Sensor protection

[Irri]

A director I work with wants to shoot some timelapse of bright sunshine coming out from behind a cloud. Am I likely to damage the sensor by having it pointed at the sun for long periods of time?

[BASSAM MSSALATIE]

i Tjink you will damage it unless you use some filters like ND 1.2 OR MIRROR filter

[Irri]

I guess I could shove in a load of NDs, but I wonder if I would be able to see anything when the sun is behind cloud.

[Pawel Achtel]

I guess I could shove in a load of NDs, ...

No you can't because of IR problems. :matrix:

[Irri]

Well that would only affect the blacks, wouldn't it?

I could always use our IR cut filter, thanks for the heads up anyway.

[Pawel Achtel]

Well that would only affect the blacks, wouldn't it?

No, the whole image is washed out and soft due to out of focus IR contamination. Depends on the look you want, but it is certainly not crisp or contrasty.

I could always use our IR cut filter, thanks for the heads up anyway.

That depends on shutter speed and f-stop. Commercialy available Pancro Mirrors, for example, go to IRND1.5 only. You may find that this is insufficient. I shot with "special" Pancro IRND 2.0 stacked with true Pol in full daylight and I would not point the camera near the sun for right exposure.

It is not easy problem to solve.

[Irri]

Thanks for the info. We are thinking we might do that bit on film now.

[jimhare]

So is skimming the sun for a few moments (not pointing at it for an extended time) dangerous or okay? Sometimes I'll pan across the sky and get the sun in for a couple of seconds, no NDs yet. Pretty normal stuff but would like to know if I should avoid it at all costs.

[Brian Broz]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought the whole point of the black spot found when shooting bright point sources directly is to protect the sensor?!