Extreme light, possible damage to camera?

[AggieDave 6]

Odd question, but figured someone here would know.

The manual for my PC-105 says not to directly video the sun...well, I'm going to be putting a video together of some of the projects I've done as well as some I'm working on, so to get me in the shot, the camera would be shooting me welding. I've seen welding being videoed many times on TV, but I'm worried about damage to my camera and figured the TV folks had some special setup with special filters for that.

Thoughts?

Oh, yes, I am sending Sony an e-mail asking them the same thing.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[jdhill 0]

Extreme light will damage cameras... I burned out a TRV900 while tracking a plane with a 2x lens on and tracked right into the sun...

As for welding, not sure... Don't do it with a 2x lens on though.

J

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. - Edmund Burke

[quade 4]

Back in the good ol' days before video chips, cameras had video tubes.

ANY direct lighting could leave a temporary burn in and very strong direct light could permanently burn a mark in the tube. Shooting directly at the Sun was a big time no-no.

With modern chip cameras the minor burn ins went away and now you never have to worry about direct lights, but the Sun is something else altogether. Zoom all the way in and catch a Sun set through a nice red atmosphere -- ok. Not that big a deal, but point the camera at the Sun at high noon for an extended period of time and you're going to ruin your camera.

THIS GOES FOR FILM AND STILL CAMERAS AS WELL.

What happens is approximately the same thing as holding a magniflying glass over a leaf. In the case of film or still cameras -- it's the leaf shutter in from of the imaging surface. In the case of digital video cameras it's the imager itself.

Welding, on the other hand, is something that's pretty cool. Sparks always look cool on video and with modern video chips there's very little danger of doing any damage. You still want to protect -your own eyes- though.

Oh, and if you wanna throw a star filter on -- go for it. Also shoot some without it just for options.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[AggieDave 6]

Cool, thanks for clarifying that for me Paul!

Quote

Welding, on the other hand, is something that's pretty cool. Sparks always look cool on video

Thus my video should be cool. *sparks, sparks, sparks...FIRE...running, cursing*

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[VectorBoy 0]

Paul, sounds like you have shot some welding? An idea to experiment with is to use a welding helmet lens as a filter. Maybe even a lighter shade like the ones that are used for cutting.

[quade 4]

I've done -plenty- of welding shots. Ya build a $1.5 billion dollar project and a LOT of welding goes on.

Anyway, if a person is -really- concerned about damaging their video camera chip (and I don't think they need to be), a little ND filter will knock things down a bit. Broadcast cameras have these built in and ya just flip a dial. Non-professionals on a budget, could probably get away with just holding up a pair of sunglasses over the lens for the few moments they'd be taking the shot.

But again, I've don't think I've ever dropped ND in just to shoot some basic welding.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver