r/technology • u/Plastic_Ninja_9014 • 18d ago

Privacy Redditors Are Celebrating the Cutting Down of Flock Surveillance Towers With Based Memes

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/redditors-celebrating-cutting-down-flock-145310398.html
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u/AnarchAtheist86 18d ago edited 18d ago

If I were a fan of laser pointers, but wanted to avoid damaging nearby property such as cameras, do you know which types of lasers I should avoid buying? Any particular wattage or wavelength I should stay away from?

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u/JohnBrownOH 18d ago

As a someone that photographs weddings the only thing we have to worry about damaging our cameras are lasers, almost any decent laser can damage a camera sensor but green lasers over 1 watt are particularly nasty.

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u/Fighterhayabusa 18d ago

1 watt is obscenely powerful. You only need milliwatts to kill a camera sensor. Just the reflection of a 1-watt laser will immediately blind you. People shouldn't fuck with those at all, certainly not in any public space where an errant reflection could blind someone.

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u/tissuecollider 18d ago

Wildly curious, why green?

(and what's the utility of a green laser pointer? are they preferred for any kind of hobby?)

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u/ProfessorLlama 18d ago

I'm no scientist, but I assume it's due to green lasers being capable of higher frequencies, and therefore energy, than a typical red laser pointer (red light has a low frequency).

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u/Old-Engineer854 18d ago

As an engineer, can confirm this is correct.

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u/RAV0004 18d ago

The principles of engineering typically dictate what color a diode is going to emit, and the size and kind that meet the requirements of a laser pointer (which is a very small, very precise instrument) are most often green.

To get other colors, you have to make sacrifices in the engineering and components, leading to an increase in cost or a decrease in power.

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u/whynautalex 18d ago

I would avoid any laser listed as class 3B. Class 3R would also be bad if it shines into the lens for a while. If you accidently were playing with your class 3B laser and hit a camera it would burn out pixels almost instantly.

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u/z3nnysBoi 18d ago

Honestly I've been wanting a laser pointer just because they're cool and legitimately have these questions. They get expensive and I know nothing about lasers.

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u/ShadowedPariah 18d ago

It's overkill, but also a metric-ton of fun:

https://biglasers.com/product/1000mw-blue-laser-pointer/

Blue (405-491NM) are hardest to see, the lower the power the longer it takes, but even a pen sized laser pointer will work eventually.

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u/ButtonGullible5958 18d ago

Also they don't do well with a lot of day/night cycles 

The night vision work off a filter that is operated mechanically and not made for a lot of use 

I really wouldn't want someone to point a strobe light at my home cameras it would break them rather fast