Taking Pictures of the Eclipse.

I have a 10 stop ND filter, is that enough to shot the eclipse?
Can I damage the sensor?

Douglas Conway wrote in post #18431133
I have a 10 stop ND filter, is that enough to shot the eclipse?

No.

It's not enough.

I just saw a guy talking about photographing the eclipse, basically he said if you can see light through your filter you can damage your sensor.

I think it depends on how you are taking the picture. Shooting the sun direct without any filter will not cause damage if you keep it pointed at the sun for a very short time. Same with the eye. Looking at the eclipse will not cause eye damage, staring at it for a long time will. I've seen some sites toss out staring at the sun for about 100 seconds will cause damage.

So, setting your camera pointed directly at the sun for long periods can cause damage. Looking through the camera with a long lens and pointing it at the sun will cause eye damage even faster. Setting up everything, popping up the camera and taking a picture won't do much.

gjl711 wrote in post #18431256
I think it depends on how you are taking the picture. Shooting the sun direct without any filter will not cause damage if you keep it pointed at the sun for a very short time. Same with the eye. Looking at the eclipse will not cause eye damage, staring at it for a long time will. I've seen some sites toss out staring at the sun for about 100 seconds will cause damage.

So, setting your camera pointed directly at the sun for long periods can cause damage. Looking through the camera with a long lens and pointing it at the sun will cause eye damage even faster. Setting up everything, popping up the camera and taking a picture won't do much.

There is no acceptably safe exposure duration when shooting the sun with an unfiltered long lens, telephoto lens or telescope. Use a solar filter.

Mike Deep wrote in post #18431302
There is no acceptably safe exposure duration when shooting the sun with an unfiltered long lens, telephoto lens or telescope. Use a solar filter.

That's not really true. Shooting the sun using LV or tethered especially if the total exposure time is a second or two will cause no harm to the camera. Shooting with a 10 stop ND with LV or tethered, you could probably leave the camera pointed at the sun for quite some time before things heat up. UV might hurt your eye but it does nothing to the camera. The IR is a bigger problem I would think. I do agree that a solar filter is clearly better but in a pinch, you can shoot without as long as your careful with very little risk.

Sorry, I meant eye exposure. I'm taking a hard stance and recommending solar filters exclusively as it appears a lot of folks are going to try improvising and will injure themselves.

Douglas Conway wrote in post #18431133
I have a 10 stop ND filter, is that enough to shot the eclipse?
Can I damage the sensor?

You can potentially get some damage due to IR heating things up.

UV is fine, your sensor can take UV all day. Your eyes cannot.

IR is also fine for sensors, but, the heat is not, and IR and heat go together.

Solar filters block UV & IR and are strong ND filters. ND filters typically lack UV & IR. There are some that block IR, and they are fine for camera sensors (but not fine for eyes).

Very best,

Mike Deep wrote in post #18431375
Sorry, I meant eye exposure. I'm taking a hard stance and recommending solar filters exclusively as it appears a lot of folks are going to try improvising and will injure themselves.

Oh, absolutely, the sun and your nekid eye are not a good combo. My comment about looking at the sun was, if you happen to glance up and look at the sun for a few seconds, your not going blind. Staring at it for longer, and you might. Clearly, if you point a 600mm lens at the sun unfiltered and look through the VF, damage is going to happen very quickly indeed. DON'T LOOK A THE SUN without protection!!! Eclipse or not.

Curious.. If eye damage is the bigger concern, why not use a live view instead of view finder? One is no longer subject to the UV when it's through the display.

So why not:
Set up on a tripod
Have a drape over the camera that is big enough for your head too
Set mirror lock up
Put the camera in lives view
Shoot away

Shaun Liddy wrote in post #18431747
Curious.. If eye damage is the bigger concern, why not use a live view instead of view finder? One is no longer subject to the UV when it's through the display.

So why not:
Set up on a tripod
Have a drape over the camera that is big enough for your head too
Set mirror lock up
Put the camera in lives view
Shoot away

That's pretty much how I assume everyone is shooting. Either LV or tethered. I prefer tethered but that's just me. Still, you do not want to point the camera at the sun for a long time when unfiltered. UV will not damage a camera but given enough IR, it can.

You can keep it pointed at the sun, just toss a lens cap on it

Anyone going to get some drone pictures??? I am going to try, if the weather here stays nice.

ThomasDidymus wrote in post #18431858
Anyone going to get some drone pictures??? I am going to try, if the weather here stays nice.

The sun is going to be pretty high at the time of the Eclipse. However, I want to try and get some shots of the horizons during the Eclipse. I figure we have about 90 seconds to get a nice 360 degree pan of the horizon. I'm hearing the horizon is really going to look neat with the sun peering over the moon. Could be quite spectacular.

Another note... I'm reading on the NASA website where Shade 12-14 welding glass is fine for regular viewing... These have zero IR and UV protection. So is a camera sensor that much more delicate than the human eye?