Will an up-close flash from a camera damage my retina?

Question

yesterday i was going to start up a yahoo! 360 profile so i could post my own picture on here. I got out the digital camera and snapped some shots. I decided i didn't want to do a face shot because i'm not photogenic. I zoomed in ( put the camera like 1-2inch'ss, or 4cm from my eye) on my right eye and placed a bit of hair over. I held down to button to take the picture except i held it for a moment to long and it went into flash mode. In an instant it flashed.

Itdidn'tt hurt at first but i'm just worried because i've heard stuff like that can damage your retina or something

The digital camera is a Canon Powershot A550 (aiaf). I also wear glasses so if that will effect me please let me know!

All help, effort and time is greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

Nope. Light can't damage the retina(except sunlight. Sunlight can cause damage). The only thing it can do is damage the cornea ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornea ), and this absoloutly cannot happen because of camera light. In order to do that, the camera's light has to be a laser, and this is not the case in camera flash. Plus, it has to be on the cornea for a while, and the corneal epithelium has to be removed (the epithelium is a special layer on the cornea that heals very fast. It is removed with a knife in refractive surgery, and the pain and discomfort most people report is because it is growing back).

In fact, the greatest danger of filming so close to the eye is shoving the camera by mistake in to your eye (that actually happened to me).