Do shots directly into sunlight damage the chip in a digital camera?

My subject line says what I'm looking for...

 

Y E S !

Not good for your eyes either. Take a magnifying glass and on a sunny day, focus the light
on your hand. Does it hurt ? It should -- the light is concentrated and it will burn the
skin. The heat would also destroy or damage the semiconductor substrate of the Charge
Coupled Device (CCD) image capturing electronics.

Dave
BTW: I replied to your other post in the Security News Group.




| My subject line says what I'm looking for...

 

I guess, if you take pictures of the sun on "bulb". Frankly my pictures
with the sun in frame are usually at 1/1000

 

So...how does one get direct light pics anyway? I'm thinking
digitally.

And thanks for all the help.

 

The sun will only damage things if you have it focused on the sensor; i.e.
centered in the frame such that it's using the lens the same way you might
focus the sun's light with a magnifying glass. Pictures that happen to have
the sun in it are not generally a problem. Just make sure you don't point
your camera directly at the sun and zoom in for a shot (which would also be
harmful to your eye(s)).

Shots like these have never harmed me or my cameras:

http://www.karmaphotography.com/order.asp?current_picture=ferry_crossing
http://www.karmaphotography.com/order.asp?current_picture=into_the_light

Mike

 

Whats the difference between the center of the image sensor and the edge?




Just make sure you don't point

 

It's not about the center or the edge; it's about whether or not you're
focusing a concentrated beam of light onto the sensor. If the sensor, lens
and sun are all perfectly lined up, you'll be focusing a concentrated beam
of light onto the sensor, and probably damage it. If the sun is off to the
side, it's probably not focusing a beam of light onto the sensor at all.
Try it with a magnifying glass and you'll see - as you turn the glass at an
angle to the sun, you lose your beam.

Mike

 

I don't thinks so, but I are just a engineer.

 

<shrug> That's how I understand it. If you know better, by all means feel
free to post a better explanation.

Mike

 

I believe the question was about the difference between the effect
of the sun's image in the center of the sensor vs. when it is near
its edge. Your description seems to be that of rotating the camera
(like a magnifying glass) an amount sufficient to prevent the sun's
image from striking any part of the sensor, in which case you're
correct. The sensor would be unaffected. But if the sun's appears
anywhere in the viewfinder, its image will land somewhere on the
sensor. Whether this happens to be in the center or closer to one
of the sensor's edges, the intensity of the sun's image will be
approximately the same, unless a bad lens with a severe vignetting
problem is used.

Despite this, you're probably right that the sun isn't likely to
be a problem for most people, since when it appears in the finder it
will tend to cause the photographer take evasive action. For
the rare shot that captures the sun, I imagine that the whole
process (composing, focusing, shooting) happens quickly enough to
avoid damage more severe than an accidentally underexposed picture.
The risk might increase when tripods are used . . .

 

I don't know...do people look away from the sun all day long? If I rotate
that magnifying glass enough, I don't get a beam, even though it's still
definitely being exposed to the sun.

Anyway, I'm no expert on this, I'm just speculating. All I know is I've
never harmed a camera by taking pictures with the sun in the frame, and
there's been plenty of those.

I'm guessing this is only a real problem with point-and-shoots, where the
sensor is exposed. On a digital SLR, the sensor is only exposed (usually)
for a fraction of a second, and I doubt it would matter if you pointed it at
the sun all day long.

Mike

 

Yes, enough to prevent a concentrated, sharp image of the sun from
forming. Where the far off-center image lands it will be out of
focus, so any image will be far larger, and so much less intense.
Use a magnifying glass to put the sun's image on your bare arm, but
position it so that the image is out of focus and the sun's disc is
much larger than if it was focused properly. You might feel a
slight warmth, but nothing approaching pain.

Sure, I understand. But the amount that you're rotating the
magnifying glass is far greater than the amount that the camera/lens
combination is rotated in moving the sun's image from the center of
the sensor to its edge. The magnifying glass is a lens and has a
focal length. Attach it to the end of a bellows, position it so
that it when the shutter opens it will produce an image of the sun
in the center of the film. Rotate the lens so that the image hits
the edge of the film, and I'm quite certain the number of degrees
rotated (3 degrees, 7 degrees, whatever) is far smaller than the
rotation you envisioned with the magnifying glass and it's vanished
image of the sun, which would probably be 30 or 40 degrees, if not
more. Rotate the camera an equivalent number of degrees away from
the sun, and even though the sun's rays are still hitting the front
element of the lens, the sun's image inside the camera's body is
similarly dim and grossly distorted, and what remains of it will lie
far from the sensor, except for possibly a bit of flare. I guess we
might call it a solar flare.

 

Yes Mike.. we do instictively avoid looking directly at the sun.. We are
aware of its warmth.. we see the clear bue sky.. but even at sunrise and
sunset we tend to look at the sunlight on the clouds rather than the sun
itself until if it almost below the horizon.. Over the next few days try
to keep looking at the sun in your mind and see just how many times to
actually see it.

 

I know, that's what I mean. We don't look directly at the sun because,
well, it's painful. But the sun is constantly in our view, or at least
in mine.

Ok. I'm not sure what we're arguing, so I'll take your word for it.

Mike

 

We were discussing which camera is the best for taking pictures of
the sun. On this the experts are unanimous - Sigma SD10!

 

Agreed!

Mike

 

Yeah...with those Homer Simpson skin tones the yellow of the sun should
stand out great.

 

Fancy meeting you here, Mr. Burns.