Re: Simple RF Weapon Can Fry PC Circuits

[Declan McCullagh]

On Tue, May 08, 2001 at 04:59:29PM -0500, Jim Choate wrote:
> > For automated photolasers, mount a slave flash beside your plate.
> > When the camera goes off, its flash will trigger yours, again dazzling
> > the camera.
> 
> Provided the camera isn't very fast. The responce time of your system and
> the time of flight time of your flash will likely get there about the time
> the shutter closes down. If it's CCD then forget it, you'll never get
> enough of a window.

If we assume ISO100 or equivalent film and a moderate telephoto lens,
the camera is going to have to use a pretty fast shutter speed to
avoid motion blur. I'd speculate it would be something like a few
hundredths of a second -- I don't see why an electronic flash couldn't
fire in that time.

A better question would be whether the flash would be sufficiently
blinding -- if it were not aimed at the camera, it might have little
effect. A decent (~$300) flash can throw a few dozen feet, but it's
more directional than not.

-Declan