Camera pointing into sun?

[John Little]

Is it a bad idea to inadvertantly point the camera into the sun when you're not in the process of taking a photo? I'm old enough to recall my disappointment when Alan Bean (RIP) did this at the start of the Apollo 12 moonwalk and trashed the video camera. My concern is that suddenly swinging the camera into the sun might fry the sensor.

 

[Johan Elzenga]

Depends on the type of camera. In a DSLR the sensor is covered by a physical shutter and the mirror in front of that shutter.

 

[Linwood Ferguson]

Yes. Maybe.

Swinging it into view occasionally is unlikely to do harm, and some lenses are less likely to do harm than others, but a lens could focus the sun's image on some inner part of the camera and damage it. Think back to kids and magnifying glasses torturing insects and burning wood.

If It is just swinging on a strap, it is quite unlikely, as you would not get much dwell time. It's also unlikely the lens would actually be focused at any one instant in time for where the spot landed (e.g. focused at infinity focuses on the sensor, but the shutter is in front of that and would be out of focus). But you could.

And a lens cap is a good idea when not taking images for all sorts of reasons, this is just one more.

I have a slash burned through a SB800 flash where I had a Better Beamer (essentially a lens for a flash) on a tripod, with the sun out of camera lens view, but still in view of the fresnel on the flash. Focused the moving sun and burned a gouge in the plastic.

Also, be aware that stills with the sun in view (people often do it with very wide angles) get negligible dwell time on the sensor, but people shooting video have the shutter wide open and may get minutes of heating from dwell time. Again, depending on lens may do no harm at all, but look back at some horror stories from last summer's eclipse. Including burned shutter screens, so it's not just the sensor to worry about.

I wouldn't obsess over it (I don't obsess over it), but some basic precautions are a good idea -- lens cap when not in use, sun shade (helps with off-axis hot spots), and basically if it hurts your eyes when you look through the viewfinder it's too bright.

Ask anyone who has done any astro-photography; they greatly respect what the sun's focused light can do to equipment.

 

[John Little]

Thanks to both. It sounds like the sensor is pretty safe. I forgot to mention another concern, that the exposure meter might be affected by a sudden bright flash of light, as would occur if the camera abruptly pointed at the sun. The camera is a Nikon D7200.

 

[Linwood Ferguson]

Unlike the sensor, the exposure meter is not protected by the shutter, so it gets part of the light (the rest going to the viewfinder) all the time, same with the AF sensors. So yes, anything inside the camera is potentially (but not likely) vulnerable.

It's kind of like the human eye. We all look at the sun all the time, catching it unexpectedly, or at the edge of our vision. Nothing bad happens. Until it does.

 

[PhilBurton]

Unlike the sensor, the exposure meter is not protected by the shutter, so it gets part of the light (the rest going to the viewfinder) all the time, same with the AF sensors. So yes, anything inside the camera is potentially (but not likely) vulnerable.

It's kind of like the human eye. We all look at the sun all the time, catching it unexpectedly, or at the edge of our vision. Nothing bad happens. Until it does.

And then it's too late.

Better safe than very, very sorry.

Phil