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Rental camera gear destroyed by the 2017 eclipse

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Re: Rental camera gear destroyed by the 2017 eclipse

#21

Post by mindslight »

jmiserez wrote: post #2

Now imagine that kind of damage being done to your eyes. It hurts just thinking about it, yet some people don’t seem to really believe the warnings.

I was recently party to a conversation where someone was saying that they couldn't find eclipse glasses in the store, so they had to "look through a Ritz cracker, like they said on the news". I figured they meant use it as a pinhole lens, but they continued saying that the sun was still pretty bright even using the cracker. I didn't want to blow up the spot by clarifying/correcting (and it's not like I could have prevented their eye damage after the fact), but I definitely got the sense they were looking directly through the holes in the cracker. This person is an educated white-collar professional.

Re: Rental camera gear destroyed by the 2017 eclipse

#22

Post by patcheudor »

dingaling wrote: post #6

It's a shame that Lens Rentals had to suffer such material loss, but that report is absolute gold-plated first-hand evidence for my perennial debates with other photographers who insist that they don't need Solar protection for eclipses. "But I took a landscape shot at midday with the Sun in frame and it didn't melt my sensor". The difference being the length of exposure and the concentrations of energy.

Yup, it all came down to how long the camera was pointed at the sun. I took a bunch of photos of the eclipse including this HDR shot with a Leica 280mm lens and Sony A7R with no filter whatsoever & without any damage to my lens or camera. The thing is, it took seconds to take and I made sure the camera was only pointed at the sun for brief moments:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/patcheudor/35886777354/

I'm assuming the damage Lens Rentals saw was from people who were trying to do time-lapse.

Re: Rental camera gear destroyed by the 2017 eclipse

#23

Post by patcheudor »

penagwin wrote: post #7
grepthisab wrote: post #3

Interesting! My assumption is that this could not happen with a phone camera though, correct? Because then one would think just leaving one's phone face down on the table in sunlight would ruin it.

The sun would have to be dead center middle so it's probably unlikely. The lenses on the fancy cameras definitely make it a far worse problem for them vs our phone cameras though. An iphone 6 camera only costs 5$ and is easy to replace(with a screw driver and spudger (maybe an igizmo) most hacker news people likely wouldn't have issues.), so it's not the end of the world (source:I repair phones)

Most people don't mount their cell phones to tripods or celestial tracking mounts so there's enough movement it would never be an issue. It would be interesting to mount one to a celestial tracking mount and see what happens. Honestly, I've got some old cell phones laying around here and might just give that a try.

Re: Rental camera gear destroyed by the 2017 eclipse

#24

Post by ricardobeat »

csomar wrote: post #9
dingaling wrote: post #6

It's a shame that Lens Rentals had to suffer such material loss, but that report is absolute gold-plated first-hand evidence for my perennial debates with other photographers who insist that they don't need Solar protection for eclipses. "But I took a landscape shot at midday with the Sun in frame and it didn't melt my sensor". The difference being the length of exposure and the concentrations of energy.

> And of the things returned, we were equally impressed with our customer-base, and their guilt and owning up to the damage. I thought the renters would be paying for it?

The renters are paying for it. Next sentence:

> Unfortunately, these types of damage are considered neglect

Re: Rental camera gear destroyed by the 2017 eclipse

#25

Post by tzs »

grepthisab wrote: post #3

Interesting! My assumption is that this could not happen with a phone camera though, correct? Because then one would think just leaving one's phone face down on the table in sunlight would ruin it.

The most common expert opinion seems to be that photographing the Sun with a smartphone camera won't damage it. Here's a NASA document on this: [1]

A Chicago Tribune story [2] cited the WSJ [3] saying that Apple said that eclipse photography would not hurt an iPhone.

Forbes says that recent generations of iPhone have sensors and lenses just big enough to cause damage if you point them at the Sun for more than a couple seconds, but that selfies that include the Sun are fine because the front camera and sensor are small [4].

[1] https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/Photographi...

[2] http://www.chicagotribune.com/bluesky/originals/ct-bsi-eclip...

[3] https://www.wsj.com/articles/yes-your-iphone-can-photograph-...

[4] https://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykarcz/2017/08/18/dont-le...

Re: Rental camera gear destroyed by the 2017 eclipse

#26

Post by justin66 »

The amusing bit is at the end, where the author tacitly admits that their add-on camera insurance is somewhat crap. Someone who damaged a rental camera by pointing it at the eclipse would, ironically, have been better off if they then proceeded to "accidentally" drop the camera from a height onto concrete:

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.

(but perhaps not really - there are enough wiggle words in that policy that I wonder if they ever pay out on expensive damage at all: https://help.lensrentals.com/26475-damage-lenscap-protection... )

Re: Rental camera gear destroyed by the 2017 eclipse

#27

Post by penagwin »

patcheudor wrote: post #23
penagwin wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sun would have to be dead center middle so it's probably unlikely. The lenses on the fancy cameras definitely make it a far worse problem for them vs our phone cameras though. An iphone 6 camera only costs 5$ and is easy to replace(with a screw driver and spudger (maybe an igizmo) most hacker news people likely wouldn't have issues.), so it's not the end of the world (source:I repair phones)

Most people don't mount their cell phones to tripods or celestial tracking mounts so there's enough movement it would never be an issue. It would be interesting to mount one to a celestial tracking mount and see what happens. Honestly, I've got some old cell phones laying around here and might just give that a try.

That would be really cool to see! /u/tzs posted some links, so it looks like people a somewhat unsure. I'm guessing that if the sun is well tracked in the center for long enough that it would damage the lens. I guess we don't have a ton of hard data for it.

Re: Rental camera gear destroyed by the 2017 eclipse

#28

Post by njarboe »

theoh wrote: post #18
jmiserez wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it’s not a 600mm tele, so the actual area of burn damage is going to be smaller. You’ll still have a blind spot in the center of your field of view, but not the whole eye. Still, I imagine it’s quite a disability either way.

Info about the different mechanisms of eye damage due to bright light: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3144654/

This is well written and accessible article. Thanks for the link. One of the best short lay descriptions of light that I have come across: "Light is a form of electromagnetic energy. Electromagnetic radiation has a dual wave-particle nature. When light is absorbed by a photoreceptor, its particle nature is important."

Re: Rental camera gear destroyed by the 2017 eclipse

#29

Post by [deleted] »

csomar wrote: post #9
dingaling wrote: post #6

It's a shame that Lens Rentals had to suffer such material loss, but that report is absolute gold-plated first-hand evidence for my perennial debates with other photographers who insist that they don't need Solar protection for eclipses. "But I took a landscape shot at midday with the Sun in frame and it didn't melt my sensor". The difference being the length of exposure and the concentrations of energy.

> And of the things returned, we were equally impressed with our customer-base, and their guilt and owning up to the damage. I thought the renters would be paying for it?

[deleted]

Re: Rental camera gear destroyed by the 2017 eclipse

#30

Post by jonknee »

patcheudor wrote: post #22
dingaling wrote: post #6

It's a shame that Lens Rentals had to suffer such material loss, but that report is absolute gold-plated first-hand evidence for my perennial debates with other photographers who insist that they don't need Solar protection for eclipses. "But I took a landscape shot at midday with the Sun in frame and it didn't melt my sensor". The difference being the length of exposure and the concentrations of energy.

Yup, it all came down to how long the camera was pointed at the sun. I took a bunch of photos of the eclipse including this HDR shot with a Leica 280mm lens and Sony A7R with no filter whatsoever & without any damage to my lens or camera. The thing is, it took seconds to take and I made sure the camera was only pointed at the sun for brief moments: https://www.flickr.com/photos/patcheudor/35886777354/ I'm assuming th…

You can torch your sensor in seconds:

https://youtu.be/2TO_yZDxryQ

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