Equipment

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. 

Camera Damage Solar Eclipse

Burn damage through the shutter system of the camera.

Burning of the shutter system

Solar Eclipse Camera Damage

Under the shutter, you can see the additional damage on the sensor.

solar eclipse damaged camera system

Damage to the sensor is really apparent even through visual inspection.

 

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.

Mirrorbox Photography damage from Eclipse

Damaged mirror on a Nikon D500 resulting from the eclipse.

 

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.

Camera Lens broken from eclipse

Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 with Iris Damage from the Eclipse.

Solar Eclipse Damaged Lens

From the outside, this 600mm looks fine. But quick inspection shows the aperture system is destroyed thanks to the eclipse.

Solar Eclipse Iris Damage

Another angle of the damaged iris of the Canon 600mm f/4L IS II USM

Solar Eclipse Damage to Camera

A partially disassembled image of the Canon 600mm from above.

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.

Damaged ND Filter from Eclipse

Canon C300 Mark II with a Damaged Built in ND Filter

 

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.

 

Author: Zach Sutton

I’m Zach and I’m the editor and a frequent writer here at Lensrentals.com. I’m also a commercial beauty photographer in Los Angeles, CA, and offer educational workshops on photography and lighting all over North America.

Posted in Equipment
  • Rick Drew

    Proof that some people are too stupid to own nice things.

  • Joshua Isaac Guttman

    So what find of filter should I get if I do want to photograph the Sun?

  • 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.

  • TCav

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ad1c0667a949c624c336a57c99f8ae7de3824b1612da57a6d31e46df82366190.jpg

    My lenses. LensRentals.com cameras. Got great results. Thank you LensRentals.com.

  • 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.

  • 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

    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.

  • 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.

  • 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?

  • 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

    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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Pryz Fytr

    Pointing a lens at the sun is NOT in any way an “accident”.

  • Pryz Fytr

    I think the rule is “run it like you stole it” for rentals.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • nikoniko

    I would love to see your photo

  • PseudoBob

    And this is another a good demonstration of why the filter goes at the objective end of the lens.

  • vasile

    the retina does not have pain receptors so you will not know what hit you until it’s too late

  • 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.

  • 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…

  • 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.

  • It was fixed: aperture assembly replaced and lens elements around the aperture cleaned from the outgassing. About a 3 hour job.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

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