Warning Not to Burn Your Camera Shutter During the Solar Eclipse
With the “Ring of Fire” solar eclipse just around the corner (October 14), Kolari has put out a video warning photographers not to burn their shutters.
In the above video, Kolari Vision, a filter optics company, explains that pointing your lens directly at the Sun is like “burning ants with a magnifying glass except your camera is the ant.”
The presenter takes a Nikon D3200 with a telephoto lens attached and points it at the Sun for 30 seconds. Lo and behold, the 30-second exposure marks the camera.
“This is the camera that we just pointed at the Sun, and if you look inside here you’ll see that the shutter blades are actually burnt,” says the presenter.
“Now keep in mind this was just for a 30-second exposure and it was just on our shutter blades. Now, imagine if you were trying to photograph or film something like a solar eclipse, your camera sensor is going to be exposed, it’s going to be pointed directly at the Sun and it’s going to do a lot of damage.”
Solution
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Kolari presenter recommends a Kolari filter to prevent Sun damage to the camera’s sensor.
“You can use an ND filter, but not just any filter,” he explains. “This is the Kolari 15-stop ND filter.” This is because the Sun is about 15 stops brighter than anything else.
To demonstrate, the presenter gets out a new Canon R5 mirrorless camera and attaches the 15-stop ND filter. After taking a photo of the Sun, the presenter shows there is no damage to the R5.
“A couple of disclaimers before using our ND filters for solar photography, don’t look through the optical viewfinder even when using the ND filter because it’s still going to burn your eyes. But live view is okay,” he says.
“Secondly, don’t look directly at the Sun with just an ND filter because it’s not rated for your eyes.”
He adds that the Kolari 20-stop filter is also suitable for solar photography.
For more information on tomorrow’s solar eclipse, including which states it will be visible from, check out PetaPixel’s guide. Kolari has further guides here.
