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Yup, it all came down to how long the camera was pointed at the sun. I took a bunch of photos of the eclipse including this HDR shot with a Leica 280mm lens an

Yup, it all came down to how long the camera was pointed at the sun. I took a bunch of photos of the eclipse including this HDR shot with a Leica 280mm lens and Sony A7R with no filter whatsoever & without any damage to my lens or camera. The thing is, it took seconds to take and I made sure the camera was only pointed at the sun for brief moments: https://www.flickr.com/photos/patcheudor/35886777354/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/patcheudor/35886777354/ I'm assuming the damage Lens Rentals saw was from people who were trying to do time-lapse.

romanhn 9y ago
Off topic, but I think here's another image of the same airplane, also taken in Idaho: https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/6v62nl/plane_crossing_todays_eclipse/ https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/6v62nl/plane_cros...
- patcheudor 9y ago
  That one would have been taken about 15 miles or so to the southwest of my location.
- Stratoscope 9y ago
  That turned out to be a fake. https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/6v6y1k/ https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/6v6y1k/
  - dboreham 9y ago
    I was in North Eastern Idaho and there is a similar looking contrail visible in my wide angle shots at totality so if the point of image capture happened to be just right it would be possible to have it in the frame with the sun.
  - rangibaby 9y ago
    Oh man that's hilarious considering this: https://petapixel.com/2016/01/29/nikon-awards-prize-to-badly-shopped-photo-hilarity-ensues/ https://petapixel.com/2016/01/29/nikon-awards-prize-to-badly...
jonknee 9y ago
You can torch your sensor in seconds: https://youtu.be/2TO_yZDxryQ https://youtu.be/2TO_yZDxryQ
- patcheudor 9y ago
  Yeah, if you use a super-telephoto lens, then take your camera body off and change the focal point so that you are using your lens as a magnifying glass like they did in the video. No doubt. For the rest of the sane world; however, it's not quite that risky. For reference, that Leica I used in my shot is a one of a kind as it was the first lens to roll off the line when Leitz branding was changed to Leica & estimated to be worth between $12,000 to $22,000. I wouldn't have risked it if there was any risk whatsoever.
  - tigershark 9y ago
    No, it is the opposite. A 50mm f/1.4 lens focus the light and the heath much more than a 300mm f/5.6. You were quite lucky with your camera I guess.
    - 4ad 9y ago
      Correct. The flux for the sun on the sensor/film/whatever is: Φ/4α² * 1/A² Where Φ is the sun flux at the surface of the earth, and α is the angular diameter of the sun. A is the f-number of the lens, the only variable in this equation. It doesn't depend on focal length. The total power over the film is: Φ/4πα * f²/A² which does depend on focal length, but that is usually not the determinant factor, as for surface burns the damage depends mostly on the flux.
  - 4ad 9y ago
    Surface damage mostly depends on the power density, not on total power, so it depends mostly on the aperture, not on the focal length. This makes longer focal lengths safer to point at the sun because they are slower lenses. They are also safer if you don't explicitly point them at the sun because they are less likely to catch the sun in the smaller field of view. Burned shutter cloths on Leica M series cameras with wide angle lenses is a real problem that can happen simply if you leave the camera without a lens cap lying on a table. This is less of a problem on most other cameras, as they use metal shutter curtains.

romanhn 9y ago

Off topic, but I think here's another image of the same airplane, also taken in Idaho: https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/6v62nl/plane_crossing_todays_eclipse/ https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/6v62nl/plane_cros...

patcheudor 9y ago
That one would have been taken about 15 miles or so to the southwest of my location.
Stratoscope 9y ago
That turned out to be a fake. https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/6v6y1k/ https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/6v6y1k/
- dboreham 9y ago
  I was in North Eastern Idaho and there is a similar looking contrail visible in my wide angle shots at totality so if the point of image capture happened to be just right it would be possible to have it in the frame with the sun.
- rangibaby 9y ago
  Oh man that's hilarious considering this: https://petapixel.com/2016/01/29/nikon-awards-prize-to-badly-shopped-photo-hilarity-ensues/ https://petapixel.com/2016/01/29/nikon-awards-prize-to-badly...

jonknee 9y ago

You can torch your sensor in seconds: https://youtu.be/2TO_yZDxryQ https://youtu.be/2TO_yZDxryQ

patcheudor 9y ago
Yeah, if you use a super-telephoto lens, then take your camera body off and change the focal point so that you are using your lens as a magnifying glass like they did in the video. No doubt. For the rest of the sane world; however, it's not quite that risky. For reference, that Leica I used in my shot is a one of a kind as it was the first lens to roll off the line when Leitz branding was changed to Leica & estimated to be worth between $12,000 to $22,000. I wouldn't have risked it if there was any risk whatsoever.
- tigershark 9y ago
  No, it is the opposite. A 50mm f/1.4 lens focus the light and the heath much more than a 300mm f/5.6. You were quite lucky with your camera I guess.
  - 4ad 9y ago
    Correct. The flux for the sun on the sensor/film/whatever is: Φ/4α² * 1/A² Where Φ is the sun flux at the surface of the earth, and α is the angular diameter of the sun. A is the f-number of the lens, the only variable in this equation. It doesn't depend on focal length. The total power over the film is: Φ/4πα * f²/A² which does depend on focal length, but that is usually not the determinant factor, as for surface burns the damage depends mostly on the flux.
- 4ad 9y ago
  Surface damage mostly depends on the power density, not on total power, so it depends mostly on the aperture, not on the focal length. This makes longer focal lengths safer to point at the sun because they are slower lenses. They are also safer if you don't explicitly point them at the sun because they are less likely to catch the sun in the smaller field of view. Burned shutter cloths on Leica M series cameras with wide angle lenses is a real problem that can happen simply if you leave the camera without a lens cap lying on a table. This is less of a problem on most other cameras, as they use metal shutter curtains.