Macro Photography Light From Broken LCD Monitor

lcd panel

[Jussi Saarijoki] had a broken LCD monitor and decided to use it as a photography light instead of letting it sit on his shelf of “oblivion”. Only the panel was broken; the cold cathode and diffuser were still intact. He stripped off all of the outer casing and pulled the broken panel. After reassembling he did a couple test shots. The large panel works really well for providing ambient light and making shadows a lot less harsh.

22 thoughts on “Macro Photography Light From Broken LCD Monitor

  1. not a h4x lol

    Whatever. It’s a cool idea, something that probably a lot of people would never have thought of. AND, it recycles trashed gear. If nothing else, there’s a landfill somewhere that will be very slightly less empty thanks to this guy’s reappropriation of that light. jussi saarijoki, Captain Planet and the Planeteers salute you!

  2. I’ve done this before. To be honest I was quite proud of myself after completing it. I would deem it quite hackaday worthy.

    And props to the slides and negatives idea, thats very clever.

  3. #5, i’ve been doing that with my PalmIIIc for years :-P

    It’s a great hack, those CCFL’s put out a decent amount of light, and with a brightness control it’s even more flexable.

    And also: to anyone what questions it;
    From dictionary.com
    1. Originally, a quick job that produces what is
    needed, but not well.

    This hack fits it to the letter (no offence ;))

  4. You couls be really industrious and get a bunch of them and make like a discowall pannel. You could gel up the panels and get a 20 chaser. I am not sure if the cold cathodes would like being turned on and off over and over though. I don’t have much exspirience with them.

    Anyway, its a good hack because it is inspiring other ideas.

  5. #13, ccfl’s have no real beef with being turned off and on. Have you never seen the flashing/sound controlled ccfl kits? I don’t doubt theres *some* extra stress from it, but it’s not major.

  6. What all you smart alecs posting stuff like “just open Notepad full screen” don’t realize is that the LCD panel absorbs up to 70% of the light from the back-light. This hack produces a light brighter than any LCD panel you have ever seen. (Unless you happen to have seen one of the new ultra high dynamic range panels costing tens of thousands of dollars.)

    I just did this with two 15-inch panels I got from a local recycling center. I’m planning on using both for some very high tech (and low wattage) under-counter lights.

  7. Quick and easy working-screen light:

    open MSPAINT (oldschool but serves the quick purpose), then press these combinations in series:

    PrintScreen
    Shift+Insert (or Ctrl+V)
    Delete
    Ctrl+F

    The result is a full screen of white. Just click your mouse or hit alt+f4 to close it.

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