If you look at an old video the lasers are clear as day, I can see them very well but the lasers never come out. I know the older lasers were brighter but I feel that even in older videos of Reflections of Earth the lasers show better.
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Why don't Illuminations Lasers show on camera as good any more
- Thread starter THEMEPARKPIONEER
- Start date
They get dirty, parts wear out.
RoEs lasers never were as readable as the earlier bi colour version, and green/blue is the part of the spectrum that travels best.
Remember though that especially during 88-97 there were a lot of laser effects with no pyro, hence a cameras shutter didn't automatically ramp down.
The current show can still look good laser wise but it's more hit and miss. See what the future brings.
RoEs lasers never were as readable as the earlier bi colour version, and green/blue is the part of the spectrum that travels best.
Remember though that especially during 88-97 there were a lot of laser effects with no pyro, hence a cameras shutter didn't automatically ramp down.
The current show can still look good laser wise but it's more hit and miss. See what the future brings.
Pumbas Nakasak
Heading for the great escape.
film is more forgiving than digital imagery.
Tim Lohr
Well-Known Member
I imagine people in the surrounding Orlando area, and possibly Orlando International Airport, may have been complaining about the lasers, because the more power that's put into a laser not only makes it brighter but also makes it travel farther, and if they hit some one in the eyes it can cause vision damage or blindness. There's a lot more people in the area now than there was in 1982 and some where along the line must have dialed down the power
Disneyhead'71
Well-Known Member
The main reason that the lasers are less visible is that a layer of smoke is needed to help the lasers show. But ever since they switched to air canons to launch the pyro, there is a lot less smoke at ground level.
The bi coloured versions looked spectacular with smoke but still very clear with none.
The air launch has been MIA for years now.
There are no air cannon launch fireworks in RoE anymore. Originally the first 3 shots of the show were air launch, but that stopped a few years back when they ran out of timing chips.
Nope... All lasers are carefully calibrated for direction and cleared with the FAA each night. None hit any populated areas, on property or outside.
Tim Lohr
Well-Known Member
ok, good to know, but the lasers are clearly not as bright or travel as far as they did originally
They're certainly not. Just need someone to open the purse strings.
Tim Lohr
Well-Known Member
Really?!? it's just about money it takes to run them? I thought the Swan, Dolphin, Tower of Terror, and all the stuff that's now in the area was the reason ...that's seriously disappointing
Nothing in the area has anything to do with it. The lasers are double checked to be virtually inch perfect where they shine and point.
Remember, the S&D and the ToT didn't exist when IllumiNations started which had arguably the clearest lasers of all shows to date.
Tim Lohr
Well-Known Member
I know that nothing else was there when the show first started, that's my whole point. I also know that the lasers in the show were a lot brighter when the show first started. Lasers are just beams of light, the brighter the light is the farther it travels into the distance. A small flash light won't travel as far as an ocean side light house, and lasers work the same way, the bright it is the farther it goes.
The directions that they point them in is not the issue the OP is asking about, but I think the fact that all these different hotels and things are now in the surrounding area probably limits which direction they can point them in today, and how much the can use the lasers in the show today, and you're saying they just started using less bright, and less powerful lasers simply because it was cheaper?
Disneyhead'71
Well-Known Member
I didn't realize they stopped using the air cannons to launch the pyro. I haven't seen the show in probably 4 years. Which is sad considering I can hear the booms every night sitting in my living room.
No, they can't just point them anywhere. They never have. Actual use in show is dictated by the script, not by anything else.
I'm also not saying what you think I did. By their nature, the full spectrum lasers RoE used in 1999 are less bright. They were actually quite expensive when new. Newer versions are better though, see World of Color and Dreams. What does happen is they get dirty, the mirrors degrade, and our resident laser tech will be around to say which parts actually wear out over time. As these parts wear out the beam dims.
The show has as intricate a laser program as it did when it started. You just can't see it as well. Hopefully that'll change in the future.
I've posted this before:
You know, they really took a loss if you think about it. It's very hard to see the colored lasers so they pretty much spent money on an upgrade that was unsuccessful then they could have just reused the old lasers. And I'm surprised they didn't do that in the first place because there very notorious for reusing old equipment and running it into the ground. Just imagine those old lasers during chaos.
Tim Lohr
Well-Known Member
uhhhh? yeah? and I'm not saying what you "now claim" I am saying...
The distance from the American Adventure pavilion straight across the lagoon to Spaceship earth is about a 2700 feet or a 1/2 mile. The lasers used in the original show were bright enough, and powerful enough, to well exceed that distance, and at that time they "could shoot them in any direction the wanted" because there was nothing around Epcot for a 2 mile radius in any direction. The closest thing was the Shopping Village and Hotels at Lake Buena Vista, but there was nothing in the immediate area they had to worry about hitting with the lasers, they would not have to write the "script" or the choreography of the laser show to avoid structures, hotels and people, that weren't there at the time
But if you're the Walt Disney Company, and you have a lasers that are amped up to well exceed a half mile, ones that are so powerful people could see them from commercial airliners fling overhead? And you had decided to build high rise hotels like the Swan and Dolphin right next to you Epcot laser show? You'd better make sure your "script" for said laser show doesn't involve pointing the lasers at the new Swan and Dolphin Hotels, which are within the 1/2 mile radius you lasers are more capable of covering, and just to be on the safe side it might be a good idea to get some new lasers that are as powerful... or as bright
The cleaner the air the worse the laser visibility will be. When you see the laser it is just the reflection off of whatever is floating in the air. I would expect that even if you had the exact same laser today that you had 30 years ago that you would have seen it better in the past because the air in general was dirtier. So if they haven't changed the fireworks to a more smokeless variety you can only blame the EPA for cleaning up the air.
Looking in that video up above I have notices that the brightest and most visible of the lasers are coming from the mirror in left side of that window, are those the old ones?