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ifurlong
9th of August 2004 (Mon), 10:01
does it hurt the sensor when we overexpose?
timmyquest
9th of August 2004 (Mon), 10:04
nope
BearSummer
9th of August 2004 (Mon), 10:08
Hi Ifurlong,

My first answer was going to be "No it just thinks it's getting a tan on holiday", however on secon thoughts

I think in most normal day uses it will be fine.

DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN THROUGH ANY OPTICAL DEVICE

If however you were to set a time exposue of say 30 seconds and strapon the 1200mm and point it at the sun then I guess the heat from the sun could damage the chip.

Otherwise I think you are safe.

Best regards

BearSummer
ohenry
9th of August 2004 (Mon), 13:02
does it hurt the sensor when we overexpose?

No, but it doesn't do much for your pictures.
ifurlong
9th of August 2004 (Mon), 13:41
yes I know, I am doing a technique which involves taking two exposures, one for the sky and one for the foreground, therefore the second is always hot in the sky
DocFrankenstein
9th of August 2004 (Mon), 16:58
It doesn't help him either. The material in the chip COULD POTENTIALLY degrade and lose it's properties with exposure to direct sunlight. Much like the phosphors of the monitors do. :?

But don't get all paranoid. I haven't heard once about this thing happening, and judging from all digicams who have their chip exposed all the time it's not likely.
Andy_T
10th of August 2004 (Tue), 04:31
The material in the chip COULD POTENTIALLY degrade and lose it's properties with exposure to direct sunlight.

Now this raises a lot of important questions:

If you take two photos, does it degrade the sensor more than taking one photo? (after all, it's twice the time of exposure to the sun)

If yes, then how many exposures can you take until your sensor is degraded?
100?
10,000?
100,000?

How do videocameras do it?
Do you measure their life expectancy in hours of frames?

Is it still 'direct exposure' if there is a lens between the sensor and the sunlight?

Might the above said be bordering on utter BS?

But then, what do I know? :lol:

You see ... a lot of questions :wink:

Best regards,
Andy
BearSummer
10th of August 2004 (Tue), 04:37
Hi All,

The reason for my answer was, in normal use overexposure will not damage your chip. However if you do something outside the normal usage and expose the chip to excessive amounts of light and heat (see my previous example) then damage may occur.

So the answer is, yes you can damage your chip but it is very unlikely in normal usage.

Best regards

BearSummer