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Eclipse and camera (1 Viewer)

KC Foggin

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United States
Okay, I'm in the path of the total eclipse set for next Monday and I have Eclipse glasses. What I want to know, even wearing the glasses, I know my eyes are protected but what about my Nikon camera and 400mm lens? Can I destroy the camera focusing on the eclipse and partial eclipse? Thanks guys.
 
I saw an add from B&H photo about equipment sold for that purpose. I did not follow up on what that really meant because I have not been able to see if the area of totality extend into the Caribbean.

Niels
 
Thanks Iveljay, it seems that here in the Eastern Caribbean, we are going to have sunset before eclipse. A well.

Niels
 
I ordered a special solar filter 3 months ago from B&H. It was backordered at the time, but was informed the filter would be in and shipped prior to the eclipse. Lo and behold late last week email saying sorry won't be here any time in near future. Not happy.
Oh, you also want to use the viewing screen instead of the viewfinder.
 
I ordered a special solar filter 3 months ago from B&H. It was backordered at the time, but was informed the filter would be in and shipped prior to the eclipse. Lo and behold late last week email saying sorry won't be here any time in near future. Not happy.
Oh, you also want to use the viewing screen instead of the viewfinder.

Not sure they can help at this point, but Anacortes Telescope has been good for funky astronomy gear.

http://www.buytelescopes.com
 
Back in 1999 we were in transit and sat on the side of the road projecting the image using a long ancient lens onto something we thought wouldn't catch fire. Probably would have been better if we had practiced first!

Far more impressive was the sudden silence from the birds, you don't realise how much noise they make until they suddenly all shut up together.
 
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The section on how to photograph was very good iveljay. Thank you.

It doesn't occur until Monday so not belated ;)
 
I took some photos with my APS-C sensor camera - no filters or solar films...essentially, cameras can photograph the sun without damage if you take some precautions - notably, stopping down the aperture to the smallest, setting the minimum ISO, and the maximum shutter speed - then don't spend any extended time pointing the lens at the sun - just real quick snap and lower, snap and lower, etc. All of this with the caveat that you should only ever be looking at an electronic viewfinder or LCD, not the optical viewfinder which will do serious eye damage if you look at the sun through the lens this way. Also, clouds are useful 'filters' of their own - if clouds are drifting over the eclipse, it reduces the intensity significantly allowing most camera sensors to shoot without risking damage - it's the same basic effect as shooting a sunset where the earth's atmosphere as the sun sets makes it much more muted and viewable, even to the naked eye.

Here in South Florida, we weren't in the totality zone - our maximum coverage was 81% or so. I had a 400mm lens with a 1.4x teleconverter on an APS-C body, so I was shooting 840mm equivalent. I set to aperture of F45, 1/4000 shutter speed, ISO100. This was the highest coverage moment for us:
https://g3.img-dpreview.com/94BD011556D44B9C8DB569CDEF2BD701.jpg

I was surprised that even shooting with no filters at all, the clouds were able to reduce the remaining brightness of the sun enough to make out sunspots!
 
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