Will shooting pics of the sun hurt the camera in anyway - e.g. burn the sensor?

[elsmain]

Will shooting pics of the sun hurt the camera in anyway - e.g. burn the sensor?

[TCampbell · Accepted solution]

It depends on how you shoot the sun.   You're focusing a lot of energy into the camera body and this can generate a lot of internal heat.  I have a friend who was doing solar observing with a safe solar filter attached to his scope... but another member had (unbnownst to him) uncapped the front dust cover from his "finder" scope.  When he pointed the scope at the sun, it immedaitely broke the cross-hair wires inside the finder and within just a few seconds it burned a hole clean through the rear dust cap (imagine if your eyeball were trying to look into it.)

I put a solar filter on my 300mm f/2.8 to shoot the partial eclipse last October.

The filter was made by Thousand Oaks Optical.  These filters are really intended for use in telescopes put can be put on camera lenses.  For a filter to be safe for the human eye, it needs to reject 99.996% of the Sun's energy.  These filters actually block 99.999%.  They come in glass, an "RG" film, and a "black" film.  The black film is recommended for use with camera lenses because the glass and RG film look like a non-transparent mirror and that "mirror" like finish can cause reflections in the camera lens.  The "black" film will eliminate (or certainly minimize) any reflection.

There are a number of companies that make solar filters -- mostly you'd find these at companies that sell telescopes (e.g. Oceanside Photo & Telescope (OPTcorp.com) for example.

[Tiffany]

Elsmain!

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[Peter]

http://www.camerarepair.org/2012/05/solar-eclipse-burned-camera/

Short answer, depends on the lens and the time.

[TCampbell · Accepted solution]

It depends on how you shoot the sun.   You're focusing a lot of energy into the camera body and this can generate a lot of internal heat.  I have a friend who was doing solar observing with a safe solar filter attached to his scope... but another member had (unbnownst to him) uncapped the front dust cover from his "finder" scope.  When he pointed the scope at the sun, it immedaitely broke the cross-hair wires inside the finder and within just a few seconds it burned a hole clean through the rear dust cap (imagine if your eyeball were trying to look into it.)

I put a solar filter on my 300mm f/2.8 to shoot the partial eclipse last October.

The filter was made by Thousand Oaks Optical.  These filters are really intended for use in telescopes put can be put on camera lenses.  For a filter to be safe for the human eye, it needs to reject 99.996% of the Sun's energy.  These filters actually block 99.999%.  They come in glass, an "RG" film, and a "black" film.  The black film is recommended for use with camera lenses because the glass and RG film look like a non-transparent mirror and that "mirror" like finish can cause reflections in the camera lens.  The "black" film will eliminate (or certainly minimize) any reflection.

There are a number of companies that make solar filters -- mostly you'd find these at companies that sell telescopes (e.g. Oceanside Photo & Telescope (OPTcorp.com) for example.

[elsmain]

Thank you for all your comments and responses.

I shoot with a 6D, 24-70 and 70-200.  I generally shoot the sun as a background to a primary subject.  I don't normally shoot JUST the sun.  I like to have it as a nice star burst shape in the sky when shoot outdoor pics of other subjects.  I hope that helps describe a little better what I'm thinking about.

Thank you again!

[ebiggs1 · Accepted solution]

"I generally shoot the sun as a background to a primary subject."

That won't hurt the sensor.  Keep in mind the sensor is an electronic device.  Just like an audio amp, it can get overloaded.  Extreme amounts of light will max it out just like extreme volumn will do so for a amp.

But remember the sensor is only exposed for a fraction of a second, usually.   It is not exposed when you are just holding the camera.

Just a word of caution, you should never look at the Sun directly.  It is a bad idea and practice.  Don't do it.