Those people suck, frankly. I own very expensive lenses, and equipment. I speak from experience. I was a professional photographer many years ago, though it's

Those people suck, frankly. I own very expensive lenses, and equipment. I speak from experience. I was a professional photographer many years ago, though it's only a hobby these days. I filmed the crescendo of the 2017 solar eclipse and took photos throughout with a stack of IR/UV/ND filters: https://photos.app.goo.gl/CV9Ju3TkMtJKNL566 https://photos.app.goo.gl/CV9Ju3TkMtJKNL566 I had to remove most of the ND filters during totality because it was simply blocking too much light, so much so that clouds and stars are visible in some photos. I had >99% IR/UV cut and over 26 stops of wide-band light reduction in front of my lens. My equipment is fine, I assure you. Due diligence isn't hard; I looked up the spec sheets for every filter I purchased, and did the actual math, so much so that I had to remove a filter or two during totality to get the exposure that I wanted, because I was overly conservative to protect my equipment. But... yeah... though there were many people who destroyed equipment during the 2017 eclipse, that doesn't mean it can't be done safely and properly.