The newspapers I used to write for had sign-out sheets for cameras. It was cheaper for the paper to buy a few cameras than to hire a professional photographer who knew what she was doing and so I ended up being an amateur juggler as I tried to both snap photographs with one hand while taking notes with the other. On more than one occasion I felt my heart skip a beat as a camera that was worth considerably more than my salary slipped from my fingers and fell to the ground. Everyone who works in media has a similar story.
The Sigma camera company came up with a solution for that problem with a simple, yet clever piece of tech. Their WR Ceramic Protector is a filter made of ceramic and glass. They say it is highly shock and scratch resistant. It also repels water. But the kicker is that it is ten times stronger than conventional filters and three times stronger than chemically-hardened glass filters.
They demonstrate that latter feature in grand fashion with the following video. A 49-gram metal ball is dropped onto that filter and more conventional filters. The ceramic/glass one repels the ball with ease while the others shatter pathetically. The following video explains how the material is able to repel such a disaster.
Yet another argument why ceramic is just as fascinating from a tech standpoint.
What do you think of this innovation in contemporary ceramics? Let us know in the comments.
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