exposures against the sun can cause permanent damage to your camera's sensor, but besides that, your camera's ...
16
Oh man. Yes lasers can and will damage your camera's sensor! Your laser pointer is probably weak enough, but I still wouldn't risk it.
Light painting (as you were doing), is okay, so long as you're not pointing your laser directly into the lens, however, if you plan on doing more light painting, I would switch to an LED or incandescent source instead of a ...
15
For all the following: YMMV*, caveat emptor, no responsibility taken for advice given, you decide whether to try this at home. It may even work :-). Be aware that damage may already be fatal and/or that fatal (to the lens) damage may occur along the way. Best attitude is to regard the lens as a writeoff now, with anything you can gain from it by the methods ...
14
I think that depends a bit on the construction of the AF mechanism in the lens. If there is resistance when turning the focus ring, this also means that there is greater force applied to move the mechanics, and so there is greater stress in the material. I would personally switch over to manual focus for that procedure.
14
Most of the time, the scratch will show up as a small and perhaps even unnoticeable amount of softening in the image. (It will largely be "outvoted" by the vast majority of the light, which is being focused properly.) In high contrast situations, though, or when the light is striking the lens directly, there may be a significant mount of flare washing out ...
14
Yes the trigger voltage on some old flashes is too high for modern electronic cameras.
There is a page on botzilla Photo Strobe Trigger Voltages which lists many old flash units.
I don't see your dad's flash model there, but the 20 B3 model had a trigger voltage of 168 volts.
According to this thread on photo.net, the 7D can handle up to 250V, so that ...
14
In addition to @Itai's answer, I'd like to add, if you don't want to spend 1200$ on a tripod just to protect it from sands, you can use a little care, or on extreme situations, alternative DIY methods.
I also wrecked a tripod (not totally wrecked, but the sands kind of jammed the levers on the legs) by using it near a beach on a windy day. The next time I ...
14
Carbon fiber can take quite a hell of a beating, both in terms of environment (water, sand, snow) and temperature. I've heard a lot of people discussing or complaining about how carbon fiber is susceptible to extreme cold, however I think most of it is hearsay and speculation.
There are only a couple times when I've read something regarding carbon fiber ...
13
Lens work surprisingly well with dirty or scratched front element. Here is a very good article about it, someone deliberately ruined a lens to test this effect.
Probably you'll see problems with lens flare, but the biggest disadvantage is the resale value, it will be more difficult to sell a scratched lens.
13
Not as much as you'd think:
http://www.lensrentals.com/news/2008.10.30/front-element-scratches
Depends on the damage, and the aperture. That's the reason I stopped using UV filters; I'd rather get the best IQ possible and risk damage which can be ignored or fixed if required. Damage to your lens might affect the resale value; by the same token, as a ...
13
I would say at least for most practical purposes the answer is no.
First of all, you only get intense heat where the light comes (at least close to) in focus, which does not happen inside the lens.
Second, you only get heat when the light is absorbed -- but a typical lens transmits virtually all the light, which translates to absorbing essentially none of ...
12
I have no proof, but I wouldn't worry about this unless you shoot many many long exposure shots, or in very hot conditions.
Sensors are basically just converting light to electrons. In today's digital cameras we are using CMOS sensors, which use very little power, so I would assume that equates to less damage over time as compared to a CCD.
I wouldn't be ...
11
I very much doubt you can damage the lens in this way, the glass that the IS system moves is designed to be very light so as to have low inertial stiffness so it can move quickly and accurately. This same trait means it should be able to move against any momentum you put into the lens.
Empirically having seen the way some people abuse their super-teles (300 ...
10
Yes it's both possible and likely that the focus mechanism is broken! If you can't get a sharp image with manual focus one of the lens elements is probably out of alignment. I would normally suggest sending it to a Nikon authorized service centre for repair (Nikon customer service will be able to tell you where the closest one is, call the number in the ...
10
This depends on the lens. Focus can be overridden manually for Canon lenses with ring USM designation and Nikon lenses that have MA/M (manual-auto/manual) switch. As already mentioned, if there is any resistance/specific noise when turning the focus ring, you probably shouldn't be doing this.
10
I'm going to go with the premise that they do not wear out. I've long downloaded and stitched together videos of solar activity captured by SOHO, or the Solar Heliospheric Observatory satellite. That satellite was launched in 1995, went operational in 1996, and is still sending back images. Its CCDs get POUNDED by solar particles, high energy protons and ...
10
No. It does not. I own currently 7 digital cameras and I have used some after being unused for over two years without any problems.
Even the Lithium-Ion battery still had some charge after that period. Those who use AAs will note that rechargeable NiMh ones lose their charge after a month or two unless they are Imedion or Eneloop (low-self-discharge).
...
9
It's completely safe for the equipment. From what I can tell, it's not really a question about the x-rays affecting the device, it's being able to determine if they are shells around bombs. If I recall correctly, the Lockerbie bombing was done with a laptop shell around the bomb; other complicated electronics could also be used in a similar fashion. By ...
9
Any sufficiently bright lightsource can damage the camera internals (not just the sensor, the shutter curtains can heat up and deform). However the sparks from an arc welder are very brief so they don't transfer that much heat energy. I wont say you couldn't damage the camera but it seems less likely than for example photographing the sun, which is a ...
9
While I wouldn't really worry too much about dust in the lens actually effecting image quality, I would say that is still not normal, and I would probably return a brand new lens if it came with any dust inside.
Here is a good example of how bad a lens can get before image quality suffers - Dirty Lens Article
As for the dust you see through the viewfinder, ...
9
As you can see right on the main CHDK wiki - "Temporary – No permanent changes are made to the camera." You also can find very detailed information in the FAQ here.
Basically - Yes you are hacking your camera. So things can happen that the original manufacturer did not intend(if this wasn't true, you wouldn't want it anyways). But the chances of any ...
9
As you hold open the shutter and maintain the exposure, there is heat build up on the sensor and this will translate into noise in the image, but I'm not aware of any long term negative effects resulting from this. I've personally done up to an hour on an exposure in bulb mode, many times, and I've never encountered any ill effects to the camera.
So, ...
9
There is no such thing as absolute safety. But you are probably fine doing this.
A few things to consider:
Some wildlife photographers say they are doing this (read this in a few blog posts, can't remember where). As well as a lot of sports photographers. But these guys also have equipment insurance and can be quite careless in what they do. I remember ...
9
The mount on the bottom of the camera is plenty strong. I carry a 5D and 1Ds Mk III around with my Black Rapid all the time and have had no problem. Just make sure you have the screw snugged down and check it periodically.
I really can't recommend these sling straps enough. I have a Black Rapid, so I haven't tried any others, but it's really made it a lot ...
9
Unless you get so close to the flame that you burn or get soot on the front lens element, photographing candles will not damage your camera.
Assuming your 70-300 lens has the same 1:2 macro setting as mine, this is probably your best option; I have taken some good shots of igniting matches with that lens.
8
That looks like a typical dust spot.
How blurry the spot is depends on the distance between the filter in front of the sensor and the actual sensor (which is constant for each camera model), and the aperture used. For a smaller aperture (higher f-number) the spot gets sharper.
The sensor cleaning function may remove some dust, but I read a test a while ...
8
You can test the polarizing effect by placing a non-circular polarizing filter in front, you should be able to place it at an angle that almost eliminates light transmission. However I highly doubt that the scratches will have an effect on it's ability to filter polarized light!
As already stated scratches on the front of a lens typically have a minimal ...
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