Will the Solar Eclipse damage my camera?

[moushu]

Eagerly awaiting the eclipse tomorrow morning, but then just had a thought - obviously we don't point our eyes at eclipses do we, kids - but is there any chance that pointing a camera with telephoto lens could damage the camera, for instance the sensor?
Need an answer in the next 14 hours
8)

 

[sunnyVan]

No.

 

[mackguyver]

No.

??? - great advice, not.

If you point a camera and lens directly at the sun without the appropriate astronomy filter (ND and Polarizers will not work), you are very likely to harm the sensor and your eyes. This is the danger of asking for advice on the Internet.

Enjoy the eclipse - safely 8)

 

[Kathode-Ray]

Probably not the sensor. That's because exposure time will be really short, and the sensor is 'protected' by the mirror and shutter.

It can cause other types of damage however, see here for an example: http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Help/Flare.aspx

Ray

 

[sunnyVan]

No.

??? - great advice, not.

If you point a camera and lens directly at the sun without the appropriate astronomy filter (ND and Polarizers will not work), you are very likely to harm the sensor and your eyes. This is the danger of asking for advice on the Internet.

Enjoy the eclipse - safely 8)

Not trying to argue with you since you're a respected member here. But what's your conclusion based on? Harming the eyes, yes. But harming the camera? How so? In what way? Again I'm only trying to learn.

 

[LDS]

Probably not the sensor. That's because exposure time will be really short, and the sensor is 'protected' by the mirror and shutter.

Even the mirror and the lens itself could be damaged by the heat generated by keeping the camera aimed at the sun for long enough. Did you ever tried to burn a leaf with a lens when you were a children? There's a lot also of invisible light (UV and IR) coming directly from the Sun.

Solar photography must be only attempted using specific filters removing UV and IR radiation while decreasing visible light. Filter needs to be in front of the lens.

The sensor could be somewhat protected by the shutter and diaphragm (unless someone uses live view...), but I won't risk an expensive one to save on a proper filter.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Don't do it. Its possible that you might get away with it as long as you keep the lens cover in place for all but a couple of seconds.

The Mirror coating itself can be damaged due to the magnification of the lens and increased intensity of light. In the event that your shutter stays open due to a wrong setting, then the sensor is gone.

Its also possible that just pointing a telephoto lens mounted to the camera will damage or ruin the AF sensor....


Canon warns of damage to the shutter curtains if the mirror is locked up, they might protect the sensor, but be destroyed while doing so.

Do not use live view or try to take a video without a proper filter either, or its good by sensor.

 

[Don Haines]

Take a large magnifying glass and focus the white down to a dot about a twentieth as wide as the magnifying glass. Now focus that dot on your hand. Do you feel the pain and smell the burning flesh? That's what you are doing to your camera when you point it at the sun...... It is not a good idea.

What you want to do is to get an astronomy filter of at least 5 stops, but you want an air gap and air circulation between the filter and the lens or the heat from the filter will cook your lens.

OR.......

Take a piece of paper, poke a hole through it, let it focus on another sheet of paper ( you just made a pinhole lens), and use your camera to take pictures of the image on the second sheet of paper....

 

[DominoDude]

I completely agree with the sane and sensible part of the crowd in here. But for those insisting that it's ok to shoot into the sun unfiltered: Go ahead! Canon could need a boost in their sales...

 

[sunnyVan]

I'm trying to understand what I'm missing here. Eclipse, from what I understand, means you don't see the full sun. You see a shadow created by the moon. The sun is as intense as it always is, not more or less during eclipse.

The eclipse shots in my mind are usually a bright circle that got bitten out. Do you need a long exposure for that? If you're trying to photograph the sun's surface for the Sun spots, that's a different story.

Please correct me if I am wrong as I always want to learn. But show me the logics.

 

[emko]

Take a large magnifying glass and focus the white down to a dot about a twentieth as wide as the magnifying glass. Now focus that dot on your hand. Do you feel the pain and smell the burning flesh? That's what you are doing to your camera when you point it at the sun...... It is not a good idea.

What you want to do is to get an astronomy filter of at least 5 stops, but you want an air gap and air circulation between the filter and the lens or the heat from the filter will cook your lens.

OR.......

Take a piece of paper, poke a hole through it, let it focus on another sheet of paper ( you just made a pinhole lens), and use your camera to take pictures of the image on the second sheet of paper....

didn't know this, i shoot lots of landscapes at sunset/sunrise am i damaging the camera?

 

[Don Haines]

Take a large magnifying glass and focus the white down to a dot about a twentieth as wide as the magnifying glass. Now focus that dot on your hand. Do you feel the pain and smell the burning flesh? That's what you are doing to your camera when you point it at the sun...... It is not a good idea.

What you want to do is to get an astronomy filter of at least 5 stops, but you want an air gap and air circulation between the filter and the lens or the heat from the filter will cook your lens.

OR.......

Take a piece of paper, poke a hole through it, let it focus on another sheet of paper ( you just made a pinhole lens), and use your camera to take pictures of the image on the second sheet of paper....

didn't know this, i shoot lots of landscapes at sunset/sunrise am i damaging the camera?

at sunrise and at sunset the light goes through a lot more atmosphere and is nowhere near as bad.... But the sun in the sky is another thing entirely.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

didn't know this, i shoot lots of landscapes at sunset/sunrise am i damaging the camera?

Do you use a telephoto lens and look directly at the sun? Do you take a video or use live view?

A telephoto lens concentrates the light greatly, depending on the focal length, which is a big concern. A wide angle lens is going to do the opposite.

There is a big difference. Look at the sun thru a telephoto lens, and you are in danger of serious eye damage.

 

[tolusina]

There will be at least 100,000 photos of the eclipse posted to FB immediately, some during, some will even be good. It's a cliche shot already and it hasn't even happened yet.

Don't risk your gear, just enjoy the show.

 

[DJD]

How does all this collective wisdom about eclipse photography apply to taking sunset or sunrise photos?
Inquiring minds...

 

[Don Haines]

How does all this collective wisdom about eclipse photography apply to taking sunset or sunrise photos?
Inquiring minds...

Point the camera at the sun up high in the sky and you get four or five (or more) more stops of light than with the sun at the horizon...

People tend to use long lenses during an eclipse and wide lenses at sunset...... One is intensifying the light, the other dispersing it....

Put the two factors together and you are getting up to a hundred times the light intensity shooting a partial eclipse with a long lens as shooting a sunset with a wide angle lens....

And BTW, in the world of astronomy, solar filters block over 99 percent of the light...... peek here for advice from those who do look at the sun....
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/observing-news/how-to-look-at-the-sun/

 

[anthonyd]

There is a lot of truth in the statements that are against you shooting the eclipse, but some level of exaggeration too.

I've never shot an eclipse, but I shot the Venus transit in June 2012, at around 6:30pm. I was using a 70-200 at 200 and I didn't have an astronomy filter, I only had a polarizer and an ND4 which I stacked and then used f/32 and 1/8000sec. Nothing burned, nothing got damaged, but the pictures were too bright, so you can't see Venus in front of the sun (interestingly, you can see it in the ghosting). That's attached picture number one.

Then I've taken the second picture, much closer to sunset, also at 200mm with no filters whatsoever, at f/4.0 and 1/4000sec. This one was followed by another bunch of pretty much the same shot, trying to get the seagulls at a nice angle wrt the sun. Nothing burned up this time either.

The flaw in the analogy with the magnifying lens is the size of the dot. If you get the "dot" to be 35mm, it won't be all that hot.

Use common sense. If you point a super-tele at the sun at noon or something, then there is a very good chance that your equipment will get damaged, if you use a 200mm or less you'll probably be fine (but don't send me the bill if things break ).

I will +1 the opinion that the eclipse is a cliche that is not even worth shooting though, unless maybe if you have something longer than 1000mm, in which case I'd put a welding glass in front of it!

 

[pj1974]

Take a large magnifying glass and focus the white down to a dot about a twentieth as wide as the magnifying glass. Now focus that dot on your hand. Do you feel the pain and smell the burning flesh? That's what you are doing to your camera when you point it at the sun...... It is not a good idea.

What you want to do is to get an astronomy filter of at least 5 stops, but you want an air gap and air circulation between the filter and the lens or the heat from the filter will cook your lens.

OR.......

Take a piece of paper, poke a hole through it, let it focus on another sheet of paper ( you just made a pinhole lens), and use your camera to take pictures of the image on the second sheet of paper....

didn't know this, i shoot lots of landscapes at sunset/sunrise am i damaging the camera?

Great post, Don.

I live in Australia, and have taken many photos of the sun in the frame – at ‘wider angles’, but I am extremely careful not to hold and point a telephoto lens into the sun for more than a split second. I have developed a technique of ‘zooming into the sun’ – which is safest… (basically manually focussing on another object in the extreme distance) – them moving lens near to (but not ‘on’) the setting sun, and very quickly composing using a sideways glance / alignment at the same time.

Over 10 years ago, a friend of mine (one of the mod’s on another online photography forum) posted a photo of a camera he left on a couch. The afternoon sun swung round and ended up almost cooking his camera interior. Thankfully the angle was ‘just off’ – so it wasn’t his sensor, but the ‘harmless internal plastic wall’ of his DSLR that was fried. (He posted a close up of the melted plastic ‘line’ which the setting sun ‘scored’ across his DSLR interior). Thankfully no functional issue / damage apart from that. It was a lens at about 100mm from memory.

That has always given me a good reason not to either ‘look’ into the sun, nor have my camera zoomed in (with, or without live view) to view the sun, either the setting sun or an eclipse! I have a retinal condition which slightly affects my eyesight (nothing to do with ‘burned retina’ nor retinal detachment, or macular degeneration) etc – so I’m very conscious of the preciousness of sight / vision.

Stay safe… for your own (eyes!) and your camera’s (lens and/or sensors) sake.

Paul

 

[moushu]

Glad I asked! 8)
I'll be driving into work during the transit, so that should be, er, different.

*sticks camera into a lead-lined box*

 

[LDS]

There is a lot of truth in the statements that are against you shooting the eclipse, but some level of exaggeration too.

Damage is never "instantaneous" and "total". Just you put you and your equipment at risk. Damages can arise later too.

I've never shot an eclipse, but I shot the Venus transit in June 2012, at around 6:30pm.

At 6:30 the sun was already low in the sky - I shot the same in the very early morning, with the sun just above the horizon - but with an AstroSolar filter, which I used also in 2005 when the Sun was high in the sky.
I already shot several eclipses (and the two Venus transits) - a proper filter safely mounted on the camera let you shoot without risks.

I was using a 70-200 at 200 and I didn't have an astronomy filter, I only had a polarizer and an ND4 which I stacked and then used f/32 and 1/8000sec.

Unlike photographic filters, solar filters are designed to block *all* dangerous frequencies - UV and IR, letting pass only a fraction of the visible light. If you look at them, some are also reflective, because a "dark" filter heats up.

Then I've taken the second picture, much closer to sunset, also at 200mm with no filters whatsoever, at f/4.0 and 1/4000sec. This one was followed by another bunch of pretty much the same shot, trying to get the seagulls at a nice angle wrt the sun. Nothing burned up this time either.

Dawn/sunset shoots are rarely dangerous, the Sun light is already "filtered" by atmosphere and dust, and you don't point straight a tele at the Sun. Nobody ever said "don't look at sunsets, they're dangerous!"

The flaw in the analogy with the magnifying lens is the size of the dot. If you get the "dot" to be 35mm, it won't be all that hot.

Just, you're probably using a much larger lens collecting more light and focusing it far better - in a sealed environment which doesn't cool very well. And unless you use some long tele, your "dot" won't be 35mm in diameter at all. You need at least an 800mm to fill the frame.

Use common sense.

Exactly. Get a proper filter - you get better images and you're safe. They are not expensive, and let you enjoy the experience without issues.

in which case I'd put a welding glass in front of it!

Some welding filters (the darkest one, and with UV protection) are safe only if not used with lenses or binoculars.