Why cameras arent damaged when recording someone welding but your eyes get damaged instantly?

Question

Why are human eyes so easily susceptible to damage from looking at welding but even cheap cell phone camera is completely unharmed and has no problems at all?

is it because of the difference between our eyes being organic fragile material and cameras are hard metal silicone and other tougher components?

Anonymous · Answer

There is no living flesh (a retina) in a camera.
Is there??

Philomel · Answer

The UV of welding sunburns eyeballs. It does not burn camera lenses.

Dixon · Answer

Assuming you are talking about digital cameras, well they are damaged by extremely bright light. But they are more robust than eyes. My guess is that the camera sensors are able to conduct heat away more easily than the retina.

Robert J · Answer

The surface of your eye can be "sunburned" by the UV light in the welding arc.
That's what is commonly called "Arc eye" - it feels like your eyes are full of sand.

And the retina can be damaged if the arc heat is focussed on one area for too long, like with looking directly at the sun for too long.

Glass does not sunburn - but camera sensors can be damaged by an arc image in a fixed position, if the camera does not have a mechanical iris or shutter to attenuate the light.

? · Answer

The retina is tissue that can be damaged, a digital camera has no retina.

Why cameras arent damaged when recording someone welding but your eyes get damaged instantly?

5 Answers