What Laser Light Can Do to Your Precious DSLR Sensor

We all know pointing your DSLR directly at the sun for extended periods of time isn’t too healthy for your sensor, but what about laser lights like the ones used at concerts? Turns out those can be even more lethal for your camera, even with very brief exposures.
Here are two videos shot with DSLR cameras that show a laser briefly passing over the camera and damaging the sensor permanently. This video were shot with Canon 5D Mark II cameras:

Laser effects on cameras and camcorders
Lasers emit concentrated beams of light, which can heat up sensitive surfaces (like the eye's retina) and cause damage. Camera sensors are, in general, more susceptible to damage than the human eye.
For large scale shows, such as on a televised concert, laser show producers work with clients to avoid TV camera locations and video projectors (ILDA Members, see this page for details). However, it is not possible for laser show producers to be responsible for all cameras and camcorders which might be at a show.
Therefore, if you attend a show as an audience member, you should take reasonable precautions not to let a laser beam DIRECTLY enter your camera lens.
- You can photograph the beams in midair, or doing graphics on a screen. If you can't see the laser source (projector output aperture or bounce mirror) in your viewfinder, this means you're not getting the full beam power into your lens. Indirect viewing like this should not cause damage.
- Avoid beams which are coming straight into your lens (or bounced off a mirror or other reflective surface and then into your lens). The damage potential is much greater when the entire beam power enters the camera lens.

DSLR Sensor Dust: Prevention and Solutions

How to Prevent & Eliminate Dust on Your DSLR Sensor
Oh no! There is dust on my beautiful sensor!
If you own a DSLR, you've no doubt already experienced the annoying problem of getting dust on your image sensor. Dust reveals itself as small dark specks of various shapes in the light-toned areas of your images--typically the sky. Manufacturers are getting pretty creative at adding features to solve the dust problem (such as sonic vibrators that literally shake the dust off the sensor), but it's still an annoying problem for most DSLR users (especially older cameras without anti-dust features). If you look in the areas in red circles in this shot of Merrick Butte (in Monument Valley) you'll see typical dust spots.
Getting rid of dust spots in Photoshop (or Photoshop Elements) is very simple, using either the healing brush or cloning tool. I prefer to use the healing brush tool because essentially what this tool does is to copy the textures and tonal values of the area you're healing "from" to erase the dust spot. You can use the cloning tool, but you run the risk of disturbing the tones or textures of the area you're patching and if not done well, you can create a fix that's worse than the original problem. And remember, dust never shows up in detailed areas (a grassy lawn, for example), it only shows up in large blank areas.

The best way to solve the dust problem is to avoid it in the first place. Here are several tips you can use for preventing dust getting to your sensor:
- Turn your camera off before changing lenses. The static charge created by leaving the camera in the "on" position draws dust to the sensor.
- Try to change lenses in a car or building where there is no breeze or blowing dust. In dusty areas like the desert, I carry an over-sized zipper bag and changes lenses in the bag.
- Always point the camera body down when you have a lens off so that nothing falls on the sensor. (And, of course, always use a body cap when you're storing the camera without a lens mounted.)
- Be careful to match up lens-mounting index marks so you're not "scraping" the lens on the flange which creates metal shavings that fall onto the sensor.
If you do get dust on the sensor, don't worry too much about it--it's little more than an annoyance that can be easily fixed in editing. Using the healing brush to remove dust is very simple and takes only a few seconds. Here's a quick step-by-step:
- Select the healing brush tool.
- Choose a brush size that is slightly larger than the largest dust spot; the exact size isn't important.
- Click (option click on a Mac) on an air next to (but not including) the dust spot to set a "source" area and then move the brush over the dust spot and click again. The spot should disappear. Just follow the same procedure until you eliminate all the dust areas.
Go to your local camera shop and ask for a demonstration on how to clean the sensor yourself and spend the money to get a good quality dust removal tool. Most of us are pretty scared to be messing with something as sacred as your camera's sensor (let's face it, ruin the sensor and you've pretty much destroyed the camera), but you can learn to clean the sensor safely--just be sure the person who teaches you is very experienced and is using good-quality tools.

Want to know Jakarta from "Kota Tua" to "Balai Kota"

Jakarte Punye Cerite! That Jargon has been familiar in our hearing when we talking about Jakarta. It representing Jakarta as the Capital Town with a heterogeneous society. Even as the Capital of Indonesia, Jakarta ready to face globalization era. Industrial and Business growing rapidly as the economical growth of the people.

With that courageous achievement, the Government of Jakarta (Pemprov DKI) always trying to give the best and accurate information through it's official portal www.jakarta.go.id. With this portal, the Government of Jakarta hope for especially resident of Jakarta could easily get online interacting service.

Many Interactive Application

www.jakarta.go.id has featured about twenty supporting application with different function for daily life. Such as, Informasi kendaraan bermotor, Aplikasi informasi APBD, Informasi Transportasi, Bank Data, Produk Hukumm, Nomor Penting, Ensiklopedia Jakarta, Balai Warga, Komunitas Fotografi, Pendidikan, Pintu Air, etc.

Those are very useful applications, for example Balai Warga, could give Jakarta Resident to criticize and give some advise for the performance of Government.

This portal also provide space for photography mania. We could share our photo creation and link it to photography community.

What is Eye-Fi?

As you already know, Eye-Fi is the first memory card to automatically upload photos and videos using WiFi. Eye-Fi works with your camera and stores media just like regular SDHC card. Built in WiFi is the way of this card to instantly and safely sends photos to your computer, tablet or smartphone. You don't have to worry to run out of memory, because this card is endless memory, after your images are safely transferred, card space is freed up automatically.

Available at :

You could also buy it from our shop :