Doing SunStars damage sensors?

Tango

ive read that if you have the mirror-up and have your camera facing the sun the curtains can be damaged.

makes me wonder if purposely capturing sunstars does any damage to the sensor?????

anyone know for sure?:dunno

pathfinder

I think it is not a good idea to point your camera steadily at the whole sun, and leave it there for any length of time with the mirror locked up. This will focus an image of the sun on your shutter curtain, and can potentially burn a hole through the shutter curtain. THEN it MIGHT potentially injure the sensor as well. But the real risk with MLU is to the shutter curtain. This risk is greater to a cloth shutter curtain than a titanium shutter curtain I believe.

If your mirror is not locked up, and your camera is not fixated on a tripod, and the sun is hidden mostly behind the edge of a building, treetrunk, cliff, etc then I think the risk is minimal.

Marc has been doing this for sometime, and I have not heard of him warning against potential damage IF done as he suggests. Wide angle lens ( definitely NOT a long tele), small aperture f 16 or smaller, fast shutter speed and handheld. NO MLU.

NeilL

pathfinder wrote:

I think it is not a good idea to point your camera steadily at the whole sun, and leave it there for any length of time with the mirror locked up. This will focus an image of the sun on your shutter curtain, and can potentially burn a hole through the shutter curtain. THEN it MIGHT potentially injure the sensor as well. But the real risk with MLU is to the shutter curtain. This risk is greater to a cloth shutter curtain than a titanium shutter curtain I believe.

If your mirror is not locked up, and your camera is not fixated on a tripod, and the sun is hidden mostly behind the edge of a building, treetrunk, cliff, etc then I think the risk is minimal.

Marc has been doing this for sometime, and I have not heard of him warning against potential damage IF done as he suggests. Wide angle lens ( definitely NOT a long tele), small aperture f 16 or smaller, fast shutter speed and handheld. NO MLU.

Thanks for summarising the correct technique!

N

BigAl

It also depends on the time of day and weather/atmospheric conditions. If you can't look at the sun, then follow PF's instructions.

Here, not a sunstar, but 500mm at F8, 1/25s, no MLU

pathfinder

I agree that one can shoot the sun late in the day, near sunset when the atmosphere is hazy with long glass. But one would not want to do this at the noon day sun for fear of damage to your eye, or possibly your camera.