this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2023

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Don't leave your phone in the sun (self.lifeprotips)

submitted 1 year ago by over_clox to c/lifeprotips

14 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Don't leave your phone in the sun. Aside from the devastating heat, it'll also burn your camera out just like it will your eyes.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I'm not convinced by this post really, I'm sure pointing your camera at the sun with it on will cause damage. But I don't believe that smartphone cameras are as susceptible as photography cameras. If they were they'd have a physical shutter.

But they don't so either the sensor is harder to damage while it's off, or the smartphone lens just isn't big enough (or focused enough) to be an issue. Not to mention they have uv and infraded filters too.

Another other explanation I can think of is that sun isn't likely to be barreling down a smartphone lens often enough to be a problem.

Where I live in north america, the sun never resides directly overhead, so maybe that minimizes damge.

Or maybe it just requires a lot more exposure that its not likely to be a problem for the life of the device.

Either way, unless you are an optical engineer for a smartphone company, I remain unconvinced. It seems to be a rather rare problem that most users shouldn't worry about.

[–] over_clox 0 points 1 year ago

I literally owned a phone for like 4 years that I just so happened to find on the side of the highway, laying out in direct sunlight. Every single image the camera ever took had a black spot in the middle of the upper left quadrant of the image, which covered somewhere around 20 or so pixels.

Every. Single. Image. The camera's sensor was damaged by the focused sunlight. Even if the photos hadn't been tagged by the phone's camera software, that damaged spot in the images could be used as something of a camera fingerprint.

Also, I've already made a point to emphasize this, I didn't say you can't briefly point it at the sun, I said don't leave it in the sun.

BTW, that phone ended up dying due to overheating, and it wasn't even in the sun, it was just a really hot day and I was using the phone while also charging it. If a phone can die like that, I'm pretty sure that ought to be another clue that you shouldn't leave your electronics out in the sunlight.

[–] Nurse_Robot -1 points 1 year ago (3 children)

First Google search from a reliable source (Apple)

Sunlight (or artificial light) is what the camera requires to take pictures – so the camera is designed to be exposed to sunlight and no damage is caused

While it's reasonable to assume that light will accelerate natural degrading, I couldn't find anything (with a quick Google search) that supports your confident statement that it burns out "just like your eyes". I'm also not sure why you think it's "devastating", most smartphone users have left their phone out before and experienced overheating, which most phones are designed around and leave little to no lasting damage.

Quit fear mongering.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

There’s validity to the OP’s post. No need to take our word for it, here’s a forum thread by photographers.

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/2653163

[–] over_clox 4 points 1 year ago

Both you and the thread you linked are very correct.

I've found that a quick shot of the sun won't do any damage, but at the same time my original post explicitly says don't leave your device in the sun

Obviously we're on the same page here, just figured I'd toss in a little clarification. Cameras work on a similar technology as to how we burn ants with a magnifying lens..

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

These are for more sensitive cameras with much larger lenses, and correspondingly, physical shutters.

Smartphone cameras don't have one, there must be a reason they don't need it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Even if a phone sensor is 5% as sensitive as a larger format sensor (I'd guess more like 50%, large format sensors have slower and less frequent development times), it's still receiving solar energy. Phone cameras still have a (plastic, crappy) lens which focuses light down and microlenses plated on the sensor itself to further focus light directly onto the photosensitive regions of the chip.

Phones don't have physical shutters because they take up space and add unnecessary cost. I can't think of any phone use cases where the device is left outside in the elements for days at a time with a semi-direct angle towards the sun.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

But is that enough energy to cause damage? Its clearly not a huge problem otherwise cases with camera covers would probably be common.

I don't think its worth most users worrying about it. But definitely don't point your camera at the sun on purpose.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I'll meet you half way on this because now I'm invested. No luck finding anything other than "It's bad" from non-scientific studies, but I found a paper quantifying sensor damage from lasers. If you can find something comparing constant solar exposure and short-term laser exposures, maybe we can figure this thing out ourselves.

https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/journals/optical-engineering/volume-56/issue-03/034108/Laser-induced-damage-threshold-of-camera-sensors-and-micro-optoelectromechanical/10.1117/1.OE.56.3.034108.full?SSO=1

[–] over_clox 2 points 1 year ago

Basically, my point is don't leave your electronics out in the sun, like leaving it out on a bench park table or such in direct sunlight.

I'm pretty sure it'll be fine with a little brief exposure to the sun, just don't leave it out there ya know..

[–] over_clox 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You should go ahead and excuse yourself, as I can 100% confirm this is a thing, as a former phone repair technician.

Said damaged phones will have a permanent black spot in any and all images and videos from that point on, unless you replace the camera.

Go ahead, go stare into the sun, see what happens to you. Same thing happens to your camera...

[–] Changetheview 6 points 1 year ago

Thanks for sharing this advice. Sunlight is great stuff, but also insanely harmful.

And I’m just going to also leave this here: A simple Google search of “does direct sunlight damage camera lenses?” shows countless expert opinions in support of “yes, it does.” Of course cameras and phones are made to handle sunlight, but there’s plenty of evidence that prolonged direct exposure can and does damage many different cameras, which almost definitely includes those on cell phones.