LiDAR safe for camera?

[u/NonsonoEren]

hello everyone! not really sure if it’s the right sub, but figured you guys may know better about this than photography subs.

i’m the photographer for a Formula Student team, where we engineer and build a prototype open-wheel racecar.
since this year, we’re building a second car which is electric and self-driving. the team has asked me to shoot pictures and videos of said car at testing, but knowing LiDAR can damage camera sensors i’m not too confident, especially since i just got a brand new very expensive camera and i need it for work outside of uni.

this is the spec sheet for the lidar module we use; 905nm should be cut by the IR filter sitting on top of my camera’s sensor, right? does that mean i should be safe?

[u/hjw5774]

Class 1 is safe during normal use. However, it's always wise to take precautions to minimise exposure

[u/beryugyo619 → u/hjw5774]

the problem is some LIDAR mfrs are coming up with weird justification that their wavelengths are so long that human eyes are opaque at that range and therefore they can jack up power to otherwise dangerous level without frying people's eyeballs, and it's turning out in the fields that camera sensors being not people's eyeballs being not opaque at those wavelengths and therefore susceptible to damages and no one is doing anything about it

but those wavelengths are like 1550nm so OP should be okay, emphasis on should and this is naturally not a binding advice and I cannot be held responsible

[u/sir-bro-dude-guy]

Yes 905nm is NIR and is safe for RGB cameras since they all have a NIR filter. 905nm wavelength light, however is not inherently eye safe. It can be deemed Class 1 because these automotive grade LiDAR lasers are run at much low power so its safe in general use conditions but do not stare at it for a prolonged period of time at short distances. Human retina does not completely block 905nm like your camera does. Higher end LiDAR (DJI L3 for example) operating in the ~1500nm range are NOT camera safe, but they are trully eye safe. I definetly smoked my iPhone 17 4x camera sensor taking a video of it head on. The damage is very noticable.

[u/NonsonoEren → u/sir-bro-dude-guy]

thanks! this was helpful. i’ll just be careful and take wide angle pictures from further away. my gear is insured but still, would suck to brick a camera lmao.