Rental Camera Gear Destroyed by the Solar Eclipse of 2017
We recently had quite a spectacle in the United States, with a Solar Eclipse reaching totality throughout a large portion of the United States. Being that this was the first solar eclipse passing through the Continental US since 1979, excitement ran wild on capturing this natural event using the best camera gear available.
But with such excitement, came a treasure trove of warnings. Warnings that this event can easily damage your camera, your lens, and your eyes if you do not have the proper protection. With all of our rentals leading up to this event, we warned everyone to view the event with appropriate eyewear and to attach a solar filter to the end of their lenses to protect the lens elements and camera sensor.
But despite our warnings, we still expected gear to come back damaged and destroyed. And as evidence to our past posts of broken gear being disassembled and repaired, we figured you’d all want to see some of the gear that we got back and hear what went wrong. But please keep in mind, this post is for your entertainment, and not to be critical of our fantastic customer base. Things happen, and that’s why we have a repair department. And furthermore, we found this to be far more exciting than we were disappointed. With this being the first solar eclipse for Lensrentals, we didn’t know what to expect and were surprised with how little of our gear came back damaged. So without further ado, here are some of the pieces of equipment that we got back, destroyed by the Solar Eclipse of 2017.
Melted Sensors
The most common problem we’ve encountered with damage done by the eclipse was sensors being destroyed by the heat. We warned everyone in a blog post to buy a solar filter for your lens, and also sent out mass emails and fliers explaining what you need to adequately protect the equipment. But not everyone follows the rules, and as a result, we have quite a few destroyed sensors. To my personal surprise, this damage was far more visually apparent than I even expected, and the photos below really make it visible.
Mirror Damage
The images above are likely created because people were shooting in Live View mode, allowing them to compose the image using the back of their screen, instead of risking damage to their eyes by looking through the viewfinder. However, those who didn’t use live view (and hopefully guess and checked instead of staring through the viewfinder), were more likely to face damage to their camera’s mirror. While this damage was far rarer, we did get one particular camera with a damaged mirror box caused by the sun.
Lens Iris Damage
Another common problem we’ve had sent back is the lens iris being destroyed from the heat and brightness of the solar eclipse. In short, the lens iris is the mechanic piece that changes the amount of light that enters the camera, or in simpler terms, the aperture adjustment. Apertures are usually made from 8-12 pieces of black plastic or metal and are susceptible to heat damage. In one particular case below, a customer used a drop in solar filter to protect the camera from being damaged by the eclipse. He was right, the camera was protected….but the lens iris was not protected, and was destroyed.
ND System Damage
Filed under the unexpected, we also received a built in ND filter system damaged in one of our cinema camera systems. Most cinema cameras are equipped with a built in ND system that slides over the sensor, allowing them to adjust f-stop and shutter speeds to work better with their frame rate and shooting style. However, a common misconception is that an ND filter could properly protect the camera from the heat and light when shooting the solar eclipse. It doesn’t, and as a result, the damage is similar to that shown above with the sensors.
Overall, we were really impressed with how few pieces of gear we got back damaged. And of the things returned, we were equally impressed with our customer-base, and their guilt and owning up to the damage. Unfortunately, these types of damage are considered neglect, as warnings were given out to customers before the solar eclipse. Our LensCap insurance plan, which can be added to rentals for a small nominal fee, does not protect from neglect but is an excellent tool for those who are worried about their rental and want to protect themselves from any accidental damage. This is just a few of the pieces of gear we’ve gotten back that have shown damage from the eclipse, and will hopefully serve as a warning to those who are already prepping for the next eclipse in 2024.
492 Comments
Astro Landscapes ·
George Takei says: “OHHH MYYYY”
Ric of The LBC ·
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8de9f1828f6fc160259eaf4d6ff10f7832001a7dbdcb0a0f29d042a72ff808fe.jpg
jamie oliver instagram ·
hahhahaahha
january 2018 calendar ·
to attach a solar filter to the end of their lenses to protect the lens elements and camera sensor.
LuxeCalendar ·
Filed under the unexpected, we also received a built in ND filter system damaged in one of our cinema camera systems. Most cinema cameras are equipped with a built in ND system that slides over the sensor, allowing them to adjust f-stop and shutter speeds to work better with their frame rate and shooting style. However, a common misconception is that an ND filter could properly protect the camera from the heat and light when shooting the solar eclipse. It doesn’t, and as a result, the damage is similar to that shown above with the sensors.
Astro Landscapes ·
George Takei says: "OHHH MYYYY"
Ric of The LBC ·
https://uploads.disquscdn.c...
jamie oliver instagram ·
hahhahaahha
Eric Bowles ·
You have to wonder what happened to the eyes of the people with this gear.
I’m not sure I’d be willing to sell LensCap coverage to someone for this. It’s the equivalent of water damage – only caused by gross negligence. It certainly should carry a higher co-pay than normal damage.
Zach Sutton Photography ·
Lenscap doesn’t protect from something like this, which would be considered neglect. I just wanted to make mention of our insurance program, and how it protects people for normal, unforeseeable damage. I didn’t want the piece to be a complete fear mongering post, and offer at least a little light at the end of the tunnel.
The reality though, is this was actually surprising for us. If you checked leading up to the eclipse, you would have probably seen that we were pretty much out of stock on all longer telephotos. With the thousands of lenses we rented out for that weekend, only a handful of them came back damaged. And everyone who did end up damaging the gear were completely kind and understanding of the repair costs for their errors.
Eric Bowles ·
That makes perfect sense. Thanks for the great post.
TCav ·
“… and offer at least a little light at the end of the tunnel.”
I suspect you’ve gotten quite enough of that.
Piotr Jedrzejczak ·
How much the renter had to shell out to repair that Canon 600mm f/4L IS II USM?
sadsongs ·
Yes, what did it cost to fix?
vasile ·
the retina does not have pain receptors so you will not know what hit you until it’s too late
sadsongs ·
Really?
Eric Bowles ·
You have to wonder what happened to the eyes of the people with this gear.
I'm not sure I'd be willing to sell LensCap coverage to someone for this. It's the equivalent of water damage - only caused by gross negligence. It certainly should carry a higher co-pay than normal damage.
Zach Sutton Photography ·
Lenscap doesn't protect from something like this, which would be considered neglect. I just wanted to make mention of our insurance program, and how it protects people for normal, unforeseeable damage. I didn't want the piece to be a complete fear mongering post, and offer at least a little light at the end of the tunnel.
The reality though, is this was actually surprising for us. If you checked leading up to the eclipse, you would have probably seen that we were pretty much out of stock on all longer telephotos. With the thousands of lenses we rented out for that weekend, only a handful of them came back damaged. And everyone who did end up damaging the gear were completely kind and understanding of the repair costs for their errors.
TCav ·
"... and offer at least a little light at the end of the tunnel."
I suspect you've gotten quite enough of that.
vasile ·
the retina does not have pain receptors so you will not know what hit you until it's too late
sadsongs ·
Really?
donpedro ·
So before the eclipse, I spent a bunch of time shooting timelapses as practice. Wide angle lens, stopped down + ND filter, about 2 second exposure, going for 30 minutes at a time. I always made sure to keep the sun in the frame, but haven’t had a single issue. Is it mostly just telephoto lenses that can cause issues, then?
Roger Cicala ·
Telephotos are the worst. You won’t melt plastic with wide-angle lenses but we have seen sensors get damaged; I assume that was long exposure live-view kind of stuff.
donpedro ·
Yes, it was. Each shot was properly exposed, but I did keep taking shots continuously for 30 minutes or so.
Kári Jensson ·
There is only one camera I know of that can take a photo of an eclipse (was not a full one but close to it) without the sensor going to crap. I used an X100T with the built in ND filter and 1/32,000 STILL not reccomend it but it was my personal camera and i accepted the responsibility if it would get damaged.
Impulse_Vigil ·
How did the renter manage to damage the 20mm’s iris? Did he use it for time lapse or something?
donpedro ·
So before the eclipse, I spent a bunch of time shooting timelapses as practice. Wide angle lens, stopped down + ND filter, about 2 second exposure, going for 30 minutes at a time. I always made sure to keep the sun in the frame, but haven't had a single issue. Is it mostly just telephoto lenses that can cause issues, then?
Roger Cicala ·
Telephotos are the worst. You won't melt plastic with wide-angle lenses but we have seen sensors get damaged; I assume that was long exposure live-view kind of stuff.
Impulse_Vigil ·
How did the renter manage to damage the 20mm's iris? Did he use it for time lapse or something?
William Dyer ·
You were very gentle in your criticism of those who ignored the warnings and damaged your gear. I doubt I would have been so gentle, and I’m a very patient person. Did these people never play with a magnifying glass in the summer sun? Thank you for the photo examples, they were most enlightening.
Roger Cicala ·
In the repair department we were actually pretty pleased. I had predicted 18 or more burned items and it was actually like 6.
gavingreenwalt ·
“You were very gentle in your criticism of those who ignored the warnings and damaged your gear. ”
Well, the customers paid full rate for the repairs, so why would you be mad at someone who cost themselves money? 😀
Will ·
Almost everyone, professionals and amateurs, will have a brain fart at some point. Everyone messes up, we’re only human.
Sometimes it’s spilling a coffee, sometimes it’s tripping over our own feet, ordering the wrong part, forgetting an anniversary, misreading instructions etc.
I assume the person who (I think) put the filter between the lens and the camera body, had put thought into it, otherwise they’d not have used a filter at all. They just messed up that thought process.
Presumably everyone has done something like that at some point.
William Dyer ·
You were very gentle in your criticism of those who ignored the warnings and damaged your gear. I doubt I would have been so gentle, and I'm a very patient person. Did these people never play with a magnifying glass in the summer sun? Thank you for the photo examples, they were most enlightening.
gavingreenwalt ·
"You were very gentle in your criticism of those who ignored the warnings and damaged your gear. "
Well, the customers paid full rate for the repairs, so why would you be mad at someone who cost themselves money? :D That would be like being mad at someone who comes in to a car shop with an engine that they never changed the oil in. Sucks to be them!
Will ·
Almost everyone, professionals and amateurs, will have a brain fart at some point. Everyone messes up, we're only human.
Sometimes it's spilling a coffee, sometimes it's tripping over our own feet, ordering the wrong part, forgetting an anniversary, misreading instructions etc.
I assume the person who (I think) put the filter between the lens and the camera body, had put thought into it, otherwise they'd not have used a filter at all. They just messed up that thought process.
Presumably everyone has done something like that at some point.
Jeremy Wright ·
My kids asked what would happen to my camera during the eclipse if used improperly. I talked a bit and said, I’m pretty sure Lens Rentals will post something shortly afterwards. Once again you did not disappoint!
Y.A. ·
It didn’t even occur to me that there would be so much user error, but lo and behold, here we are lmao. Hopefully all this stuff is easy to repair.
MRBILL2008 ·
User error or just “it’s a rental, who cares!”
Brutikus32 ·
It’s not a rental anymore, proud new owner!
Eric Duminil ·
You can light a fire with a telephoto lens. I did it with an old Nikkor 200mm f/2.8. You just have to make sure the diaphragm is completely open and that nobody ever looks through the lens. Try to minimize the shadow area, and when the alignment is good enough, try to make the small yellow disk as bright and small as possible.
Pat Suri ·
You can light a fire with chinese-cheap-shit-that-comes-with-candy kind of lenses. Not to mention high precision lenses…
Joseph Palmeri ·
Most lenses today are made of plastic only the upper professional lenses are still manufactured from salts and hand ground.
TurtleCat ·
“Most”? Not at all on smartphones or any of the major camera companies.
Joseph Palmeri ·
Introducing Mineralogy – Google Books Result
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1780465203
John Mason – 2014 – ?Science
Some minerals that form large crystals of high clarity have their uses in optical … today, fluorite lenses are manufactured from high-purity fluorite that has been … Cameras, microscopes and telescopes all benefit from the properties of this mineral. … minerals (road-grit is but one use, another being, when refined, table-salt).
TurtleCat ·
Non sequitur
Paul B Pudlow ·
Not true but nice try
Joseph Palmeri ·
See: Flourite elements in non-Canon lenses. – FM Forums – Fred Miranda
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/99090
May 27, 2004 – 14 posts – ?3 authors
But now Leica (yes, Leica) has a new lens using a flourite element: … etc)? Are there other exotic elements used in current lens manufacturing, such … This Leica lens is for the M-system cameras and will make every Canon lens in that …. with a fluorite element, that entire element is one solid crystal of salt.
Joseph Palmeri ·
See: Flourite elements in non-Canon lenses. - FM Forums - Fred Miranda
www.fredmiranda.com/forum/t...
May 27, 2004 - 14 posts - 3 authors
But now Leica (yes, Leica) has a new lens using a flourite element: ... etc)? Are there other exotic elements used in current lens manufacturing, such ... This Leica lens is for the M-system cameras and will make every Canon lens in that .... with a fluorite element, that entire element is one solid crystal of salt.
wtfToast ·
wtf are you talking about??
Joseph Palmeri ·
I know what I’m saying. Different types of metallic salts are used in supersaturated solutions to grow clear salt crystals as large as 400 mm in diameter, then ground to concave and convex shapes, coated with special rare metals flashed onto their surfaces. These are assembled to form the lenses of hi value professional optical lenses. That is unless your into buying a PH camera in that case you’re using plastic lenses.
Ted ·
Are you referring to the crystals grown for the NIF project? Not lenses, btw…
Ted ·
Give a real reference
January 2018 Calendar ·
Most cinema cameras are equipped with a built in ND system that slides over the sensor, allowing them to adjust f-stop and shutter speeds to work better with their frame rate and shooting style.
Joseph Palmeri ·
I know what I'm saying. Different types of metallic salts are used in supersaturated solutions to grow clear salt crystals as large as 400 mm in diameter, then ground to concave and convex shapes, coated with special rare metals flashed onto their surfaces. These are assembled to form the lenses of hi value professional optical lenses. That is unless your into buying a PH camera in that case you're using plastic lenses.
BoomerHasIt ·
Give a real reference
wtfToast ·
From SALT???
Joseph Palmeri ·
Yes. Check it out on google.
xumi ·
Cheap lenses can use regular glass (molten sand), it does not have to be plastic. You were going from pure white to pitch black ignoring the many grey shades in between.
Tom Cass ·
You can light a fire with a cheap magnifying glass. I know because I’ve done it.
Jay Dee ·
Many a grasshopper gave their lives in this sort of budding scientist/sadist experiment of childhood.
Fred Enzo ·
Wait – Nikon made a 200 2.8? When?
Brett A. Wheeler ·
Maybe he meant 180 2.8. The 200 2.8 never existed http://www.photosynthesis.co.nz/nikon/serialno.html#70-xxPro
Eric Duminil ·
Sorry about that, I meant a 80-200mm f/2.8D used at 200mm.
Fred Enzo ·
Wait - Nikon made a 200 2.8? When?
January 2018 ·
Have you seen the still photos where the ISS space station transited the sun about 20ish minutes after the eclipse started?
jamie oliver instagram ·
From SALT???
Michael Clark ·
Fluorite crystals used in many Canon lenses are grown in solutions that contain metallic salts.
Jeremy Wright ·
My kids asked what would happen to my camera during the eclipse if used improperly. I talked a bit and said, I'm pretty sure Lens Rentals will post something shortly afterwards. Once again you did not disappoint!
Busha Busha ·
It didn't even occur to me that there would be so much user error, but lo and behold, here we are lmao. Hopefully all this stuff is easy to repair.
MRBILL2008 ·
User error or just "it's a rental, who cares!"
Rodney McKay ·
It's not a rental anymore, proud new owner!
jamie oliver instagram ·
From SALT???
tomhaggas ·
How does damage to a sensor manifest itself when taking pictures? I though I had my camera protected, but afterwards I noticed a small metallic ball on the sensor. However, it still takes photos and videos just fine.
Roger Cicala ·
You probably will find there’s at least an area of lower contrast if you pixel peep a bit. When it’s bad, it just becomes a burnt – out area of the sensor.
Roger Cicala ·
You probably will find there's at least an area of lower contrast if you pixel peep a bit. When it's bad, it just becomes a burnt - out area of the sensor.
Kári Jensson ·
I personally think that you should charge the customer for all the items. When you rent gear like this you SHOULD Know what you are doing and if you do not, well you should be legally forced to pay every damage you caused on purpose.
Jon Meeker ·
Oh, get off your high horse. This is why people rent gear. Why do this with your own camera when you can rent one that is insured, so in the case something does happen, you get your once in a lifetime shot and the camera doesn’t mean very much. Do you think they complain about breaking Hollywood cameras? No, they just rent another one. That’s how this industry works.
Traveler ·
A once in a “lifetime shot” does not require that you damage yours, or someone else’s gear. If you’re professional, or at least do due diligence, you can get the shot without collateral damage.
Jon Meeker ·
I guess you’ve never had an accident on set before then..
If you’re a pro you use the gear as tools and not as a precious personal camera. Think planet earth, think action movies, think documentaries. Things happen and guess what, gear breaks. It’s life and that’s why we have insurance. When you rent a camera, does I come to you brand spanking new? Are there scratches and dings and sometimes water damage? Yes! Because it’s rental gear that’s used hard. It’s simple. You live in fairy land if you think professionals don’t damage gear.
Jon Meeker ·
Also, it might benenfit you to use quotes properly.
sportsbomb ·
Looks like we found the “pro”.
Like that?
Jon Meeker ·
“Looks like we’ve found the pro. ”
Like that. ?
Jon Meeker ·
Do you guys really think a professional is going to worry about gear breaking? No. They need the shot and they need to be paid. It’s a calculated risk. I’m not saying it’s not shitty, but if you’re a pro sometimes it’s a risk you must take. Period.
Greg Cobb ·
What it sounds like you’re implying is that it’s okay to damage someone else’s gear rather than your own, even after all the warnings up front.
Kay O. Sweaver ·
If you own up to it and pay for it yes. Its an accident/mistake.
Jon Meeker ·
You pay insurance and a deposit whenever you rent gear, this is why. this is why rental houses were invented.
Jon Meeker ·
Not your buddy’s camera down the street, or your bosses camera, no. A rented camera that you clearly paid for insurance and a deposit? You should definitely heed the warnings but we are talking gear that is owned by a rental house for use by pros, and is bought knowing it will be damaged at some point. Clearly this rental house wasn’t upset. Doesn’t that make my point clear?
Zach Sutton Photography ·
Our rental insurance agreement doesn’t cover negligence. All those who damaged the gear shown in this post were required to pay additional repair costs.
Jon Meeker ·
That’s great! It’s the nature of this business. hopefully they made some money with the images and were able to pay for repairs without too much loss. Things happen, that’s how we get some of the best images, and I’m glad we have a rental agency that treats their customers with respect sometimes knowing things get damaged while using them.
Pryz Fytr ·
Pointing a lens at the sun is NOT in any way an “accident”.
Jon Meeker ·
I guess you didn’t understand that I didn’t imply THIS wasn’t an accident. I was responding to another comment referencing collateral damage.
Traveler ·
I’ve been a professional photographer for quite a few decades producing assignments for national magazines and national ads. And in the course of 3000 assignments never had an accident on set or on location. Diligent professionals who do their homework don’t have accidents, they take precautions. I consider my equipment tools, not “precious personal cameras” but I treat my gear well because unreliability is not tolerated and I make my living with these tools.
I did have a studio strobe unit blow a connector between the pack and head, but given I had 10 other packs it’s just a momentary inconvenience. That’s not an accident that’s just something that happens as gear wear over time. But as for ruining gear by doing something like aiming it at the Sun? One does their homework before doing things like that, and to be honest it’s just common sense not to aim your camera at the Sun. In fact out of long time habit if I place a camera on a table I have always made sure it does not face into the Sun as it’s not just eclipses that can burn an aperture or ruin shutter blades. This is also why one does not allow loupes or magnifiers to be uncovered in direct Sun, except in their case the damage is burning the building down.
I’ve never had to rent gear except a gyro stabilizer because as a professional I am supposed to be equipped for the work I pursue. And frankly I would never want to rent gear as that gear is often poorly treated by less than professional photographers who don’t know how to use the gear or properly treat it. I can’t afford to trust equipment used by others for my work. So I buy it and maintain it properly.
As for my living in a “fairy land” if I don’t think professionals damage their gear, well, I can pretty much guarantee I have vastly more extensive experience with professional photographers than you do, and I haven’t come across any pros who damage their gear through lack or diligence or thought.
Jon Meeker ·
Swinging your big cock around now, eh?
Right. Well I’m pretty damn sure cameras and mics and cables and cars and lenses and people get destroyed or killed on movie sets fairly frequently. I’m pretty sure the people that film planet earth would rather break a camera than not get the shot they’ve been camped out for two months to get. It’s why they have 10 backups.
While I agree this is neglected gear, I do not agree with anyone that says that professionals don’t damage gear or don’t use it in ways it wasn’t designed for. It’s a tool to make money.
I have to improvise all damn day long and so do the people I mentioned above. Shit breaks. Are you going to tell the BBC or a news channel or Nat Geo you couldn’t get the shot because you were worried about the camera? God fucking no you aren’t. You’re gonna get the shot and get your gear repairs and get paid.
For the record, I never said this was a good idea to do, or that I would do it myself. My entire point is this is WHY we rent gear. You wouldn’t want to do this with your own gear and not have the gear for your next shoot, right? Rent the gear. Pay the insurance, have insurance yourself, don’t be a dumbass and pay for repairs if need be. End of story.
leo tam ·
There’s risk, and there’s stupidity… The same difference between shooting in a sandstorm with your camera some sort of protective case, and shooting with out one and just winging it
Jon Meeker ·
Sure. BUT there may be an unforeseen circumstance that you are forced to deal with and take calculated risks, I.e. A stand storm, and shit still might break in a protective case. My whole point is the gear is made to be used. It’s not made to be coddled. If it takes destroying some gear over the course of a career I don’t think you’re losing that much WHEN ITS RENTED AND INSURED.
Traveler ·
I spend a fair amount of time shooting in deserts, on beaches and lots of places with blowing sand,. There are methods and materials that protect your gear in those circumstances.
You are a prime example of why never rented gear. I’d hate to be the guy who rented a piece of gear after you used it.
Jon Meeker ·
You are a prime example of why I hate high-horsed photographer who think they can’t do anything wrong. Blowing sand ain’t shit. You should own all your own gear with an attitude like that, you don’t even know why people rent.
I’ve never expected to rent something pristine. In fact, I would be surprised if it was. If you even knew anything about renting you would know that it rarely comes New because it’s rented hundreds of times in 1 year and shipped all over. You don’t rent something for it to be reliable. You rent something to get a shot you don’t normally get with gear you don’t need to buy because you use it rarely or seasonally or for a 1 off shoot. If it’s dinged or been repaired, so what?
And that is exactly what happened here.
Rental gear is abused just like rental cars. Have you ever Rented a car before? Did you buy their insurance?
I go hunting every year with a rent 100-400 and a 2x extender. It’s always dinged up and scratched because it’s an outdoor, widely used wild life lens. Things get beat up. Once again, get off high horse. It sounds like we are from two completely opposite sides of the industry.
Nicolas Bousquet ·
You have to understand we all do stupid mistakes. We may be tired, what is obvious to some is not to other and so on. It is not about being stupid as a person. We all do mistakes.
Let’s take car incidents. They almost all due to SEVERAL people involved making obvious error. Running too far, being too near the front vehicle, not following the rules. Still there millions of death a year worldwide due to that and one or two order of magnitude accident with just car damage… It happen.
What is the most stupid of the behavior is for one to think he is so smart that it can’t happen to him and that we should be harsh to people that made an error.
Khürt L. Williams ·
When you are told not to use your phone while driving and you cause an accident while using your phone while driving the judge does not consider your actions an accident. It’s negligence.
Please stop making excuses for people. At least no one dies while photographing an eclipse. People do die from people using phones while driving.
RH ·
guessing the deposit fees aren’t being returned 😉
RH ·
guessing the deposit fees aren't being returned ;)
Fausto Cantarella ·
Ma questa gente sta bene con la testa?
Roger Cicala ·
Le persone sono persone
TheCreator ·
Ma questa gente sta bene con la testa?
Ian ·
I’m hoping you didn’t rent a camera to the 600 f/4L IS II renter…if not, I’d hate to see his/her camera.
Roger Cicala ·
Ian, in this case he had put a solar filter as a drop-in behind the aperture. The camera was protected.
denim ·
Thus the warnings on the Net not to do it that way.
Andrew Dodd ·
Problem is, that doesn’t necessarily protect the camera – the filter rapidly burns through and then will let the light into the sensor. Although in this case the customer probably noticed a problem early enough to react.
PseudoBob ·
That depends on the filter used. You’re thinking of the thin mylar/polymer kind used in cardboard eclipse glasses. There are also silver deposited glass filters that would not suffer from this quite as badly. Regardless, a front-mounted filter is always preferable, and shooting without a filter be limited to very short exposures, preferably a lens cap in between shots. Get a cheap front lens cap and mount the solar filter in that, and you’ve got a reasonably sturdy eclipse filter that can be quickly mounted and unmounted, while still allowing you to compose shots in between unfiltered exposures.
feelgood13 ·
So due to “neglect”, customers were responsible for the full price of repairs? Ouch.
Panacea ·
Given the blanket coverage of the impending eclipse and similar exhortations here and everywhere about what’s needed to utilize/protect camera gear (not to mention common sense understanding of how cameras/lenses work)… your scare quotes around the word ‘neglect’ runs close to inappropriate… unless you meant that the more appropriate term should be ‘abuse’. But of course that’s not what you meant.
feelgood13 ·
So.. if i took pix of the sun back in March and damaged the equipment without all these “exhortations”, would it be considered “neglect”?
Panacea ·
If you took your rental Camry out onto the Rubicon Trail and returned it with three wheels, it doesn’t matter whether anybody warned you (or not) against doing that. You were rented the equipment with the representation that you were a competent operator, and that you are responsible for the welfare and care of the equipment during the term of rental. That doesn’t mean that you must know how to operate the equipment under every condition, but that you would treat unfamiliar terrain/usage with care, or avoid it altogether until you can be trained/guided so that you use it in a way that won’t harm it, i.e. treat it with the same degree of care as it it was your own.
The fact that there were exhortations around the time of the eclipse just makes it doubly inexcusable.
If I borrowed your camera and threw it into the air for an awesome drone-like selfie, but dropped it in the process… would I be responsible for the damage even though you didn’t exactly tell me beforehand that I shouldn’t do that? Of course I would be responsible. Common sense about what is involved and general caution that I should have exhibited applies.
feelgood13 ·
Your examples are akin to someone using their rental camera for a hammer show ? The equipment got damaged while it was doing what it was supposed to do! – shoot stuff!
And shooting the sun doesn’t automatically mean damage to equipment – there are variables involved. Couldn’t I argue that I accidentally put it on the wrong setting (bulb, for instance) and THAT would qualify for accidental damage? or what if a kid picked up the camera and shot the sun and got it damaged?
Greg Cobb ·
There is no comparison to a Total Eclipse and the sunlight we see daily.
Impulse_Vigil ·
You can argue that, and put “neglect” in quotations as much as you want, but it’s still you being a bonehead. Do you let kids get behind your rented vehicle too?
feelgood13 ·
What if you get held up by gun point and the guy takes your camera and takes pictures of the sun on bulb mode melts your rented camera and lens. Would that be considered “neglect”?
Impulse_Vigil ·
Probably not, since getting held at gunpoint is entirely out of your control, unlike wrangling children which should be a duty as a parent…
I hope you’re seriously not trying to say getting mugged is analogous to the other examples discussed. There’s a reason there are insurance policies against theft and natural disasters but not against your 5 year old’s disobedience or your willful ignorance. 😉
feelgood13 ·
What if someone pulled a pistol on you and takes your rented camera/lens and decides to shoot the sun on bulb mode and destroy the equipment? Would that be considered “neglect”?
feelgood13 ·
So due to "neglect", customers were responsible for the full price of repairs? Ouch.
Panacea ·
Given the blanket coverage of the impending eclipse and similar exhortations here and everywhere about what's needed to utilize/protect camera gear (not to mention common sense understanding of how cameras/lenses work)... your scare quotes around the word 'neglect' runs close to inappropriate... unless you meant that the more appropriate term should be 'abuse'. But of course that's not what you meant.
feelgood13 ·
So.. if i took pix of the sun back in March and damaged the equipment without all these "exhortations", would it be considered "neglect"?
Panacea ·
If you took your rental Camry out onto the Rubicon Trail and returned it with three wheels, it doesn't matter whether anybody warned you (or not) against doing that. You were rented the equipment with the representation that you were a competent operator, and that you are responsible for the welfare and care of the equipment during the term of rental. That doesn't mean that you must know how to operate the equipment under every condition, but that you would treat unfamiliar terrain/usage with care, or avoid it altogether until you can be trained/guided so that you use it in a way that won't harm it, i.e. treat it with the same degree of care as it it was your own.
The fact that there were exhortations around the time of the eclipse just makes it doubly inexcusable.
If I borrowed your camera and threw it into the air for an awesome drone-like selfie, but dropped it in the process... would I be responsible for the damage even though you didn't exactly tell me beforehand that I shouldn't do that? Of course I would be responsible. Common sense about what is involved and general caution that I should have exhibited applies.
feelgood13 ·
Your examples are akin to someone using their rental camera for a hammer show 😀 The equipment got damaged while it was doing what it was supposed to do! - shoot stuff!
And shooting the sun doesn't automatically mean damage to equipment - there are variables involved. Couldn't I argue that I accidentally put it on the wrong setting (bulb, for instance) and THAT would qualify for accidental damage? or what if a kid picked up the camera and shot the sun and got it damaged?
Impulse_Vigil ·
You can argue that, and put "neglect" in quotations as much as you want, but it's still you being a bonehead. Do you let kids get behind your rented vehicle too?
feelgood13 ·
What if you get held up by gun point and the guy takes your camera and takes pictures of the sun on bulb mode melts your rented camera and lens. Would that be considered "neglect"?
Impulse_Vigil ·
Probably not, since getting held at gunpoint is entirely out of your control, unlike wrangling children which should be a duty as a parent...
I hope you're seriously not trying to say getting mugged is analogous to the other examples discussed. There's a reason there are insurance policies against theft and natural disasters but not against your 5 year old's disobedience or your willful ignorance. ;)
At the end of the day it's their business and their terms, which you agreed to when you signed on the dotted line.
feelgood13 ·
What if someone pulled a pistol on you and takes your rented camera/lens and decides to shoot the sun on bulb mode and destroy the equipment? Would that be considered "neglect"?
Bryan Kincaid ·
So, how much was the repair bill for the Canon 600mm?
Roger Cicala ·
We did it in-house, so it wasn’t bad.
Echo ·
That’s one of the main reasons I choose you guys as my rental provider of choice. You only charge customers the actual repair cost.
Many other shops would just say, “Sir, we have charged your card for the total amount of the lens.” If you ask nicely, they may let you have the one you rented back, but not necessarily.
Baldrz1 ·
If they refuse, contact your credit card company. When you pay in full for damaged goods, you’re entitled to keep them.
Fred Enzo ·
But the question remains, what did it cost?
Roger Cicala ·
I couldn’t tell you exactly, that’s what accounting does. But the part was under $200, plus about 3 hours of repair time.
Roger Cicala ·
I couldn't tell you exactly, that's what accounting does. But the part was under $200, plus about 3 hours of repair time.
Cranky Observer ·
What is the material of construction of the diaphragm blades?
Roger Cicala ·
We did it in-house, so it wasn't bad.
Echo ·
That's one of the main reasons I choose you guys as my rental provider of choice. You only charge customers the actual repair cost.
Many other shops would just say, "Sir, we have charged your card for the total amount of the lens." If you ask nicely, they may let you have the one you rented back, but not necessarily.
Baldrz1 ·
If they refuse, contact your credit card company. When you pay in full for damaged goods, you're entitled to keep them.
Carl Weetabix ·
Color me stupid, but I used my own equipment without a solar filter. I figured plenty of shots I had taken had the sun in them, albeit I suppose not as zoomed in. They were mirrorless and hand held, probably never more than 30 seconds (if that). I’ve checked my aperture blades and sensors and see no signs of damage. In retrospect, lucky I guess.
As far as eyes go, at our position we only had a very partial eclipse. Looking into the sun really wasn’t plausible, even at peak. That I knew better than to do anyway. Hadn’t taken the time to read up on photo equipment.
Ah, lessons learned, fortunately not the hard way.
GoBigBlue ·
Even a partial is enough to do a lot of damage.
ThreeRing ·
Goddammit. Eclipses do not damage cameras. POINTING AT THE SUN with a telephoto does.
Scott Lewis ·
Easy tiger…
Scott Lewis ·
Easy tiger...
Impulse_Vigil ·
FWIW One of the damaged lenses pictured here is a 40mm equivalent mirrorless pancake… It may well have been left in the sun for a while tho, maybe they were doing a time lapse or something… Can’t imagine what else you’d point such a wide lens at the sun for.
Peter ·
Landscape photo with the eclipsed sun in the background?
Impulse_Vigil ·
Right, but we take thousands of those every day with such a lens, often longer exposures of a few seconds or even a minute, and we aren’t panicking about the sun in the background melting our lens iris… So how long did they leave that 20mm out there?
Impulse_Vigil ·
Right, but we take thousands of those every day with such a lens, often longer exposures of a few seconds or even a minute, and we aren't panicking about the sun in the background melting our lens iris... So how long did they leave that 20mm out there?
Carl Weetabix ·
Color me stupid, but I used my own equipment without a solar filter. I figured plenty of shots I had taken had the sun in them, albeit I suppose not as zoomed in. They were mirrorless and hand held, probably never more than 30 seconds (if that). I've checked my aperture blades and sensors and see no signs of damage. In retrospect, lucky I guess.
As far as eyes go, at our position we only had a very partial eclipse. Looking into the sun really wasn't plausible, even at peak. That I knew better than to do anyway. Hadn't taken the time to read up on photo equipment.
Ah, lessons learned, fortunately not the hard way.
Impulse_Vigil ·
FWIW One of the damaged lenses pictured here is a 40mm equivalent mirrorless pancake... It may well have been left in the sun for a while tho, maybe they were doing a time lapse or something... Can't imagine what else you'd point such a wide lens at the sun for.
Roger Cicala ·
Ian, in this case he had put a solar filter as a drop-in behind the aperture. The camera was protected.
Andrew Dodd ·
Problem is, that doesn't necessarily protect the camera - the filter rapidly burns through and then will let the light into the sensor. Although in this case the customer probably noticed a problem early enough to react.
PseudoBob ·
That depends on the filter used. You're thinking of the thin mylar/polymer kind used in cardboard eclipse glasses. There are also silver deposited glass filters that would not suffer from this quite as badly. Regardless, a front-mounted filter is always preferable, and shooting without a filter be limited to very short exposures, preferably a lens cap in between shots. Get a cheap front lens cap and mount the solar filter in that, and you've got a reasonably sturdy eclipse filter that can be quickly mounted and unmounted, while still allowing you to compose shots in between unfiltered exposures.
Richard Sanderson ·
Not sure why anyone would take the filter off a camera aimed at the sun during the partial phases, unless they are very inexperienced or simply not thinking. There is a time, however, about 30 seconds before totality begins when the camera needs to be unfiltered to capture the “diamond ring.” After totality ends, most photographers again keep the filter off for 30 seconds or so to record the second diamond ring. Then the filter goes back on. I’ve done this at multiple eclipses with both film and digital cameras with no damage, because only a pinpoint or razor-thin crescent of sun is exposed. At this eclipse, I decided to risk my older Canon digital camera to record a video of totality. I started it, unfiltered, about a minute before totality and walked away. I then turned it off about 1.5 minutes after totality ended. No damage, and I even captured the two NASA jets zooming past the eclipsed sun over Tennessee!
sliceAndDice ·
I’d like to see that video if you have is posted somewhere
Richard Sanderson ·
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a546191413bee42d73e603563fcdd3f020dd522b8751522c772fed3606415908.jpg
Richard Sanderson ·
Here’s a screenshot that I darkened a bit, showing the two jets. Totality came out a little overexposed, unfortunately, but I made the video mainly for the sound track of all the screaming and excitement, which came out great!
Kathy Robertson ·
wow. nice.
Richard Sanderson ·
Thanks, Kathy. I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time.
Jonathan Stewart ·
Not necessarily the NASA jets. FlightRadar24 posted a video on Twitter of the flight paths of literally hundreds of planes that followed totality.
Marcel LaB ·
Not seeing a video on FlightRadar2’s twitter history of hundreds of planes following totality, I do see screen grabs about of 10 flight paths and this is the only one in that area and I don’t see much sweepback in the photo, I suppose it could be an old citation, but it seems plausible to me this is the NASA plane.
Jonathan Stewart ·
It was a retweet of theirs from Aug. 24: https://twitter.com/PostGraphics/status/900850232489062401
Hope that works. Yeah, it’s plausible it was the NASA plane, but with all the other aircraft following totality, as this video shows, it’s more than likely it was another.
Richard Sanderson ·
Obviously, I could be wrong. What I saw/recorded were two swiftly-moving aircraft during totality, one ahead of the other and both moving in the same direction and at the same velocity, with one passing just above the corona and the other just below it. That evening on “Nova,” they discussed the two jets and included a map of their flight path which took them almost directly over where I was stationed. I read that the jets few along the path from Kansas City to Nashville, which was about 40 miles east of my location.
Rocketeers2001 ·
Nice job catching the Jets in the video!
Have you seen the still photos where the ISS space station transited the sun about 20ish minutes after the eclipse started? Looks like a sunspot until you do a double take.
Richard Sanderson ·
Thanks! I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time. Yes, those ISS pictures are incredible! A friend of mine at Brown University has taken some amazing ISS pictures at night, where you can see lots of detail. I guess it’s not all that hard to photograph, but the trick is having a telescope that you can program to track its rapid motion across the sky. With the sun, you have to know precisely when the ISS transit will occur and then do a video because it shoots past the sun in the blink of an eye.
nikoniko ·
I would love to see your photo
Richard Sanderson ·
Here’s a picture I took of the diamond ring. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8888eb4f131be11442727d4f0a44d57ecb7bd8eb9bac65fa86e39b5c3a14635a.jpg
Chris Adams ·
That looks amazing. Well done.
Richard Sanderson ·
Thank you!
Richard Sanderson ·
Here's a picture I took of the diamond ring. https://uploads.disquscdn.c...
Ralph Hightower ·
I goofed during totality. I had a DayStar Solar Filter on the lens and I was wondering why the exposure was taking so long! Duh-oh! I left the lens filter on! But this was my first total solar eclipse. I got the first half and the second half, but I missed photographing the half-time show! I took my glasses off during totality and the corona was awesome.
My wife and I are planning to see the April 2024 eclipse.
Richard Sanderson ·
It happens even to experienced eclipse-chasers. A guy at my site accidentally left the solar filter on his telescope throughout totality and recorded nothing. Totality generates lots of emotion and anxiety and excitement, which leads to mistakes. My three rules for total eclipse photography are: practice, preparation, and simplicity. The meanings of the first two are obvious. The last one means that you shouldn’t force yourself to make complicated decisions or do complex tasks during totality. I’m glad you saw totality with the best optical device: your eyes!
GTJ ·
Newbies shouldn’t make excuses for failures.
Fred Enzo ·
failures is how a newbie becomes a former newbie – they learn, just like ALL of us do.
Joe T. ·
Happened to a guy at my site too in Gallatin TN. What was worse, I’m pretty sure the guy had traveled all the way from Japan for this…!
Richard Sanderson ·
That’s sad, but hopefully he spent at least part of totality simply staring at the eclipse. Photographs of totality are very striking, but I’ve never seen an image that completely captures the delicate, translucent beauty of the corona. Some high dynamic range images come close, but many of these go too far because their goal is to maximize detail, not replicate the visual experience. So, he can take some consolation in the fact that his two eyes did a better job than his camera would have. But of course, I love my images and appreciate their value too.
Joe T. ·
That’s the thing I’ve noticed too. I’m glad I worried more about seeing it than getting a photo of it (though I did get what I considered fairly decent photos considering I was working with loose foil, a rubber band, a no-name telephoto lens and my iPhone!)
I’m seriously considering taking up painting just to try to accurately convey what it looked like.
Jonathan Stewart ·
Best advice I got was to not worry about the photos. I just took a few snapshots and tried to enjoy they show with my family and it was magical. My photos captured my son’s awe, and so are meaningful to me, if nobody else. That’s all that counts. After a couple more, then I’ll worry about trying to capture the eclipse. Next up, Chile 2019.
John Talbert ·
I have been saying this too. Thought I wrote it. So true!
fsurfer4 ·
I was near Gallatin doing reconnaissance and a local said there were 300 japanese scientists in the area.
Ralph Hightower ·
I practiced daily, four days before the eclipse. The first day was a total failure! I gave up after trying to find the sun with the filter on the 300mm lens (full frame 35mm DSLR); outside was incredibly bright and the sun almost overhead. Heading back to the house, I thought of using a windbreaker to drape over the camera and myself. The windbreaker worked great! I was able to block out the light from the environment and I was able to sight the sun; I’m buying a focusing dark cloth for 4×5 view cameras for the next eclipse. I bought a Vello ShutterBoss II and set it for one minute intervals. I tried to make it work with the Auto Exposure Bracketing for the Canon 5D (5 shots: -3 to +1 for the partials and 7 shots: -2 to +2 for totality). The day of the big event, I figured out how to set up the ShutterBoss II to work with AEB. I may have gotten more photos than necessary, but I got the bracketing.
For 2024, I’m buying a motorized mount. I used the “drift” method for 2017 with my pan-tilt head and occasionally, I clipped the sun at an edge.
Thomas Stewart Helms ·
Sounds like you had a good setup. For 2024 you may also want to look into a software called Solar Eclipse Maestro it’s free but for Mac only. It allows you to write a script for the entire eclipse, you can even have it control multiple cameras simultaneously. I used it during this eclipse and doing so allowed me to still enjoy the eclipse. Additionally, it gives you the option of voice prompts to remind you to take the filters off etc.
Michael Clark ·
@ralphhightower:disqus I just used some large foam core panels with holes cut precisely just snug enough to grip the midpoint of my lens barrels. Slide them on from the rear of the lens before attaching it to the camera and they’ll stay put on their own.
fsurfer4 ·
Welcome to the club. I did the same thing.
https://goo.gl/photos/ibsyd9TMUBPcMEU2A
Ethan T ·
Same here! At first I was getting extreme exposure times, but I stopped and followed my golden rule: look at the eclipse with my eyeballs instead of fiddling with the camera the whole time. About 30 seconds in (of our 2-minute window) I remembered that I had left the filter on, so I popped it off and started shooting video.
Daniel Gump ·
I had everything on my camera dialed for the 1/4000s quick exposures I was taking before totality, so I was scrambling during the 2min or so to adjust everything and ended up with a black dot and a large white blob. Well, there’s always 2024!
I did get some timelapse footage and some pre/post-totality light rippling on a white cloth, at least.
Fred Enzo ·
I think everyone is, now.
Arun Hegde ·
Richard, I did something similar. I had a solar filter threaded (loosely to remove easily) on my 300mm lens that I removed a minute or so before totality. Even then, I put a light weight yellow cloth to protect the equipment. After totality, I removed the camera from the mount since I’d captured the partial phases earlier. It worked well, and I was even able to capture the ISS in the frame during totality.
Richard Sanderson ·
I know what you’re saying, Arun, but the only way to capture the diamond ring or Bailey’s Beads is with an unfiltered camera. As I mentioned, this has never resulted in damage to any of my cameras, and virtually all eclipse photographers record those moments. I guess they are so fleeting that no damage is done. Regarding the video I described, I used an old camera where I was willing to take a chance and it turned out good. With my still photos, I continued to see the corona for about 45 seconds or so after totality had ended and I kept taking unfiltered pictures a tiny bit longer than I should have, with no harm done. Sometimes you’re obliged to risk your equipment to get the shots you want, as I’ve done in the past while spelunking and white water rafting. That’s when old cameras have value. I wouldn’t have risked a new or very expensive camera on the unfiltered video and I certainly wouldn’t have done this with rented equipment.
Arun Hegde ·
Richard, I agree with you. I was able to get a similar photo of the diamond ring as you have posted below, and of Bailey’s Beads, both of which, as you point out, have to be done without a filter. The appearance of the diamond ring is an indication that it is no longer safe to keep shooting without a filter – so put the filter (and your glasses!) on immediately after you see the diamond ring. I had my camera set to do a continuously repeating sequence of bracketed exposures which was how I was able to capture these transient phenomena.
Richard Sanderson ·
Yes, you’re absolutely correct Arun. One shouldn’t risk removing the filter before Bailey’s Beads or keeping it off after they have passed. You seem to be experienced in eclipse photography. You and I know exactly what to expect and what the diamond ring looks like and how long it lasts.
I have a feeling that much of the accidental equipment damage was the result of inexperience. However, watching YouTube videos of total eclipses is a good way for beginners to learn. That’s how I prepared my four children ages 8 to 11 to experience totality, which they did under supervision with no problems. My fear was that one of them would keep the eclipse glasses on during totality, so we rehearsed that part carefully and my video records my loud voice commanding them to, “Take the glasses off…..Glasses off!” ?
Greg Dunn ·
Yes, the trick seems to be capturing the diamond ring quickly, and of course with an unfiltered camera it will be a very short exposure. Mine were about 1/1250 sec. and I only left the filter off for about 20-30 seconds during the post-totality phase, giving me time for a handful of shots. The filter went back on as soon as the overexposure showed it was too bright. The corona shows up in the early ones just fine, and I verified no damage to any part of the camera system. Practicing with full sun in days before the eclipse gave me a good feel for what I’d have to do during the actual event, so it was something I’d practiced several times already.
I was determined that I’d enjoy the eclipse without worrying about getting photos, but since I wasn’t fumbling and rushing to get ready, I was able to shoot calmly while still looking around and watching the spectacle for most of the totality. As a bonus, I captured some images which will enhance my memories of the event!
btsc ·
If they were renting camera gear they were more than likely inexperienced. I waited too long to look for a solar filter and had to use a homemade one, which worked like a charm.
Alison Stern ·
Could you send me a copy of the photo with the NASA jets we know the NASA photographer on board them.
Alison Stern ·
I promise to give you all credits. She just almost never gets shots of the plabest as they ate filling things.
Richard Sanderson ·
Hi Allison. Sorry, I’ve been busy lately and haven’t checked this discussion. Here’s a link to my NASA jets picture from the “Sky & Telescope” web site. I was stationed in Clarksville, TN. I read that the jets flew north from Houston to Kansas City and then proceeded east along the path of totality all the way to Nashville. I’m assuming they started accelerating along the path and the umbra caught up with them somewhere along their route. Where I was, the sun was still totally eclipsed when they raced overhead, one above and the other below the sun a few seconds later. My email is in the S&T link. Perhaps the photographer you know who was aboard one of the jets could drop me a line.
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/online-gallery/twin-nasa-wb-57f-jets-zooming-past-totally-eclipsed-sun-at-50000-feet/
Alison Stern ·
I promise to give you all credits. She just almost never gets shots of the plane as they are often going so fast.
Richard Sanderson ·
Hi Alison. Sorry, I've been busy lately and haven't checked this discussion. Here's a link to my NASA jets picture from the "Sky & Telescope" web site. I was stationed in Clarksville, TN. I read that the jets flew north from Houston to Kansas City and then proceeded east along the path of totality all the way to Nashville. I'm assuming they started accelerating along the path and the umbra caught up with them somewhere along their route. Where I was, the sun was still totally eclipsed when they raced overhead, one above and the other below the sun a few seconds later. My email is in the S&T link. Perhaps the photographer you know who was aboard one of the jets could drop me a line.
http://www.skyandtelescope....
Andrew ·
After reading some of the responses, it sounds like I was one of the lucky ones. I was in Decatur, TN with my 400mm + 1.4extender. Of course I planned and practiced well in advance with a good filter. Then I used my custom settings on my camera for before, during, and after totality. I did not want to trust my timer on my remote so I manually took 7 bracketed pictures 7-10 min apart from beginning to end. I was also lucky to have some friends acting as my pit crew to start my secondary video camera (recording us and the sunset behind us) in addition to them swapping my filter on/off during totality. The hard work paid off as I captured every part of the eclipse without damaging my equipment. In Decatur, I too saw the NASA jets and even captured several cool shots of a satellite to the southwest edge of the moon/sun during totality. Blue skies the entire time.
Richard Sanderson ·
Andrew, I also captured a mystery object racing through my video field from west to east during the second diamond ring. It was moving so fast, it appeared as little trails on each video frame and left no contrail. The ISS never came near the sun in TN during totality, so I’m assuming it was a low-flying jet, although it sure looked like a moving pinpoint. Perhaps it was a light on an aircraft. I saw where a bunch of balloons also were launched prior to totality. I’ll probably never find out for sure what it was.
Richard Sanderson ·
Andrew, I also captured a mystery object racing through my video field from west to east during the second diamond ring. It was moving so fast, it appeared as little trails on each video frame and left no contrail. The ISS never came near the sun in TN during totality, so I'm assuming it was a low-flying jet, although it sure looked like a moving pinpoint. Perhaps it was a light on an aircraft. I saw where a bunch of balloons also were launched prior to totality. I'll probably never find out for sure what it was.
AldoC ·
I remain concerned about camera safety just before and after totality, especially a mirrorless camera, where the sensor is always exposed. In your experiment, what size lens did you use? Or, more important, at what f-stop (as this determines the image power density)?
Richard Sanderson ·
Aldo, I used a 200mm Canon lens at f/6.3 and manually focused, with the camera in live view mode and set at ISO100. I probably should have opted for 300mm, but the 200 made life a bit easier because I avoided having to re-center the sun from before totality until well after totality was over. Focusing precisely to infinity is always challenging, but by draping a towel over my head and digitally magnifying the image on the viewing screen, and then using a loupe, my focus turned out very good. My images of totality pretty much fill up the whole screen in my PowerPoint shows and look very sharp. They turned out better than many I’ve seen that were taken using longer lenses.
Christine Guinn ·
I think you nailed it. “unless they are very inexperienced or simply not thinking”
This was the first eclipse I photographed, and I even used this as an excuse to finally purchase a DSLR, (only a Canon Rebel T6, but still…it’s a DLSR), and I got great results. I researched quite a bit before trying this, and knew about taking off the filter just before totality, to capture the Diamond Ring. My camera got hot, (it WAS sitting in the sun for several hours, with the Live View active), but I didn’t break anything, because I took the time to research what I was doing.
TimAdmin ·
Care to share them?
Richard Sanderson ·
There are links to two of my pictured above, Tim, including the NASA jets.
Robert Garfinkle ·
I had a decent shoot. but I also had a bit of experience behind me.
1. read up on what others do. and keep reading. know the successful outcomes and study the failures too. “read. read read.” – just because some make it look easy or have had successes doesn’t warrant risk to equipment or your eyes.
2. Buy insurance for your camera and equipment. If the rental company offers insurance, and it sounds expensive, not as expensive as owning their equipment that no longer works. buy it. As far as insuring your equipment, for example, my camera and lenses cost 160.00 / year – that’s nothing. state farm provides insurance which has a zero deductible, direct loss policy, and will offer you full value for damaged / stolen equipment. this is a policy for personal equipment, does not cover photo business.
3. Take @ralphhightower:disqus’s advice (below), practice, practice, practice. Between now and the next eclipse you will have more than enough time to become comfortable shooting solar events and minimize risk. Again, there is soooo much information, great information in fact, on solar shooting and eclipse photography
4. Don’t bite off more than you can chew!! For example. Whilst I had a couple years experience shooting the solar disk using filters etc, it did not buy me any experience with solar eclipses. Solar eclipses bear quite a few features (i.e. partial phases, coronal events, bailey’s beads, diamond ring, and prominences), that’s a lot to go after. So, I made a decision to only focus on a few features to capture. The reason I say this is, you don’t have to have this whole script in your head to capture everything; which will save you having to fiddle and diddle around in a frantic frenzy during the event, prone to making more mistakes…
You want your head as clear as possible, to help aide in successful imagery as well as the most important thing of all – to spend time enjoying the eclipse with your own eyes. It was very easy to make a few adjustments / corrections, use a cable release to take the photos and have the ability to look at the eclipse at the same time…
5. When the sun starts to shine again, and you know you can’t take any more effective images, put the filter back on… call it an event.
6. DON’T BE DISAPOINTED! Take what you can get, when you can get it, and if all you got was one shot, well, take it. accept it. any shots of an eclipse you can walk away with, was a success.
I screwed up too. I had a filter on, but had my ISO too high during the first 20 minutes of the eclipse. all my partials up to that point were no good. I set my settings correctly, and just continued shooting… there will be other times. Don’t let a few bad apple shots distract the rest of your event…
—— happy hunting.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d456f08e4c8dfb8f5ad7f228ca070d0117a8bd170d07cfabbb44a74e6b4deda9.jpg
Richard Sanderson ·
Excellent photo and equally excellent advice, Robert.
I always boil it down to my three rules of thumb for total solar eclipse photography: preparation, practice and simplicity. The first two are self explanatory. By simplicity, I mean don’t demand too much of yourself during totality because there is a factor that is hard to quantify, and that is the intense excitement and emotional component created by totality.
When a friend of mine yelled “30 seconds” and I saw the diamond ring forming, I noticed that my hands were shaking a little bit due to the adrenaline. I quickly calmed down and got my pictures. Some people have started crying during totality. You never know how you will react. The easier you keep things during totality, the better.
I didn’t cry until afterwards, when I played my video in the hotel room and heard the euphoric voices of my young children shouting, “Wow, wow, wow, I see it!….That is so beautiful!….That’s amazing, Daddy!” That’s when it got to me! 🙂
Richard Sanderson ·
Not sure why anyone would take the filter off a camera aimed at the sun during the partial phases, unless they are very inexperienced or simply not thinking. There is a time, however, about 30 seconds before totality begins when the camera needs to be unfiltered to capture the "diamond ring." After totality ends, most photographers again keep the filter off for 30 seconds or so to record the second diamond ring. Then the filter goes back on. I've done this at multiple eclipses with both film and digital cameras with no damage, because only a pinpoint or razor-thin crescent of sun is exposed. At this eclipse, I decided to risk my older Canon digital camera to record a video of totality. I started it, unfiltered, about a minute before totality and walked away. I then turned it off about 1.5 minutes after totality ended. No damage, and I even captured the two NASA jets zooming past the eclipsed sun over Tennessee!
sliceAndDice ·
I'd like to see that video if you have is posted somewhere
Richard Sanderson ·
https://uploads.disquscdn.c...
Richard Sanderson ·
Here's a screenshot that I darkened a bit, showing the two jets. Totality came out a little overexposed, unfortunately, but I made the video mainly for the sound track of all the screaming and excitement, which came out great!
Get Outside Yourself ·
Not necessarily the NASA jets. FlightRadar24 posted a video on Twitter of the flight paths of literally hundreds of planes that followed totality.
Marcel LaB ·
Not seeing a video on FlightRadar2's twitter history of hundreds of planes following totality, I do see screen grabs about of 10 flight paths and this is the only one in that area and I don't see much sweepback in the photo, I suppose it could be an old citation, but it seems plausible to me this is the NASA plane.
Get Outside Yourself ·
It was a retweet of theirs from Aug. 24: https://twitter.com/PostGra...
Hope that works. Yeah, it's plausible it was the NASA plane, but with all the other aircraft following totality, as this video shows, it's more than likely it was another.
Richard Sanderson ·
Obviously, I could be wrong. What I saw/recorded were two swiftly-moving aircraft during totality, one ahead of the other and both moving in the same direction and at the same velocity, with one passing just above the corona and the other just below it. That evening on "Nova," they discussed the two jets and included a map of their flight path which took them almost directly over where I was stationed. I read that the jets few along the path from Kansas City to Nashville, which was about 40 miles east of my location.
Rocketeers2001 ·
Nice job catching the Jets in the video!
Have you seen the still photos where the ISS space station transited the sun about 20ish minutes after the eclipse started? Looks like a sunspot until you do a double take.
Richard Sanderson ·
Thanks! I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time. Yes, those ISS pictures are incredible! A friend of mine at Brown University has taken some amazing ISS pictures at night, where you can see lots of detail. I guess it's not all that hard to photograph, but the trick is having a telescope that you can program to track its rapid motion across the sky. With the sun, you have to know precisely when the ISS transit will occur and then do a video because it shoots past the sun in the blink of an eye.
Ralph Hightower ·
I goofed during totality. I had a DayStar Solar Filter on the lens and I was wondering why the exposure was taking so long! Duh-oh! I left the lens filter on! But this was my first total solar eclipse. I got the first half and the second half, but I missed photographing the half-time show! I took my glasses off during totality and the corona was awesome.
My wife and I are planning to see the April 2024 eclipse.
Richard Sanderson ·
It happens even to experienced eclipse-chasers. A guy at my site accidentally left the solar filter on his telescope throughout totality and recorded nothing. Totality generates lots of emotion and anxiety and excitement, which leads to mistakes. My three rules for total eclipse photography are: practice, preparation, and simplicity. The meanings of the first two are obvious. The last one means that you shouldn't force yourself to make complicated decisions or do complex tasks during totality. I'm glad you saw totality with the best optical device: your eyes!
GTJ ·
Newbies shouldn't make excuses for failures.
Fred Enzo ·
failures is how a newbie becomes a former newbie - they learn, just like ALL of us do.
Joe T. ·
Happened to a guy at my site too in Gallatin TN. What was worse, I'm pretty sure the guy had traveled all the way from Japan for this...!
Richard Sanderson ·
That's sad, but hopefully he spent at least part of totality simply staring at the eclipse. Photographs of totality are very striking, but I've never seen an image that completely captures the delicate, translucent beauty of the corona. Some high dynamic range images come close, but many of these go too far because their goal is to maximize detail, not replicate the visual experience. So, he can take some consolation in the fact that his two eyes did a better job than his camera would have. But of course, I love my images and appreciate their value too.
Joe T. ·
That's the thing I've noticed too. I'm glad I worried more about seeing it than getting a photo of it (though I did get what I considered fairly decent photos considering I was working with loose foil, a rubber band, a no-name telephoto lens and my iPhone!)
I'm seriously considering taking up painting just to try to accurately convey what it looked like.
Get Outside Yourself ·
Best advice I got was to not worry about the photos. I just took a few snapshots and tried to enjoy they show with my family and it was magical. My photos captured my son's awe, and so are meaningful to me, if nobody else. That's all that counts. After a couple more, then I'll worry about trying to capture the eclipse. Next up, Chile 2019.
Ralph Hightower ·
I practiced daily, four days before the eclipse. The first day was a total failure! I gave up after trying to find the sun with the filter on the 300mm lens (full frame 35mm DSLR); outside was incredibly bright and the sun almost overhead. Heading back to the house, I thought of using a windbreaker to drape over the camera and myself. The windbreaker worked great! I was able to block out the light from the environment and I was able to sight the sun; I'm buying a focusing dark cloth for 4x5 view cameras for the next eclipse. I bought a Vello ShutterBoss II and set it for one minute intervals. I tried to make it work with the Auto Exposure Bracketing for the Canon 5D (5 shots: -3 to +1 for the partials and 7 shots: -2 to +2 for totality). The day of the big event, I figured out how to set up the ShutterBoss II to work with AEB. I may have gotten more photos than necessary, but I got the bracketing.
For 2024, I'm buying a motorized mount. I used the "drift" method for 2017 with my pan-tilt head and occasionally, I clipped the sun at an edge.
Thomas Stewart Helms ·
Sounds like you had a good setup. For 2024 you may also want to look into a software called Solar Eclipse Maestro it's free but for Mac only. It allows you to write a script for the entire eclipse, you can even have it control multiple cameras simultaneously. I used it during this eclipse and doing so allowed me to still enjoy the eclipse. Additionally, it gives you the option of voice prompts to remind you to take the filters off etc.
Michael Clark ·
@ralphhightower I just used some large foam core panels with holes cut precisely just snug enough to grip the midpoint of my lens barrels. Slide them on from the rear of the lens before attaching it to the camera and they'll stay put on their own.
fsurfer4 ·
Welcome to the club. I did the same thing. At least I got a couple of pics with my cell.
https://goo.gl/photos/ibsyd...
Daniel Gump ·
I had everything on my camera dialed for the 1/4000s quick exposures I was taking before totality, so I was scrambling during the 2min or so to adjust everything and ended up with a black dot and a large white blob. Well, there's always 2024!
I did get some timelapse footage and some pre/post-totality light rippling on a white cloth, at least.
Arun Hegde ·
Richard, I did something similar. I had a solar filter threaded (loosely to remove easily) on my 300mm lens that I removed a minute or so before totality. Even then, I put a light weight yellow cloth over the leans to protect the equipment which I removed a few seconds before totality. After totality, I removed the camera from the mount since I'd captured the partial phases earlier. It worked well, and I was even able to capture the ISS in the frame during totality.
I would be very cautious though about shooting the uneclipsed sun's photosphere unfiltered at any time, even if is it a "thin crescent". That thin crescent still has the same intensity in its lit area as the full sun. The only difference will be that the damage will occur over a smaller area on the mirror/sensor/shutters etc. I would expect that the cost to repair would be the same none the less. This is the same reason why you do not want to view ANY part of the photosphere, no matter how thin, for any meaningful period of time with your naked eye.
Richard Sanderson ·
I know what you're saying, Arun, but the only way to capture the diamond ring or Bailey's Beads is with an unfiltered camera. As I mentioned, this has never resulted in damage to any of my cameras, and virtually all eclipse photographers record those moments. I guess they are so fleeting that no damage is done. Regarding the video I described, I used an old camera where I was willing to take a chance and it turned out good. With my still photos, I continued to see the corona for about 45 seconds or so after totality had ended and I kept taking unfiltered pictures a tiny bit longer than I should have, with no harm done. Sometimes you're obliged to risk your equipment to get the shots you want, as I've done in the past while spelunking and white water rafting. That's when old cameras have value. I wouldn't have risked a new or very expensive camera on the unfiltered video and I certainly wouldn't have done this with rented equipment.
Arun Hegde ·
Richard, I agree with you. I was able to get a similar photo of the diamond ring as you have posted below, and of Bailey's Beads, both of which, as you point out, have to be done without a filter. The appearance of the diamond ring is an indication that it is no longer safe to keep shooting without a filter - so put the filter (and your glasses!) on immediately after you see the diamond ring. I had my camera set to do a continuously repeating sequence of bracketed exposures which was how I was able to capture these transient phenomena.
Richard Sanderson ·
Yes, you're absolutely correct Arun. One shouldn't risk removing the filter before Bailey's Beads or keeping it off after they have passed. You seem to be experienced in eclipse photography. You and I know exactly what to expect and what the diamond ring looks like and how long it lasts.
I have a feeling that much of the accidental equipment damage was the result of inexperience. However, watching YouTube videos of total eclipses is a good way for beginners to learn. That's how I prepared my four children ages 8 to 11 to experience totality, which they did under supervision with no problems. My fear was that one of them would keep the eclipse glasses on during totality, so we rehearsed that part carefully and my video records my loud voice commanding them to, "Take the glasses off.....Glasses off!" 😊
Greg Dunn ·
Yes, the trick seems to be capturing the diamond ring quickly, and of course with an unfiltered camera it will be a very short exposure. Mine were about 1/1250 sec. and I only left the filter off for about 20-30 seconds during the post-totality phase, giving me time for a handful of shots. The filter went back on as soon as the overexposure showed it was too bright. The corona shows up in the early ones just fine, and I verified no damage to any part of the camera system. Practicing with full sun in days before the eclipse gave me a good feel for what I'd have to do during the actual event, so it was something I'd practiced several times already.
I was determined that I'd enjoy the eclipse without worrying about getting photos, but since I wasn't fumbling and rushing to get ready, I was able to shoot calmly while still looking around and watching the spectacle for most of the totality. As a bonus, I captured some images which will enhance my memories of the event!
AldoC ·
I remain concerned about camera safety just before and after totality, especially a mirrorless camera, where the sensor is always exposed. In your experiment, what size lens did you use? Or, more important, at what f-stop (as this determines the image power density)?
Richard Sanderson ·
Aldo, I used a 200mm Canon lens at f/6.3 and manually focused, with the camera in live view mode and set at ISO100. I probably should have opted for 300mm, but the 200 made life a bit easier because I avoided having to re-center the sun from before totality until well after totality was over. Focusing precisely to infinity is always challenging, but by draping a towel over my head and digitally magnifying the image on the viewing screen, and then using a loupe, my focus turned out very good. My images of totality pretty much fill up the whole screen in my PowerPoint shows and look very sharp. They turned out better than many I've seen that were taken using longer lenses.
Christine Guinn ·
I think you nailed it. "unless they are very inexperienced or simply not thinking"
This was the first eclipse I photographed, and I even used this as an excuse to finally purchase a DSLR, (only a Canon Rebel T6, but still...it's a DLSR), and I got great results. I researched quite a bit before trying this, and knew about taking off the filter just before totality, to capture the Diamond Ring. My camera got hot, (it WAS sitting in the sun for several hours, with the Live View active), but I didn't break anything, because I took the time to research what I was doing.
S⊕TA ·
I had a decent shoot. but I also had a bit of experience behind me.
1. read up on what others do. and keep reading. know the successful outcomes and study the failures too. "read. read read." - just because some make it look easy or have had successes doesn't warrant risk to equipment or your eyes.
2. Buy insurance for your camera and equipment. If the rental company offers insurance, and it sounds expensive, not as expensive as owning their equipment that no longer works. buy it. As far as insuring your equipment, for example, my camera and lenses cost 160.00 / year - that's nothing. state farm provides insurance which has a zero deductible, direct loss policy, and will offer you full value for damaged / stolen equipment. this is a policy for personal equipment, does not cover photo business.
3. Take @ralphhightower's advice (below), practice, practice, practice. Between now and the next eclipse you will have more than enough time to become comfortable shooting solar events and minimize risk. Again, there is soooo much information, great information in fact, on solar shooting and eclipse photography
4. Don't bite off more than you can chew!! For example. Whilst I had a couple years experience shooting the solar disk using filters etc, it did not buy me any experience with solar eclipses. Solar eclipses bear quite a few features (i.e. partial phases, coronal events, bailey's beads, diamond ring, and prominences), that's a lot to go after. So, I made a decision to only focus on a few features to capture. The reason I say this is, you don't have to have this whole script in your head to capture everything; which will save you having to fiddle and diddle around in a frantic frenzy during the event, prone to making more mistakes...
You want your head as clear as possible, to help aide in successful imagery as well as the most important thing of all - to spend time enjoying the eclipse with your own eyes. It was very easy to make a few adjustments / corrections, use a cable release to take the photos and have the ability to look at the eclipse at the same time...
5. When the sun starts to shine again, and you know you can't take any more effective images, put the filter back on... call it an event.
6. DON'T BE DISAPOINTED! Take what you can get, when you can get it, and if all you got was one shot, well, take it. accept it. any shots of an eclipse you can walk away with, was a success.
I screwed up too. I had a filter on, but had my ISO too high during the first 20 minutes of the eclipse. all my partials up to that point were no good. I set my settings correctly, and just continued shooting... there will be other times. Don't let a few bad apple shots distract the rest of your event...
------ happy hunting.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c...
Richard Sanderson ·
Excellent photo and equally excellent advice, Robert.
I always boil it down to my three rules of thumb for total solar eclipse photography: preparation, practice and simplicity. The first two are self explanatory. By simplicity, I mean don't demand too much of yourself during totality because there is a factor that is hard to quantify, and that is the intense excitement and emotional component created by totality.
When a friend of mine yelled "30 seconds" and I saw the diamond ring forming, I noticed that my hands were shaking a little bit due to the adrenaline. I quickly calmed down and got my pictures. Some people have started crying during totality. You never know how you will react. The easier you keep things during totality, the better.
I didn't cry until afterwards, when I played my video in the hotel room and heard the euphoric voices of my young children shouting, "Wow, wow, wow, I see it!....That is so beautiful!....That's amazing, Daddy!" That's when it got to me! :-)
sportsbomb ·
Looks like we found the “pro”.
Like that?
Dean Johnson ·
I cannot resist…
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3114adb41d2fd437a4a947f56d0e9c41d0ffab4d3e918eaca356b677fc65645c.jpg
gInSea ·
I used a lens I rented from you to film the eclipse without a filter without any worry about damage. My secret? I simply didn’t include the sun in the frame – I figured there would be plenty of pictures of the sun going through the process so I placed my m4/3rds cam with the wide angle I rented on a tripod and left it pointed running in timelapse mode at my friends and I as we experienced the event. The little Oly EMD-10 mkii actually crashed during the process (!!), but not before it got all the way through to the other end of totality and beyond – so I was very happy with the result. Btw – after testing my mk ii with a number of SD cards I’ve verified that the crashing bug happens intermittently – a reminder (to me) to test out my system thoroughly in the scenario I plan to use it for such one-time events! The 7-14mm lens I rented was flawless.
Travis Baraki ·
Care to share an example image? Sounds interesting.
Dean Johnson ·
I cannot resist...
https://uploads.disquscdn.c...
gInSea ·
I used a lens I rented from you to film the eclipse without a filter without any worry about damage. My secret? I simply didn't include the sun in the frame - I figured there would be plenty of pictures of the sun going through the process so I placed my m4/3rds cam with the wide angle I rented on a tripod and left it pointed running in timelapse mode at my friends and I as we experienced the event. The little Oly EMD-10 mkii actually crashed during the process (!!), but not before it got all the way through to the other end of totality and beyond - so I was very happy with the result. Btw - after testing my mk ii with a number of SD cards I've verified that the crashing bug happens intermittently - a reminder (to me) to test out my system thoroughly in the scenario I plan to use it for such one-time events! The 7-14mm lens I rented was flawless.
Travis Baraki ·
Care to share an example image? Sounds interesting.
denneboom ·
That poor panasonic 20mm f1.7 is far from telephoto, I am suprised to see it in the list.
Its really punny compared to a 600mm f4
denneboom ·
That poor panasonic 20mm f1.7 is far from telephoto, I am suprised to see it in the list.
Its really punny compared to a 600mm f4
Echo ·
This makes me happy my 6D survived.
I kept a lens cap on mine and only removed it for moments at a time when the intervalometer was about to click.
I also used a 10-stop filter on it. It wasn’t a solar filter, but it seemed to keep the heat down enough.
For the 2019 eclipse though, I’ve already bought my solar filters.
Echo ·
This makes me happy my 6D survived.
I kept a lens cap on mine and only removed it for moments at a time when the intervalometer was about to click.
I also used a 10-stop filter on it. It wasn't a solar filter, but it seemed to keep the heat down enough.
For the 2019 eclipse though, I've already bought my solar filters.
Alex Hernandez ·
The best thing to do when taking pictures of the sun or sun events is to use the appropriate Solar Filter, if looking for an economical alternative to a 16 stop filter Thousand Oaks Optical has a 1/1,000 of 1% film that’s very affordable, it can be simply wrapped around the front of the lens.
I used it during the Solar Eclipse on 08-21-17 and got some nice pictures.
Alex Hernandez ·
The best thing to do when taking pictures of the sun or sun events is to use the appropriate Solar Filter, if looking for an economical alternative to a 16 stop filter Thousand Oaks Optical has a 1/1,000 of 1% film that's very affordable, it can be simply wrapped around the front of the lens.
I used it during the Solar Eclipse on 08-21-17 and got some nice pictures.
ThreeRing ·
THEY WERE NOT DAMAGED BY THE ECLIPSE. They were damaged by being pointed at the sun. This damage can happen any time you compose by pointing at the sun for long periods of time. The eclipse does not make it more intense or more dangerous.
asad137 ·
“The eclipse does not make it more intense or more dangerous.”
No, but it makes it far more likely, since normally people don’t point their cameras at the sun.
denim ·
Transit of Venus, 2012. I used RG film on a 70-300mm lens set at 300mm on a Nikon D90, so that’s effectively 450mm.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1a51e052a78c0d5dd1c3c91e2c7f208f79e94ed499571429f7d327eb38260745.jpg No damage to anything, and that’s with the full force of the sun. I had to BRIGHTEN it a lot.
Piotr Jedrzejczak ·
That’s cool, but don’t forget to mention that you had to crop the picture a lot to get Sun this size. Without cropping, the Sun would only be a little bigger than the Venus is on your picture now. I know because I use D90 with 300mm kit lens too. What ISO did you use?
denim ·
You got THAT right I had to crop the hell out of it. ISO 200, 300mm, f/45, 1/1000second. After this one was so dim on the camera’s screen, I switched to 1/125s.
After the recent eclipse, I started looking at telescopes. Even with all the stuff they require, they’re better and cheaper for this kind of thing than a DSLR with a $10k+ lens. If I’d had one on a nice equatorial mount, shooting the eclipse would’ve been easy.
Piotr Jedrzejczak ·
That is a nice setup someone had 2 weeks ago, just north of Georgia state line, almost in the center of the path of totality. Unfortunately, in the last minute clouds took over the Sun. Having a good location for the critical moment is the key, don’t settle for 60% chance of clear skies. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5dc8627dd55cb3df4b254a49a81b5d2107dd8524dd114bad144ac7ccb15972a9.jpg
denim ·
Unfortunately, clouds happen. I went to the VLA for the 2012 annular eclipse. Surrounded by actual radio astronomers and other experts explaining stuff, with pretty nice equipment, we got clouds.
BigAl ·
I know how you feel. I took my then 9 year old son down to Falmouth in Cornwall for the 1999 total eclipse here in the UK. It clouded over about half an hour before it started, and cleared up about half an hour after. Almost the whole path of totality was quite close to the coast, so a high chance of cloud. From our beach location we could see a huge TV screen that had been erected the other side of the bay, so we were able to watch the BBC coverage live from an aircraft.
We traveled down to Cornwall by motorbike, and it turned into an epic road trip for my son. We only decided to go two days before the eclipse, so it was really improvised. The trip took us three days, and the first night we just had a couple of hours sleep by the road side, and made it to Falmouth at about 06:00. A truly great trip though.
I would really like to do another, with all the equipment to get some good photos.
denim ·
Original, uncorrected and uncropped: http://shubs.net/private/VenusTransit.jpg
sadsongs ·
What’s RG film? How did you get it so dim to begin with? Are the lighter dark circles sunspots?
denim ·
Exposure was too low: ISO 200, 300mm (450mm effective) f/45, 1/1000s. Increasing the exposure to 1/80s or so worked better, but I could have opened up the aperture as well, to keep the shutter speed down. RG film is do-it-yourself solar filter material. It comes as a very flexible plastic sheet. I think I got it from http://thousandoaksoptical.com/ where they seem to be calling it silver-black polymer sheets these days. $22 for an 8.5×11″ sheet, though it’s available in other forms.
The largest dark circle in the upper right is Venus. The rest are sun spots, I think.
sliceAndDice ·
CHILL OUT. WE ALL KNOW WHAT THEY MEANT
Jason C. ·
Ouch…so does the insurance take care of it or is it directly billed back to the rental customer?
ThreeRing ·
THEY WERE NOT DAMAGED BY THE ECLIPSE. They were damaged by being pointed at the sun. This damage can happen any time you compose by pointing at the sun for long periods of time. The eclipse does not make it more intense or more dangerous.
asad137 ·
"The eclipse does not make it more intense or more dangerous."
No, but it makes it far more likely, since normally people don't point their cameras at the sun.
denim ·
Transit of Venus, 2012. I used RG film on a 70-300mm lens set at 300mm on a Nikon D90, so that's effectively 450mm.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c... No damage to anything, and that's with the full force of the sun. I had to BRIGHTEN it a lot.
Piotr Jedrzejczak ·
That's cool, but don't forget to mention that you had to crop the picture a lot to get Sun this size. Without cropping, the Sun would only be a little bigger than the Venus is on your picture now. I know because I use D90 with 300mm kit lens too. What ISO did you use?
denim ·
You got THAT right I had to crop the hell out of it. ISO 200, 300mm, f/45, 1/1000second. Having just looked at the uncropped image, it's cropped like crazy, but it's seriously bigger than the size of Venus in this crop. After this one was so dim on the camera's screen, I switched to 1/125s or slower.
After the recent eclipse, I started looking at telescopes. Even with all the stuff they require, they're better and cheaper for this kind of thing than a DSLR with a $10k+ lens. If I'd had one on a nice equatorial mount, shooting the eclipse would've been easy.
Piotr Jedrzejczak ·
That is a nice setup someone had 2 weeks ago, just north of Georgia state line, almost in the center of the path of totality. Unfortunately, in the last minute clouds took over the Sun. Having a good location for the critical moment is the key, don't settle for 60% chance of clear skies. https://uploads.disquscdn.c...
denim ·
Unfortunately, clouds happen. I went to the VLA for the 2012 annular eclipse. Surrounded by actual radio astronomers and other experts explaining stuff, with pretty nice equipment, we got clouds. <sigh>
BigAl ·
I know how you feel. I took my then 9 year old son down to Falmouth in Cornwall for the 1999 total eclipse here in the UK. It clouded over about half an hour before it started, and cleared up about half an hour after. Almost the whole path of totality was quite close to the coast, so a high chance of cloud. From our beach location we could see a huge TV screen that had been erected the other side of the bay, so we were able to watch the BBC coverage live from an aircraft.
We traveled down to Cornwall by motorbike, and it turned into an epic road trip for my son. We only decided to go two days before the eclipse, so it was really improvised. The trip took us three days, and the first night we just had a couple of hours sleep by the road side, and made it to Falmouth at about 06:00. A truly great trip though.
I would really like to do another, with all the equipment to get some good photos.
denim ·
Original, uncorrected and uncropped: http://shubs.net/private/Ve...
sadsongs ·
What's RG film? How did you get it so dim to begin with? Are the lighter dark circles sunspots?
denim ·
With the RG film (6 orders of magnitude light reduction), exposure was too low: ISO 200, 300mm (450mm effective) f/45, 1/1000s. Increasing the exposure to 1/80s to 1/125s worked better, but I could have opened up the aperture as well, to keep the shutter speed down. RG film is do-it-yourself solar filter material. It comes as a very flexible plastic sheet. I think I got it from http://thousandoaksoptical.... where they seem to be calling it silver-black polymer sheets these days. $22 for an 8.5x11" sheet, though it's available in other forms. I cut the sheet and rubber-banded the bit I cut out to the lens. During the recent eclipse, I taped the same piece to the same lens. Couldn't find any rubber bands.
The largest dark circle in the upper right is Venus. The rest are sun spots, I think.
Jason C. ·
Ouch...so does the insurance take care of it or is it directly billed back to the rental customer?
Greg Cobb ·
What it sounds like you're implying is that it's okay to damage someone else's gear rather than your own, even after all the warnings up front.
Greg Cobb ·
I couldn’t tell you how many posts I made about this very thing. Your article shows the tact and courtesy of the company. However, courtesy and a great attitude doesn’t pay for the damages to the equipment. There is obvious reading comprehension failure with those who neglected the equipment…or lack of common sense anyway.
Greg Cobb ·
I couldn't tell you how many posts I made about this very thing. Your article shows the tact and courtesy of the company. However, courtesy and a great attitude doesn't pay for the damages to the equipment. There is obvious reading comprehension failure with those who neglected the equipment...or lack of common sense anyway.
Rocketeers2001 ·
For the cost of a dozen “push on” solar filters that fit your rental lenses would it be worth carrying some filters in stock at the store? That way people will say they either have their own or will accept the provided one and the small fee. Probably less than the repair costs, and the returned filters are reusable. Might avoid the damage altogether.
Roger Cicala ·
Well, we’ve honestly never had one request until the eclipse, in over 10 years. But it wouldn’t be a dozen, it would be many hundreds and then they would sit on the shelf forever after the one event.
denim ·
Given companies that specialize in this kind of thing, your customers can plan ahead and buy solar filters or equivalent from them. Preferably as soon as they get the filters back in stock. They’ve got 7 years to prepare for the next one!
Rocketeers2001 ·
Yeah. I thought about that. Which is why I suggested the low number and also the push on vs threaded type filter. Threaded are much more expensive.
There is no point taking up your storage spaces with unused filters for 7 years and then repeat storage until what, 2045 after that? Ug.
If the lot would be in the hundreds maybe sell them at cost, no return, and the cardboard would be printed as an eclipse specific souvenir.
Even then, spare parts for six damaged cameras, your in house repairs and customer paid repairs is a much simpler, efficient way to do it.
I just look at that expensive equipment, wish I owned some and seeing the damage is painful! Lol.
Thanks for the reply. Nice chatting with you. Best wishes for your business.
Greg Dunn ·
I found a very nice Baader solar filter with an adjustable cap which fit nicely over the end of my 100-400L, for less than $30. I can’t imagine LR could charge much less than that to rent one; and now I have a filter which will work with a variety of lenses for years into the future. I was able to find filters still in stock at Amazon less than 1 month before the eclipse, so even procrastinators had little excuse for not protecting their systems.
P.S.: The pictures turned out well – and no damage to camera or lens.
Impulse_Vigil ·
I bought a couple at Amazon as well, didn’t get to use them as my travel plans fell thru, and eventually got an email about a refund for them because Amazon hadn’t been able to get in contact with the manufacturer to confirm the source of the film they used. They look the part but I dunno how to test them…
Dunno whether it’s worth the bother to store them for years either, or to try and contact the seller myself… They were advertised as using Baader film so maybe Amazon erred on the side of caution as they did with a bunch of glasses.
Rocketeers2001 ·
For the cost of a dozen "push on" solar filters that fit your rental lenses would it be worth carrying some filters in stock at the store? That way people will say they either have their own or will accept the provided one and the small fee. Probably less than the repair costs, and the returned filters are reusable. Might avoid the damage altogether.
Roger Cicala ·
Well, we've honestly never had one request until the eclipse, in over 10 years. But it wouldn't be a dozen, it would be many hundreds and then they would sit on the shelf forever after the one event.
denim ·
Given companies that specialize in this kind of thing, your customers can plan ahead and buy solar filters or equivalent from them. Preferably as soon as they get the filters back in stock. They've got 7 years to prepare for the next one!
Rocketeers2001 ·
Yeah. I thought about that. Which is why I suggested the low number and also the push on vs threaded type filter. Threaded are much more expensive.
There is no point taking up your storage spaces with unused filters for 7 years and then repeat storage until what, 2045 after that? Ug.
If the lot would be in the hundreds maybe sell them at cost, no return, and the cardboard would be printed as an eclipse specific souvenir.
Even then, spare parts for six damaged cameras, your in house repairs and customer paid repairs is a much simpler, efficient way to do it.
I just look at that expensive equipment, wish I owned some and seeing the damage is painful! Lol.
Thanks for the reply. Nice chatting with you. Best wishes for your business.
Greg Dunn ·
I found a very nice Baader solar filter with an adjustable cap which fit nicely over the end of my 100-400L, for less than $30. I can't imagine LR could charge much less than that to rent one; and now I have a filter which will work with a variety of lenses for years into the future. I was able to find filters still in stock at Amazon less than 1 month before the eclipse, so even procrastinators had little excuse for not protecting their systems.
P.S.: The pictures turned out well - and no damage to camera or lens.
Impulse_Vigil ·
I bought a couple at Amazon as well, didn't get to use them as my travel plans fell thru, and eventually got an email about a refund for them because Amazon hadn't been able to get in contact with the manufacturer to confirm the source of the film they used. They look the part but I dunno how to test them...
Dunno whether it's worth the bother to store them for years either, or to try and contact the seller myself... They were advertised as using Baader film so maybe Amazon erred on the side of caution as they did with a bunch of glasses.
Vitale Justice ·
I am really surprised that Canon uses plastic iris’s when my Rokinons have metal ones
leo tam ·
Plastic is fine – probably faster, lighter, and easier to implement in such a complex lens
Kay O. Sweaver ·
It also doesn’t expand and contract based on temperature, it doesn’t rust in place. Plastic has its advantages.
Vitale Justice ·
I am really surprised that Canon uses plastic iris's when my Rokinons have metal ones
leo tam ·
Plastic is fine - probably faster, lighter, and easier to implement in such a complex lens
Kay O. Sweaver ·
It also doesn't expand and contract based on temperature, it doesn't rust in place. Plastic has its advantages.
leo tam ·
There's risk, and there's stupidity... The same difference between shooting in a sandstorm with your camera some sort of protective case, and shooting with out one and just winging it
Nicolas Bousquet ·
You have to understand we all do stupid mistakes. We may be tired, what is obvious to some is not to other and so on. It is not about being stupid as a person. We all do mistakes.
Let's take car incidents. They almost all due to SEVERAL people involved making obvious error. Driving too fast or while tired, Being too near the front vehicle, not following the rules. Still there millions of death a year worldwide due to that and one or two order of magnitude accident with just car damage... It happen.
What is the most stupid of the behavior is for one to think he is so smart that it can't happen to him and that we should be harsh to people that made an error.
I know a guy like that... The perfect guy always criticising other... He was most often right and doing it well. What was funny is when it happened to him. And how overall he was recented by others and got fired from his job because he was spending his time to complain over other people mistake. He was what many call he a$$hole. And in the end, he maid his own life more misarable. As a smart guy he should have known it, no ?
Khürt L. Williams ·
When you are told not to use your phone while driving and you cause an accident while using your phone while driving the judge does not consider your actions an accident. It's negligence.
Please stop making excuses for people. At least no one dies while photographing an eclipse. People do die from people using phones while driving.
Mark Lagrange ·
Imagine what that would do for your eyeball
WannaMontana ·
Imagine what that would do for your eyeball
Kay O. Sweaver ·
The damage to the 600mm iris is actually kind of beautiful.
Ethan Radgowski ·
tbh i wonder if they can sell it as is. i’d be interested in how the bokeh looks.
Ethan Radgowski ·
tbh i wonder if they can sell it as is. i'd be interested in how the bokeh looks.
sliceAndDice ·
The guy that burned up the 600mm f/4 is probably having a bad week. $12,000 down the drain.
denim ·
Maybe it can be fixed?
Andrew Dodd ·
The comments from LR imply that it was repairable – I’m guessing LR’s labor costs + price of aperture assembly.
Damaging the C300 ND filter… That’s probably one of the more expensive ones. It depends on what sensors were in the other units with sensor damage.
Roger Cicala ·
It was fixed: aperture assembly replaced and lens elements around the aperture cleaned from the outgassing. About a 3 hour job.
denim ·
Maybe it can be fixed?
Andrew Dodd ·
The comments from LR imply that it was repairable - I'm guessing LR's labor costs + price of aperture assembly.
Damaging the C300 ND filter... That's probably one of the more expensive ones. It depends on what sensors were in the other units with sensor damage.
jy3 ·
Glad I listened to you and did not stack ND filters. Will use solar filter next time (totality 2024!)
imsoupercereal ·
Great article, thanks for sharing.
Peter Tejera ·
My D300s survived with just an ND10 and polarizer. The trick is to not use the lens wide open and avoid a large magnification. I used the enthusias 55mm-300 nikkor at f:16-f:18 with an iso varying from 100 to 400 to avoid too much light entering the system..i also kept the eye piece shuttered.
denim ·
The trick is to use either an appropriate solar filter or something like RG film, which is what I used. Worked as well this time as it did during the transit of Venus in 2012. No issues.
Andrew Dodd ·
The ND10 is probably what saved your iris – but you still risked sensor or eye damage in the event that the aperture accidentally opened up.
Peter Tejera ·
My D300s survived with just an ND10 and polarizer. The trick is to not use the lens wide open and avoid a large magnification. I used my enthusias 55mm-300 nikkor at f:16-f:18 at around 135mm with an iso varying from 100 to 400 to avoid too much light entering the system..i also kept the eye piece shuttered.
denim ·
The trick is to use either an appropriate solar filter or something like RG film, which is what I used. Worked as well this time as it did during the transit of Venus in 2012. No issues.
Andrew Dodd ·
The ND10 is probably what saved your iris - but you still risked sensor or eye damage in the event that the aperture accidentally opened up.
Rhoda ·
This is what taking a picture thru a pair of eclipse glasses did to the glasses
PseudoBob ·
And this is another a good demonstration of why the filter goes at the objective end of the lens.
Rhoda ·
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/56a39ddc400d964d5ff2fff44cabd3c110bd2cd6230266e99561b2184cb53625.jpg
Rhoda ·
This is what taking a picture thru a pair of eclipse glasses did to the glasses
Rhoda ·
https://uploads.disquscdn.c...
Gale Hess ·
Well I guess this confirms it. I just had a friend tell me someone they were near had a telescope and melted the eclipse viewing plastic glasses they were wearing. Yeah. They thought a telescope was a good idea. But anyway, I guess I believe now. It seemed quite possible in theory.
Zach Sutton Photography ·
Our rental insurance agreement doesn't cover negligence. All those who damaged the gear shown in this post were required to pay additional repair costs.
Benz Oberst ·
You should have ordered a load of cheapo solar filters and made them a mandatory $25 add-on for every rental that fell on eclipse day.
Zach Sutton Photography ·
The only problem with that is that products like that are pretty much a one time rental, and would sit on our shelves for years after the eclipse. It’s much easier to remind customers to buy a solar filter, and trust that they will be responsible.
Benz Oberst ·
That’s why you set a price that will allow you to toss them after the event and still at least break even.
Tribune Rickettus ·
You should have ordered a load of cheapo solar filters and made them a mandatory $25 add-on for every rental that fell on eclipse day.
Zach Sutton Photography ·
The only problem with that is that products like that are pretty much a one time rental, and would sit on our shelves for years after the eclipse. It's much easier to remind customers to buy a solar filter, and trust that they will be responsible.
Tribune Rickettus ·
That's why you set a price that will allow you to toss them after the event and still at least break even.
Mischa Bachmann ·
What I’d like to know now:
WAS there a front-mounted solar filter for the 600mm lens available?
Was the renting party expected to DIY one with duct tape and filter foil?
Was he not charged with the repair cost because he used the filter that was designed for this lens?
goodinuf ·
12 x 12 inch gelatin filters are available. They could be mounted with rubber bands or gaffers tape. I cut one down and mounted it on a lens hood so it could be easily removed and replaced.
Mischa Bachmann ·
What I'd like to know now:
WAS there a front-mounted solar filter for the 600mm lens available?
Was the renting party expected to DIY one with duct tape and filter foil?
Was he not charged with the repair cost because he used the filter that was designed for this lens?
goodinuf ·
12 x 12 inch gelatin filters are available. They could be mounted with rubber bands or gaffers tape. I cut one down and mounted it on a lens hood so it could be easily removed and replaced.
Peter Vandever ·
Well, I thought it was a rule don’t do anything a rental that you would not do with your camera.
Pryz Fytr ·
I think the rule is “run it like you stole it” for rentals.
Peter Vandever ·
Well, I thought it was a rule don't do anything a rental that you would not do with your camera.
Pryz Fytr ·
I think the rule is "run it like you stole it" for rentals.
Gary Funk ·
I’d like to know the average cost per unit. Total repair cost / total repairs.
Also, without naming names, how many were long time professionals? We all know there Hf at we all make mistakes.
Gary Funk ·
I'd like to know the average cost per unit. Total repair cost / total repairs.
Also, without naming names, how many were long time professionals? We all know there Hf at we all make mistakes.
vasile ·
no drone damage … i’m disappointed…either people are not still used to rent drones (but i’m sure you’ll be educating them), or the drone-renters are very cautious…i’ll have to wait till 2024…
Roger Cicala ·
Well not during the eclipse. But every other day of the week, yes, there are damaged drones.
vasile ·
no drone damage ... i'm disappointed...either people are not still used to rent drones (but i'm sure you'll be educating them), or the drone-renters are very cautious...i'll have to wait till 2024...
Roger Cicala ·
Well not during the eclipse. But every other day of the week, yes, there are damaged drones.
Pryz Fytr ·
Pointing a lens at the sun is NOT in any way an "accident".
TCav ·
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ad1c0667a949c624c336a57c99f8ae7de3824b1612da57a6d31e46df82366190.jpg
My lenses. LensRentals.com cameras. Got great results. Thank you LensRentals.com.
TCav ·
https://uploads.disquscdn.c...
My lenses. LensRentals.com cameras. Got great results. Thank you LensRentals.com.
Todd Snyder ·
I had no idea the aperture vanes were at risk…wow!! I only took shots at totality but was scared to death of wrecking my 80D. At one point i had the lens cap off and moved the camera and after realized I may have had it pointed at the sun for a second…Paranoid much…but its possible to do damage through inexperience even knowing the dangers.
Todd Snyder ·
I had no idea the aperture vanes were at risk...wow!! I only took shots at totality but was scared to death of wrecking my 80D. At one point i had the lens cap off and moved the camera and after realized I may have had it pointed at the sun for a second...Paranoid much...but its possible to do damage through inexperience even knowing the dangers.
Joshua Isaac Guttman ·
So what find of filter should I get if I do want to photograph the Sun?
Roger Cicala ·
A true solar filter, sold lots of places, especially telescope suppliers.
Roger Cicala ·
A true solar filter, sold lots of places, especially telescope suppliers.
Rick Drew ·
Proof that some people are too stupid to own nice things.
MichaelUSMC ·
My first thought. DO NOT RENT EQUIPMENT for an Eclipse, to DUMB photographers.
Or, make them pay an additional insurance charge.
Jon ·
I used a fisheye lens and an old D200 I had. I used it for time lapse photography that included the sun. I shot aperture priority and covered the whole rig with a white towel. I did have the camera pointed at the sun for almost 3 hours. No live-view, but I took 800 total shots of the sun (bracketing). I estimated that each pixel of the image probably got a fraction of a second of total direct sunlight over about 3 minutes each. No filter on that camera.
The time lapse really didn’t turn out well. There was a really cool event in the middle of the time lapse, but the range of exposures was so extreme, that most of the three hours was awful.
After seeing the mirror picture above, I just checked my mirror box and shutter and I don’t see any damage. I didn’t put a cover over my viewfinder, but just left the viewfinder open to “let the light out” the back onto the cloth and try to keep the camera as cool as I could. That part seemed to work well.
My keepers were on two other cameras that had solar filters to help with my photography before and after the total eclipse part.
MichaelUSMC ·
My first thought. DO NOT RENT EQUIPMENT for an Eclipse, to DUMB photographers.
Or, make them pay an additional insurance charge.
I used a colander. It strained my eyes.
Jon ·
I used a fisheye lens and an old D200 I had. I used it for time lapse photography that included the sun. I shot aperture priority and covered the whole rig with a white towel. I did have the camera pointed at the sun for almost 3 hours. No live-view, but I took 800 total shots of the sun (bracketing). I estimated that each pixel of the image probably got a fraction of a second of total direct sunlight over about 3 minutes each. No filter on that camera.
The time lapse really didn't turn out well. There was a really cool event in the middle of the time lapse, but the range of exposures was so extreme, that most of the three hours was awful.
After seeing the mirror picture above, I just checked my mirror box and shutter and I don't see any damage. I didn't put a cover over my viewfinder, but just left the viewfinder open to "let the light out" the back onto the cloth and try to keep the camera as cool as I could. That part seemed to work well.
My keepers were on two other cameras that had solar filters to help with my photography before and after the total eclipse part.
the_ownage ·
I feel for that 600mm, I’m surprised some people are lacking the basic common sense, if they’ve been reading up online they could’ve avoided these disasters, you should mark these people as “too dumb to know the difference” when renting gear from you guys, regardless if they’re insured or not. smh!!
the_ownage ·
I feel for that 600mm, I'm surprised some people are lacking the basic common sense, if they've been reading up online they could've avoided these disasters, you should mark these people as "too dumb to know the difference" when renting gear from you guys, regardless if they're insured or not. smh!!
Mick Russom ·
The optional insurance not covering stuff like this is a bit of a farce.
Khürt L. Williams ·
Insurance does not cover you for negligence. Go read your life insurance contract.
Carewolf ·
Well a responsibility insurance does, but other insurance typically doesn’t. And you usually get responsibility insurance for your kids not for yourself.
Khürt L. Williams ·
I don’t think you understood what negligence means.
?ne?l?j?ns/
noun
1. failure to take proper care in doing something.”some of these accidents are due to negligence”?????
Khürt L. Williams ·
Are you saying that responsibility insurance covers one for negligence?
?ne?l?j?ns/
noun
1. failure to take proper care in doing something.”some of these accidents are due to negligence”
What would cost for lensrentals to have insurance against renters who are negligent??????
Carewolf ·
They cover everything. It is an insurance against crap your kids or pets do. It could be due to negligence or even malice. You can get them for yourself, but then the insurance do not cover malice or gross negligence.
Not sure what they proper English term is though. Responsibility insurance is just a translation from the same term in Danish and German.
Peter ·
Carewolf, it’s “civil liability insurance” in English, but you may find that a lot of people struggle to understand the concept. I first came across it through a Dutch friend.
Carewolf ·
Well a responsibility insurance does, but other insurance typically doesn't. And you usually get responsibility insurance for your kids not for yourself.
Khürt L. Williams ·
I don't think you understood what negligence means.
ˈneɡləjəns/
noun
1.failure to take proper care in doing something."some of these accidents are due to negligence"
Khürt L. Williams ·
Are you saying that responsibility insurance covers one for negligence?
ˈneɡləjəns/
noun
1.failure to take proper care in doing something."some of these accidents are due to negligence"
What would cost for lensrentals to have insurance against renters who are negligent?
Carewolf ·
They cover everything. It is an insurance against crap your kids or pets do. It could be due to negligence or even malice. You can get them for yourself, but then the insurance do not cover malice or gross negligence.
Not sure what they proper English term is though. Responsibility insurance is just a translation from the same term in Danish and German.
Peter ·
Carewolf, it's "civil liability insurance" in English, but you may find that a lot of people struggle to understand the concept. I first came across it through a Dutch friend.
Taz ·
Insurance won’t cover it if you throw it out the window either. Same thing – you are being negligent.
Taz ·
Insurance won't cover it if you throw it out the window either. Same thing - you are being negligent.
Chris Adams ·
If you want “insurance” to cover the cost of replacing something no matter how careless you are with it, there’s always the option called “purchasing the damn thing yourself.”
Chris Adams ·
If you want "insurance" to cover the cost of replacing something no matter how careless you are with it, there's always the option called "purchasing the damn thing yourself."
paravenk ·
Hi
I’m a solar astronomer who released my book, “Off to an Eclipse ” on Amazon Kindle. There I gave the reason why we shouldn’t watch the eclipse without protection. But I didn’t warn about damaging equipment. I did mention about a reflective pin hole camera in my Facebook posts.
paravenk ·
Hi
I'm a solar astronomer who released my book, "Off to an Eclipse " on Amazon Kindle. There I gave the reason why we shouldn't watch the eclipse without protection. But I didn't warn about damaging equipment. I did mention about a reflective pin hole camera in my Facebook posts.
Khürt L. Williams ·
Zach, lensrentals is being polite. I won’t be. These people were dumb as***es!
Khürt L. Williams ·
Zach, lensrentals is being polite. I won't be. These people were dumb as***es!
Misthiocracy ·
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/09a35dea665e48d8051b80c611a28c477ebed556f03d25a2126364ffda138754.jpg
Misthiocracy ·
https://uploads.disquscdn.c...
Talley Sue Hohlfeld ·
Wow!
Thanks for sharing the pictures! This is very educational.
Talley Sue Hohlfeld ·
Wow!
Thanks for sharing the pictures! This is very educational.
Impulse_Vigil ·
I’m surprised at the iris damage on the wide Pana 20mm pancake… I didn’t realize a wider lens could focus enough rays to get damaged like that, curious how long it took to achieve that…
Is that even repairable? Being a tiny pancake and all… At least it’s cheaper to replace than most of the other stuff shown, still seems like an odd rental choice for the eclipse.
donpedro ·
Not strange at all if you want to capture the landscape as the eclipse is happening. I shot the eclipse with two cameras, myself; one was shooting at 300mm to show a closeup of the eclipse, and the other had an 8mm fisheye to show the overall scene.
Impulse_Vigil ·
Right OK, that would be my guess as to how it happened and I likely would’ve done something similar if I was shooting totality (my 8-16 + a 100-300, on M4/3)…
My point wasn’t that it was strange someone was using a wide at all (although it is curious they rented that one, not exactly expensive to own), but as to how it happened exactly…
I’ve been out with a wide on a tripod for an hour or two and never managed to damage one, granted they weren’t totally static but still, hadn’t heard about people doing time lapses having to worry about this for instance.
So did the 20mm get damaged over the course of an hour? Was it left out much longer? That’s mostly what I was curious about… I guess the location and temperature there would be a factor.
donpedro ·
I agree, that is strange. I myself shot with wide during the eclipse (as well as several practice runs in the month before the event), and never had an issue. I wonder if maybe they had the camera on a tracking mount, so the sun always hit the same spot on the aperture?
Impulse_Vigil ·
I'm surprised at the iris damage on the wide Pana 20mm pancake... I didn't realize a wider lens could focus enough rays to get damaged like that, curious how long it took to achieve that...
Is that even repairable? Being a tiny pancake and all... At least it's cheaper to replace than most of the other stuff shown, still seems like an odd rental choice for the eclipse.
donpedro ·
Not strange at all if you want to capture the landscape as the eclipse is happening. I shot the eclipse with two cameras, myself; one was shooting at 300mm to show a closeup of the eclipse, and the other had an 8mm fisheye to show the overall scene.
Impulse_Vigil ·
Right OK, that would be my guess as to how it happened and I likely would've done something similar if I was shooting totality (my 8-16 + a 100-300, on M4/3)...
My point wasn't that it was strange someone was using a wide at all (although it is curious they rented that one, not exactly expensive to own), but as to how it happened exactly...
I've been out with a wide on a tripod for an hour or two and never managed to damage one, granted they weren't totally static but still, hadn't heard about people doing time lapses having to worry about this for instance.
So did the 20mm get damaged over the course of an hour? Was it left out much longer? That's mostly what I was curious about... I guess the location and temperature there would be a factor.
ipdouglas ·
The thing about stupid people is they are very common. Also they have money whether inherited or earned. This empowers them to hire lenses and destroy them. The world is a wonderful diverse place but people are so disappointing ……
ipdouglas ·
The thing about stupid people is they are very common. Also they have money whether inherited or earned. This empowers them to hire lenses and destroy them. The world is a wonderful diverse place but people are so disappointing ......
jeff2016 ·
Took heed of the advice not to shoot without a solar filter, so I went with the Lee. My question is, what about sunsets? I was shooting the Grand Canyon, as the sun was setting, but was concerned about damaging my sensor, any pearls of wisdom regarding sunsets, can I damage my sensor, especially with prolonged exposures?
Taz ·
During sunrise/sunset you are viewing the sun through the thickest part of the atmosphere, which filters out a much larger portion of the light. That’s why you can look at a sunrise/sunset without going blind (also why the sun appears orange/pink). No danger to cameras either. There was an 80% annular eclipse visible from here a few years ago. Max occlusion happened only 30 minutes from sunset, so the sun literally set as a crescent. I got some really awesome shots of that without any filters and no damage.
Taz ·
During sunrise/sunset you are viewing the sun through the thickest part of the atmosphere, which filters out a much larger portion of the light. That's why you can look at a sunrise/sunset without going blind (also why the sun appears orange/pink). No danger to cameras either. There was an 80% annular eclipse visible from here a few years ago. Max occlusion happened only 30 minutes from sunset, so the sun literally set as a crescent. I got some really awesome shots of that without any filters and no damage.
Bowserb ·
Never overestimate the intelligence of the general public. It’s how people walk into fountains or into traffic while texting. It’s also how some replicated the burned sensor experience with their own eyes–a mistake they’ll not be able to make again.
Shark ·
idiots don´t go extinct…..
Shark ·
idiots don´t go extinct.....
Ren von Gar ·
They could have avoided this kind of damage!
Ben Nieves ·
Sigh! I’ve shot four eclipses dating back to 1979 with no camera or eye damage. I guess it’s true what they say: common sense isn’t so common!
Ben Nieves ·
Sigh! I've shot four eclipses dating back to 1979 with no camera or eye damage. I guess it's true what they say: common sense isn't so common!
Melissa Petersdorf-Bowen ·
Huh! Oddly enough I used my smartphone with no filter, BEAUTIFUL Photos and no damage! That’s weird’ https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c677b700207147bc21b2729c597753f0c2094dd098fe670bb295c7938dcb14a2.jpg
Taz ·
The cell phone camera’s aperture is so small that damage would take an extremely long time to occur.
Melissa Petersdorf-Bowen ·
Huh! Oddly enough I used my smartphone with no filter, BEAUTIFUL Photos and no damage! That's weird' https://uploads.disquscdn.c...
Taz ·
The cell phone camera's aperture is so small that damage would take an extremely long time to occur.
John Sokol ·
sooooo.. will there be a big gear sale soon ?
sesquipedalian ·
Wonder how much gear overall ends up being resold as “refurbished.” Kind of like buying a used car out of Texas in the coming weeks and months. Caveat emptor.
John ·
sooooo.. will there be a big gear sale soon 😀
sesquipedalian ·
Wonder how much gear overall ends up being resold as "refurbished." Kind of like buying a used car out of Texas in the coming weeks and months. Caveat emptor.
Ethan Radgowski ·
sad to see that $12,000 canon lens got wrecked, and the $10,000 c300 mark ii. bummer guys! … side note, i hope it wasn’t the same customer for his/her sake.
Ethan Radgowski ·
sad to see that $12,000 canon lens got wrecked, and the $10,000 c300 mark ii. bummer guys! ... side note, i hope it wasn't the same customer for his/her sake.
PorcelainDoll ·
If it did this to camera equipment, just imagine what it could do to your eyes.
Pat Suri ·
This might be a stupid question, BUT: why didn’t you rent all gear including a Solar Filter along with the equipment? You can never trust on warning people. Just my 2.
Roger Cicala ·
First, we have no idea what equipment was being used for the eclipse and what wasn’t. The eclipse made a blip on overall business, but the vast majority of our stuff was out there doing what it usually does so they didn’t need filters. Most of the people who were shooting the eclipse had done their research and already had filters. So we’d buy thousands of filters but only the small minority of people who were shooting the eclipse would need them, and well, we figured chances were high that group wouldn’t use them even if we included them.
tomsmarch ·
Please understand that yes the reason some equipment was damaged was because there was a solar eclipse and people decided to photograph it. The equipment was not damaged because of the solar eclipses “heat”. The sun is not any hotter or brighter during an eclipse than it is on any other day. The equipment was damaged because people did not know how to photograph the sun safely.
KerryS ·
Not to mention the idiots that put sunscreen in their eyes so that they could look at the eclipse! More than a few did that and ended up in the hospital.
tomsmarch ·
Please understand that yes the reason some equipment was damaged was because there was a solar eclipse and people decided to photograph it. The equipment was not damaged because of the solar eclipses "heat". The sun is not any hotter or brighter during an eclipse than it is on any other day. The equipment was damaged because people did not know how to photograph the sun safely.
KerryS ·
Not to mention the idiots that put sunscreen in their eyes so that they could look at the eclipse! More than a few did that and ended up in the hospital.
Sonny Edmonds ·
Thanks for posting these.
It’s a great lesson that can be referenced.
Of course, it should be noted that these clients probably set the cruse control in a rented RV, then go back to fix a sandwich….
With equally disastrous results.
So glad I own two solar filters for this work.
Sonny Edmonds ·
Thanks for posting these.
It's a great lesson that can be referenced.
Of course, it should be noted that these clients probably set the cruse control in a rented RV, then go back to fix a sandwich....
With equally disastrous results.
So glad I own two solar filters for this work.
pistachoo ·
“…used a drop in solar filter to protect the camera …the camera was protected… but the lens iris was not.”
What’s a drop-in solar filter?
Devil's Advocate ·
The lens has a slot near the mount for a slide in filter – means smaller, lighter, cheaper filters can be used. The ‘drop in solar filter’ will have been a solar filter designed to fit in the slot.
pistachoo ·
"...used a drop in solar filter to protect the camera ...the camera was protected… but the lens iris was not."
What's a drop-in solar filter?
Devil's Advocate ·
The lens has a slot near the mount for a slide in filter - means smaller, lighter, cheaper filters can be used. The 'drop in solar filter' will have been a solar filter designed to fit in the slot.
Joseph Palmeri ·
Looks like Canon USA is going to have a lot of work repairing those long lenses. I can just picture the camera division going bonkers on the number of lenses that were damaged.
David Peddicord ·
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8cf3f9339b679e72eb5c01d72d07996507c5c022c7643c3490e10e3af7b4bf63.jpg
I got a great shot with my Canon ELPH 110 HS. No damage.
David Peddicord ·
https://uploads.disquscdn.c...
I got a great shot with my Canon ELPH 110 HS. No damage.
Suesheila ·
I hope those people paid for the repair!!! They were responsible for that damage! Grrrrrrrr……..
Suesheila ·
I hope those people paid for the repair!!! They were responsible for that damage! Grrrrrrrr........
Brett A. Wheeler ·
The idiot tally: Canon 3, Nikon 1, Panasonic 1.
Roger Cicala ·
First, we have no idea what equipment was being used for the eclipse and what wasn't. The eclipse made a blip on overall business, but the vast majority of our stuff was out there doing what it usually does so they didn't need filters. Most of the people who were shooting the eclipse had done their research and already had filters. So we'd buy thousands of filters but only the small minority of people who were shooting the eclipse would need them, and well, we figured chances were high that group wouldn't use them even if we included them.
E.J. Peiker ·
“Our LensCap insurance plan, which can be added to rentals for a small nominal fee, does not protect from neglect but is an excellent tool for those who are worried about their rental and want to protect themselves from any accidental damage. ”
That’s not my experience with this coverage. An accidental crack that occurred on the lens hood of a Nikon 70-200E lens that I rented in January was not covered by this insurance. There was no negligence involved, it was a simple accident when someone ran into me cracking the hood. My conclusion – this insurance is primarily a profit center.
Drew Cicala ·
E.J. – The LenCap plans have a 10% deductible, which is based on the retail price of the product you rented (the lens itself). A damaged hood would be will under the deductible amount.
E.J. Peiker ·
That wasn’t what I was told. What your person told me was that it did not cover accessories and that was considered an accessory.
E.J. Peiker ·
"Our LensCap insurance plan, which can be added to rentals for a small nominal fee, does not protect from neglect but is an excellent tool for those who are worried about their rental and want to protect themselves from any accidental damage. "
That's not my experience with this coverage. An accidental crack that occurred on the lens hood of a Nikon 70-200E lens that I rented in January was not covered by this insurance. There was no negligence involved, it was a simple accident when someone ran into me cracking the hood. My conclusion - this insurance is primarily a profit center. I was happy with the lens and the LensRental service but the lens hood not being covered by the Lenscap+ insurance left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.
Drew Cicala ·
E.J. - The LenCap plans have a 10% deductible, which is based on the retail price of the product you rented (the lens itself). A damaged hood would be will under the deductible amount.
E.J. Peiker ·
Thanks for the reply and clarifying - at last it makes a bit more sense now! That wasn't what I was told. What your person told me was that it did not cover accessories and that was considered an accessory. I would think though, that with a hood going for $50 - $75 and that being an item you can purchase separately that it should be 10% of the cost of the hood - but like I said, at least I understand it better now.
Sanjula Madurapperuma ·
Just how irresponsible can some people can be? Seriously. It must have been a significant loss for Lens Rentals. Next time, charge a damage fee for anyone who does that, and people will eventually take more care over camera equipment.
This is what happens when someone thinks they know how to photograph everything. LOL.
Richard Sanderson ·
My advice would be to demand rental insurance for equipment being used for an eclipse, and also perhaps have each customer sign off on reading a fact-sheet about the do’s and don’ts of eclipse photography.
Calendar ·
guessing the deposit fees aren’t being returned 😉
Jenna Sayman ·
Great.
Sanjula Madurapperuma ·
Just how irresponsible can some people can be? Seriously. It must have been a significant loss for Lens Rentals. Next time, charge a damage fee for anyone who does that, and people will eventually take more care over camera equipment.
This is what happens when someone thinks they know how to photograph everything. LOL.
Richard Sanderson ·
My advice would be to demand rental insurance for equipment being used for an eclipse, and also perhaps have each customer sign off on reading a fact-sheet about the do's and don'ts of eclipse photography.
January 2023 Calendar ·
guessing the deposit fees aren't being returned ;)
KeithB ·
I had the issue of on and off cloud cover, so even though I was nowhere near totality (Albuquerque NM) I had to keep removing and replacing the filter. I guess I should inspect my camera now. 8^)
TurtleCat ·
Amazing what people will do sometimes. I sure would hate to be on the receiving end of that bill for damages. I wonder if people consider it like a rental car: drive it hard and $%!@ the consequences… until the bill shows up.
bmat ·
Could you name the (ir)responsible dumb @$$@$ who are responsible for these damages? We would like to know who not to loan, or rent, equipment to on the future! On the other hand … If whoever brought that Canon 600 back in, is the least little bit “crafty,” he can turn it into a nice lamp base and conversation piece.
Roger Cicala ·
That 600 is already repaired and back in service.
bmat ·
Could you name the (ir)responsible dumb @$$@$ who are responsible for these damages? We would like to know who not to loan, or rent, equipment to on the future! On the other hand ... If whoever brought that Canon 600 back in, is the least little bit "crafty," he can turn it into a nice lamp base and conversation piece.
Iron Aged ·
This sort of heat only builds up if the camera is totally stationary and left in position unmoved so the suns rays can concentrate in one spot on the sensor or mirror or aperture. If you’re handholding, shooting fast, (as in shutter fast not aperture) and not in a desert type climate then the sun likely won’t cause any damage which is why so few people had issues. I shot it without a filter, but I didn’t keep my lens in one spot for more than a second or two, shooting at 4000th of a second had no issues..
Chris Weber Timber Works ·
This sort of heat only builds up if the camera is totally stationary and left in position unmoved so the suns rays can concentrate in one spot on the sensor or mirror or aperture. If you're handholding, shooting fast, (as in shutter fast not aperture) and not in a desert type climate then the sun likely won't cause any damage which is why so few people had issues. I shot it without a filter by hand, but I didn't keep my lens in one spot for more than a second or two, shooting at 4000th of a second had no issues. Chances are most if not all damage reported the customer also used a tripod and had the camera fairly fixed throughout the eclipse.
Tom Cass ·
You can light a fire with a cheap magnifying glass. I know because I've done it.
Lee ·
I still don’t understand why the sun was more dangerous to eyes and cameras during the eclipse. Presumably it was just that people wanted to look/shoot at it much longer than they normally would?
Roger Cicala ·
That’s exactly it.
Lee ·
I still don't understand why the sun was more dangerous to eyes and cameras during the eclipse. Presumably it was just that people wanted to look/shoot at it much longer than they normally would?
Roger Cicala ·
That's exactly it.
Brett Duane ·
Not only can the lens aperture be damaged, but so can the glass lenses. Camera lenses are very good at passing as much light as possible, but they still absorb some of the energy. And there is sooo much energy! After a short time, the glue used to bond lenses together to form doublets and triplets experainces so much mechanical and thermal stress that the glue gives up.
Morton Ulakovits ·
Tell Roger to get ready for the next big one in 7 years – Need to buy a roll of solar film and send a piece with every lens (for a small fee). Those pictures are amazing. ..Morton..
Morton Ulakovits ·
Tell Roger to get ready for the next big one in 7 years - Need to buy a roll of solar film and send a piece with every lens (for a small fee). Those pictures are amazing. ..Morton..
martynW ·
Wasn’t quite as bad as this sun-related camera failure:
https://youtu.be/UtBMAMO11e8
martynWW ·
Wasn't quite as bad as this sun-related camera failure:
https://youtu.be/UtBMAMO11e8
Charlie Don't Surf ·
I hope you are familiar with photographer Chris McCaw’s “Sunburn” series. He uses a view camera to deliberately burn holes in his paper negatives with the sun. I saw a photo somewhere of McCaw at work and smoke was coming out of his view camera.
https://www.chrismccaw.com/sunburn/
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6191f3789ed89163c1f75be5e39f182f64d0e1261fcb7232029444472613b603.jpg
Charlie Don't Surf ·
I hope you are familiar with photographer Chris McCaw's "Sunburn" series. He uses a view camera to deliberately burn holes in his paper negatives with the sun. I saw a photo somewhere of McCaw at work and smoke was coming out of his view camera.
https://www.chrismccaw.com/...
https://uploads.disquscdn.c...
Camaman ·
So wait insurance does not cover this?
Neglect…
Any damage on gear can be classified as neglect…
Camaman ·
So wait insurance does not cover this?
Neglect...
Any damage on gear can be classified as neglect...
Joseph Palmeri ·
Introducing Mineralogy - Google Books Result
https://books.google.com/bo...
John Mason - 2014 - Science
Some minerals that form large crystals of high clarity have their uses in optical ... today, fluorite lenses are manufactured from high-purity fluorite that has been ... Cameras, microscopes and telescopes all benefit from the properties of this mineral. ... minerals (road-grit is but one use, another being, when refined, table-salt).
jimmy ·
I wonder if sunlight can ever damage the lens elements and coatings, I mean the actual glass? I guess the sun can bleach anything if exposed long enough but maybe we would be talking months or years.
I used to put some of my older lenses by the window on sunny days as I was told it meant fungus wouldn’t grow and I never thought much of it really, I would only do it while I was there as I knew concentrated light could start a fire etc but sometime would stand them facing up for a few hours and one day a friend saw it and said I shouldn’t do it as direct sun on them might damage the coatings. So I stopped but it has made me wonder ever since whether sunlight, direct midday sunlight anwyay, can damage the actual glass at all?
january 2018 calendar ·
So wait insurance does not cover this?
jimmy ·
I wonder if sunlight can ever damage the lens elements and coatings, I mean the actual glass? I guess the sun can bleach anything if exposed long enough but maybe we would be talking months or years.
I used to put some of my older lenses by the window on sunny days as I was told it meant fungus wouldn't grow and I never thought much of it really, I would only do it while I was there as I knew concentrated light could start a fire etc but sometime would stand them facing up for a few hours and one day a friend saw it and said I shouldn't do it as direct sun on them might damage the coatings. So I stopped but it has made me wonder ever since whether sunlight, direct midday sunlight anwyay, can damage the actual glass at all?
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Calendar Digital ·
Nice Camera lens what is the cost?
Cute October 2022 Calendar
Sheenu Sapra ·
In 2017, a solar eclipse caused extensive damage to rental camera gear, highlighting the importance of proper equipment protection, much like the joy and vibrant celebrations of Diwali and Halloween that unite communities in light, tradition, and festivity.