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Shooting an EDM Festival need advice to keep it safe from Lazers

Neil Dearman

Neil Dearman

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Whats up guys, I have insurance and it will be covered if god forbid it does get hit by a Lazer, my biggest question is how do I keep it safe from them. I have shot hundreds of EDM festivals with my Canon 7D's and only had to replace the censer once on each of my 2 cameras. But this is my first time bringing out my Epic and really nervous too. I will be positioned to my back to the Lazers so there will be know head on collisions so to speak. Any advice like how to keep it safe, how to check the censor after the shoot to make sure the censor is safe, or not to take the gig cause at the end of the day its not worth it. Just let me know thanks and need advice ASAP!!!
 
Any advice people?
 
I don't believe there is any way to protect against laser damage. other than not shooting.
 
I could be wrong but as long as the laser is moving and not aimed at any one spot on the sensor consistently, I think you might be fine. Still, not sure.

I remember that old episode of Star Trek TNG when Picard turned into the Borg and his laser aimed right into the camera. I thought that was friggin cool. Again, it was moving and not locked in for any period of time.

In other words, I'm no help but hopefully others will chime into the discussion.
 
Wil Wong said:
I remember that old episode of Star Trek TNG when Picard turned into the Borg and his laser aimed right into the camera. I thought that was friggin cool. Again, it was moving and not locked in for any period of time.
Click to expand...

35mm film. In fact they were still rocking film right up until the last season of Enterprise (CineAlta)
 
Lasers emit concentrated beams of light which heat up the image sensor (even when the camera is off) and will damage the surface where the beam hits it directly. The safest way to film lasers is to program the beams in such a way that they will not hit the lens of the camera (and your eyes) directly. This will limit your camera setups a bit, but keeps your sensor safe.
 
The trouble with filters is that you have to be very specific to the wavelength of the laser light.
And once you do have the filter on the camera, you will not be able to see the beam or its effects.

Maybe a letus35 adapter would work; the laser would be focused on the ground glass image plane and not the sensor.
 
Ask the people doing lighting work to show you where lasers will be hitting and where for sure you're going to be safe...

Try also getting there early to watch them run through the lighting.

That video is a great example of the camera op not knowing where his limits were with the jib.

I had a second shooter once filming with his T2i, and the lighting people actually screwed up and shot the beams too low, which in turn destroyed his sensor. I would highly advise taking up some sort of insurance claim against them if that happens (when it's their fault, not yours).

I'm curious how much it actually costs to replace an Epic-X sensor (we know the Dragon sensor will for sure cost $9,500 to replace!).
 
thanks guys!!!! wish me luck!!!
 
Like I said both myself and the people who hired me have insurance and also making the client sign a contract too just incase both insurance companies do not want to pay. And my back will be facing the lazers at all times
 
So, if i've got this right, it's just one laser beam from the lighting unit, split and directed with a tiny motorised piece of mirror glass and/or prism to multiply the beams. What if you were to get a Teleprompter hood and fit it to the camera. Surely the mirror in that would do the same as in the laser lighting unit and direct it/bounce it away???
 
Use wide lenses, stopped down to as low as you can, as far away as possible. Talk to the lighting dudes and arrange a deadzone or have them lower the laser's output the moment they hit the crowd. So many possibilities.
 
Simon Dunne said:
So, if i've got this right, it's just one laser beam from the lighting unit, split and directed with a tiny motorised piece of mirror glass and/or prism to multiply the beams. What if you were to get a Teleprompter hood and fit it to the camera. Surely the mirror in that would do the same as in the laser lighting unit and direct it/bounce it away???
Click to expand...

If that were true, no light would pass to the camera.
 
Hudson Tanimoto said:
If that were true, no light would pass to the camera.
Click to expand...

True, but it's got to be something to do with the reflective element within the glass combined with the wavelength of the laser, otherwise TelePrompters wouldn't work and we'd see either nothing, or everything but covered in text! I'm no expert on this, just thinking out loud, so i defer to people with greater knowledge. It raises the question though, that if it was something to do with the wavelength, if a product like the glasses mentioned before in this thread worked, would you see any lasers at all on the final film? Graeme would probably know the answers to all of these questions if he sees this and can chip in.
 
There are laser filters.
Lab technicians wear special glasses.
Unfortunately, they are all strongly tinted towards a specific color.
You could investigate interference filters that drop out particular wavelengths, but you would need to know the exact wavelength of the lasers being used. Even then the filters might adversely affect the sensitivity of the pixels in that particular color range.
 
I have some experience making custom filter glass... 4x5.65, 4x4, 138mm. One of the first challenges if you are using off-the-shelf glass is that it needs to be optically flat, not just architecturally flat. with wide lenses it doesn't make a big difference, but with telephoto lenses the effect the obvious. in any case, if you'd like for me to explore some custom glass filter, let me know and shoot me an email to jason@CinemaOxide.com
 
Guys the shoot went great!!!! When I showed up the production manager pulled me aside and told me they got rid of all the Lazers in the whole place!!!! Even had security frisk everyone who attended the event for lazers and the lighting was amazing!!!! I was able to ht 120 FPS at a ISO of around 1600. I was so impressed with the staff it was by far one of my best shoots due to the staff keeping my RED EPIC safe!!!
 
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