09.28Camera Problems
No photo in this post, but an explanation, maybe a question to people who may know better.
At this point of a tour, my camera developed a very “snowy” effect. While I know that traditional film cameras react to radiation, I just don’t know effect on digicams. I was using Canon SD900 camera, and A-Data SDHC 8gb card. Anyone had any experience with it?
The effect is more evident if you see the picture in it’s full resolution.
Feel free to post comment or e-mail me to admin@chernobyl2008.com
Radioactive dust on the camera surfaces will indeed cause this problem to manifest. The ionizing radiation given off by the atoms during their decay stimulates the charge coupled device (CCD) in the camera. As the radiation hits the sensors you will get signals fired off to the storage. This causes the red, green and blue dots in the picture. The radiation also affects the flash ram itself, causing “flipped bits” which will cause black and white dots.
I will be that if you cleaned the camera with uncontaminated isopropyl alcohol after you left the Zone that it worked perfectly again. Alternatively, leaving it alone for a while would cause the problem to ease-off over time as the short half-life elements “burned-off”.
January 1st, 2009 at 9:46 am
Thank you for the explanation. Googling around did not help. I did not have any cleaning supplies handy, even back in Kiev, so I kind of just left camera sitting in my pocket. A day later, it worked fine. Kind of weird, when I was walking through a hotel, there was a TON of dust. But effect wore off when we were on hotel roof
January 1st, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Yes, I have to agree with Steve; in my line of work, I service cell phones that are being returned or exchanged for insurance claims and warranty returns.
Believe it or not, I see the occasional cell phone being returned because of damage caused by ionizing radiation - to my understanding, most of these are from X-ray machines.
The built-in camera is usually the most damaged part of the phone, as the CCD is easily over”stimulated.”
Just so you know, exposure to ionizing radiation still voids your mobile phone’s warranty!
January 10th, 2009 at 2:00 am
Wonder if I ever have to return the phone to my insurance (Sprint’s current insurance carrier), can I give them reason of “Over-exposure to gamma radiation” instead of “it fell in a toilet”
Funny, after all cracked screens, dropped phones, I ever claimed on insurance, they wanted all of them back, except the one I dropped in a toilet. Wonder if they would want “irradiated” phone back too
January 10th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
Hello..
It call to my atention all this pictures, i was looking for some information about this catastrophy, it got me really concern for a while, I wanted to know how was looking today. And i wanted to know if people could go there.
I can see you can.
I’ m really curious about the trip you made, great pictures, really interesting, and I can noticed you had a good time and that you learn a lot, I love trips like that, educational.
Can you give me some information about how did you arrange that tour?.
Thank you !
January 13th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Sure, I’ve booked my trip through Ukrainianweb. Fair prices, friendly people. Main agency based in Canada.
http://www.ukrainianweb.com/chernobyl_ukraine.htm
January 13th, 2009 at 11:56 pm