Re: shoot the moon

mark.thomas.7@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Mar 31, 1:45 pm, Gerry <m...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
the manual to my d100 sez not to shoot the sun..

Most digitals include this warning - which I blithely ignore at my
peril. Yes, you should definitely not have the sun shining down the
lens barrel for more than a second or so, but there's *no* way I am
going to restrict my photography so that I can't include the sun - in
wide cityscapes, f'rinstance. And what about at dawn or dusk, when
the IR/UV levels are much lower? Sorry, no sunsets, folks?? That's
just silly.

Anyway, I'm just curious, has anyone actually damaged their sensor, or
heard a real report (not just hearsay) of a sensor being damaged
because the sun was in shot?

There's a good forum session here - in particular read the *2nd* post
by Jeff Medkeff - he sounds like he might know a bit about the
subject.
http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=009ltO&tag=

There are some related issues here about using SLR viewfinders (be
careful of your *eyes*!!), and the fact that non-dslrs would be much
more susceptible to damage as the sensor is exposed continually -
before, during and after exposure..

Just a comment here but it doesn't take long to burn a hole in the
shutter on a Leica M. DAMHIKT. Twice.

One would expect the same to be true of a sensor. OTOH, on a DSLR the
sensor is not exposed except during the shot and I doubt that the mirror
would be damaged, but the focusing screen is usually plastic and I can
imagine it being damaged if you managed to do everything just wrong with
a fast lens, still, being transparent it doesn't absorb a lot of energy,
but they do have marks on them for focus points and the like--if you
managed to put the convergence point on one of those (which means
leaving the lens focused at less than infinity) for a while I can see
the potential for damage occurring.

Of course there is the good old greenhouse effect.

but it's safe to shoot the moon? since it's reflective..
Yes, of course. But you should use sensible exposures - as pointed
out above, a moon exposure is about the same as exposure for a
(slightly dull) daylight scene.

--
--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)


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Relevant Pages

  • Re: sun damage
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