There's a bit of growing unrest among photographers on whether LiDAR systems that are being fitted in new cars are actually capable of destroying camera sensors.
LiDAR systems are used by car manufacturers with self-driving cars to build 3D models of the surrounding environment so that the car knows where to steer.
A thread on Reddit talks about how a car photographer had several cameras destroyed after doing a car photo shoot.
What seems to be happening is that the laser from a LiDAR is too much for certain camera sensors to handle, and results in irreparable damage to those sensors.
As you can see from the video below, it certainly seems to be the case that LiDARs are destroying sensors in some scenarios.
But what is the nuance here?
In the first video, it is unclear what type of camera is being used to show the damage being done.
You will notice in the second video that the gentleman has trouble trying to damage his phone camera, whereas the LiDAR does damage the older iPad camera sensor.
Either way, it is clear that this doesn’t happen on every camera sensor every time it’s exposed to LiDAR lasers.
It also becomes clear from the comments that using a filter such as a UV filter will not protect your camera sensor from such damage. UV filters are designed to protect from ultraviolet light around 400nm, whereas LiDAR light at around 905nm to 1550nm will pass straight through such protective filters.
According to the gentleman in the second video, when he contacted Volvo about their LiDAR and the potential damage to camera sensors, they responded that they were aware of the situation and that people should be cautious about using cameras around LiDAR.
Where do you think things go from here?
1 Comment
I find this truly astounding and rather hard to believe. For one, LIDAR systems in cars have to be limited to eye-safe output powers (laser class 1). Then every camera sensor is usually coming with an IR cut-off filter to suppress IR radiation (except in dedicated IR cameras). Standard IR cut-off filters should cover the range up to about 1.5microns wavelength and diminish radiation significantly. If there is any truth to this story (and it is certainly hard to argue with a video if it is recorded in good faith) and car LIDAR is doing permanent damage to camera sensors, I would not be so much concerned about my camera (which btw could be equipped with a second IR filter of verified wavelength response), but rather for my eye sight (eyes do not have an IR cut-off filter). This should be investigated in a more systematic and quantitative manner no doubt.